It's been a while...

It's been a while since my last post and everyone keeps reminding me I need to update my blog. I have been very busy but either it's boring or I don't have pictures (I don't like to blog without pix). But, here's a few things I've been up to:

*Had a yard sale (made $677!!!!)
*Had our homeschool yearbook staff over to work on our yearbook (almost done!)
*Went to the beach with my mom for the day
*Family reunion
*Funeral (Mike's maternal grandmother passed away about a month ago)
*Homeschool year-end celebration
*Ran over our basset hound so we've been having to tend to him a little more than usual
*Boys had green tae kwon do belt test

I'm sure there's more but that's all that comes to mind right now. Things are starting to slow down some now and look a little more like summer. Pictures next time, I promise!!

Catching Up...

It's been a while. Several people have commented that I haven't blogged in a while. I guess we've just been busy getting back into the groove of things after the holidays. School is back into full swing for us now and that takes up a lot of our time. Pretty much our days consists of breakfast, school, lunch, school, prepare for dinner, tae kwon do, dinner, a little play time and bed. That's about it. I didn't realize how much of a break I needed from it all until this past weekend. Our homeschool moms in our group had a retreat. Wow! That's all I can say. It was amazing! We intentionally did not plan anything, which totally went against human nature for several of us. We did nothing but talk. We played a few games and cooked but mostly just talked. We laughed, we cried, it really was therapeutic. I am sometimes intimidated by the incredible organization of some of our moms. While I do not rejoice in their struggles, it is comforting to know that my struggles are not so abnormal after all; they struggle too.


A few other things I wanted to share:

The boys got life-size cut-outs of Elvis for Christmas (from Nana). They are motion sensored and talk whenever you walk by them. It doesn't matter how many times I walk into their rooms, I am always startled by these things! Lola (our shih tzu) hates them. Anytime she goes into their rooms, she barks and growls and carries on like it is about to attack her or something. It's funny for the first 10 seconds, then it just gets annoying. Thought you might like to see them:



Matthew got the G.I. Blues one:


Tanner got a cowboy Elvis. I'm assuming he played this character in a movie.





Matthew got a grappling hook for Christmas (from Grandma). He loves climbing trees. Well, he got stuck up a little too high the other day and couldn't get down. He yelled for me to help him. I told him to sit tight while I ran for the video recorder! When I got back, Mike was trying to help him down. I recorded the rescue. He was up so high, Mike had to get the ladder to get to him. It was quite entertaining!

Here is one of our cats, Lilly. What could she be staring at?

The boys got a new bird feeder for Christmas!

Lilly sits under this bird feeder all day long! She watches those birds for hours. Thankfully she hasn't caught one yet!

I wanted to share the beautiful view I have each and every time I leave my house now. The neighbors across the highway have moved their horses to the field directly across from our house. We have woods between our house and the highway so I don't get to enjoy them from my porch, but it gives me something to look forward to when I have to head out!

It's Been A While...

My computer crashed two days before Christmas and I just got it back. So Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Birthday Elvis!

I hope you had a great holiday! Our holiday was quite relaxing this year. I guess it was because of Christmas falling on a Thursday that seemed to spread everything out a little more and we were able to breath a little between trips here and there. We bought the boys Rock Band for the Wii. I should say we bought ourselves Rock Band. Mike and I have enjoyed it as much, if not more, than the boys! I must say, I am quite good on the drums! I got a new video recorder so hopefully I can post videos now (as soon as I get it figured out, that is)!

Our New Year was unusually eventful this year! We always go to a bonfire/cookout thing at a friend's home and everyone usually leaves around 8:30. We then attempt to stay up and watch the ball drop and fall asleep on the couch. This year, we left the bonfire and went to another gathering we were invited to by a couple at church. We stayed there until after 12:30, making it the first in 4 or 5 years that we have actually seen the new year come in!! The new year affects me differently each year. Some years I feel like it is so overrated. Other years I feel like it's a new beginning. This year I was kind of indifferent. I really enjoyed being with our friends when the ball dropped but I haven't made any lists of things to accomplish this year or anything. They never last (for me, anyway).

Last , but not least, today is Elvis' birthday! He would have been 74. I can't imagine what he would look like or be doing today if he were still here.

So, the Christmas tree is down and gone. The new year has gotten underway. School has started back and life is back to normal (whatever that is).

My Life of Crime!

Sometimes crime does pay!

I'm at a friend's house one day and am admiring a wreath she made for her front door. Nothing fancy, very simple but I liked it. I suggested many times how nice it would be as a house warming gift. We move in and no wreath. I then suggested how nice of a birthday gift it would be. My birthday comes and goes and still no wreath (though the cupcakes were delicious). Well, yesterday, I stole her wreath off of her door! I brought it home and put it on my door and doesn't it look nice (the picture is a little blurry)? She texted me and asked if I took her wreath. To which I replied "what wreath?" So, she said to bring her wreath back and she would leave mine hanging on her door for me! Sometimes, you just have to take matters into your own hands! :)

Thanks again, Katherine, for the wreath!

Is It Just Me?

I'm back!! I have had strep throat (which thanks to antibiotics was brief) and what I think was bronchitis the past two weeks. I am still coughing but I think it's getting better.
Since I was not feeling well, I spent more time than usual laying around and watching television. This brings me to the topic of this post. This is officially my first rant (kind of, it's gentle)! Have you seen the Stanley Steamer commercial? The one that says your house needs cleaning because of kids, teens, pets and husbands? What about the Hotels.com one where the husband gets so excited over having 2 bottles of shampoo that he starts pouring them on his head? And let's not forget the one for Pepto-Bismol where the husband is compared to the dog he ate so much, including dog biscuits. What is with all the "stupid husband" commercials? I have never noticed there being so many. I realize there are commercials that portray women as less than intelligent as well as those with respectable men in them. I'm just wondering how these "stupid husband" commercials affect the way we see our own husbands. So many of the sitcoms center around the "got-it-together" wife who tolerates the shenanigans of this clown she lives with. In a society where half of our marriages end in divorce, this cannot be good for us. I think it's easy to say we know better, but when we're inundated with these images I have to wonder how much seeps in. I don't know about you, but my husband is far from these stupid portrayals. Has he ever done anything dumb? Absolutely, who hasn't? But, he works hard for his family and supports me in everything I do. I just wish more male roles would reflect the kind of husband/father he is and strives to be. I want my boys to grow up with the sense of responsibility to care for their family and not to think it's ok to goof off and expect their wives to hold the family together.
Chill out, you say. Get a life. I know, I know. It may not be quite as big a deal as I make it sound, but at the risk of sounding like a stick in the mud, it does concern me a little. What say you?



This post is dedicated to my sweetie:

DUI

We went to a car show Saturday in honor of our troops. It was fun. There was a good turn out of cars to see and they had live entertainment and free drinks and snacks. The thing I was most impressed with, though, more than any restored classic there was the drunk driving simulation. Some of you may have seen this before but I had not. They have these goggles that distort your vision and sense of balance as if you are drunk.

One of the things they do is throw tennis balls at you. Here's Mike trying to catch one. People were walking sideways and grabbing at thin air trying to catch the ball. It was quite entertaining!

They also had you drive a golf cart through a cone course. They said every cone you hit represented a possible accident and every cone you run over represented a fatality. Well, I killed 13 cones! It's amazing how the goggles work!

This was their seatbelt demonstration. They had dummies in the truck, one belted in and one not. They would flip the truck a few times and show how someone could get thrown out of a vehicle if not buckled up.

Mike and I talked to the guy running the demos and he said he would love to come do a talk with our homeschool group. I'm so excited! We have a great range of ages, but he said he could also do some pedestrian demos as well as one with bikes.

He said they go to the schools around prom time. Isn't this fantastic?!?!