Odd combination, dancing and letterboxing

What in the world is going on??? I can't believe people didn't vote for Sabrina Bryan!!! She should have been in the final two. Marie Osmond was completely shocked that she was in the "safe" category. Sabrina was totally shocked that she was in the bottom 2. I was too!! The last two years I have picked the winner or final two. Sabrina was my girl. It's sad to see her go!

We decided to take the week off of school and do a littleLetterboxing . We'll just call it Fall break. Here we are somewhere in Kemp.
The object of this activity is to find the letterboxes and exchange stamps. Don't forget to take along a stamp pad.
Some of the places you have to check out are cemeteries, libraries and fields. This place is located north of town behind a church. The church is precious! And when you stand in front looking out it is so peaceful and calming.
Here Amanda found one under the base of a tree. The person who planted this one used camouflage material.

The boxes we hunted also had some history to go along with them.
We did have to take a lunch break...The Pennsylvania Bakery has wonderful sandwiches...
AND blueberry muffins!!!
Of Course, we had to drop in and see Nana.

We are still on the hunt for letterboxes around here. It will probably take us all week long, I mean Fall Break, to track down the boxes closest to us. I know, some people have too much time on their hands. I'm glad they did, Amanda has really enjoyed getting out and hunting. Hopefully, we will be able to find the rest.

Praise the Lord!!!

Ok, I had my child tested today...Actually a lady that my Mom works with is going to school to be a diagnostician and she has to test kids at different ages. She tested one of my cousins a couple of months ago and wanted to test a younger child, so I volunteered mine.

As a "homeschool mom" this is a SCARY THING!!!!!!

If you haven't heard as to WHY we chose to homeschool Amanda, here's the story:
Why Homeschool

Anyway, the test took about an hour, as of the time of this posting, I don't know what she made. The woman still needs to score it, but she set down with me and began asking questions.

I explained to her the whole story of not being able to hear, tubes, thoughts of dyslexia, testing for it and our decision to homeschool.

She told me that Amanda is a smart, little girl (well, of course she is) but there were 2 things that we needed to work on...Vocabulary and patterns.

Thank you LORD!!!! We know what to work on and how to do it. We already knew what her problems were and that they stemmed from not being able to hear. We knew she was behind.
That was one of the reasons for praying about homeschooling.

Lynn asked about math and reading...Amanda hates both it's like pulling teeth. Amanda is a visual learner and I am trying to make our lessons "hands on".

As a "homeschool mom" I am so relieved!!!! This is something that we can totally do!!!! I keep thinking....we are not total failures!!! LOL!!! Not that I really thought we were but it's scary to think that your not making a difference in your child's education. The thought does run through your mind "Are we doing the right thing"?

I have been Praising God for what he has done with Amanda! Lynn doesn't know the half of it and she wouldn't be able to test it even if she did.

Lynn mentioned that she may need to test someone else later, after the holidays so I might let Amanda do it. I'm just not sure that I can handle it!!!

Homeschooling???

Wow!! I kind of forgot that the purpose of this blog was to chronicle our homeschool experiences. I'm beginning to think that I'm ADD...



My child sometimes does her math and spelling in a tent...call me a bad mom, LOL!!!

Our Homeschool Co Op visited the local Fire Department during Fire Safety week. The kids had a wonderful time and the men at the Fire Department did a great job!!
When Dad isn't working from home...the table is ours!! We tend to take advantage of the situation.

During one of our bible studies we learned about Hezekiah. Here is a sun dial that she created that day. Unfortunately, it was cloudy...

And Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing that he hath spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees? 2 Kings 20:9

Why have the shadow go back 10 degrees on the dial of Ahaz? What do you think???

I thought it was an incredible story!

Brain Dumping

I do my best thinking while cleaning...I clean all the time!! Therefore, I think all the time, LOL!!!!

Last night we made it to the high school football game, We won!!

Anyway, Mom and I sat with some of my blogging friends, I recognized them from the pictures I posted. I probably need to take this opportunity to apologize to Kenneth for making fun of the fact that he has a metal SS card. I never knew anyone but my granddad who had one...

I like to kid around with people, we are ALWAYS kidding around at home and that carries over to the outside.

I sometimes go over board with kidding and joking and forget that some people might not know how to take me. I can sometimes come across as pretty bold and/or obnoxious, which "most of the time" I mean nothing by it, LOL!!

The other night at Life Group we talked about being imitators. We are in Ephesians 5 and it speaks of being imitators of Christ. Life Group is a time of sharing, getting to know one another and answering questions that have to do with life, past and present, then about the subject of the lesson.

Our questions for the night were things like:

Who did you most want to be like in high school?
What famous person can you imitate?
Other than Jesus, what famous person would you most like to be like?
Then some that pertain to Ephesians, Paul and Jesus.

It all starts off as "trying to get to know you questions" then heads to the Biblical aspect.

What I noticed and was shocked about was no one really answered the questions about their high school days. Nothing about imitating other people, NOTHING.

I couldn't believe that no one wanted to be someone else while they were in high school. There were so many times that I wanted to be ANYONE but ME!!!! A woman did give the answer that in high school she wanted to be Madonna. OK, I admit it...I did too!! I grew up in the 80's. We wore the leg warmers, bangle bracelets, big bows in the hair, yes, we looked ridiculous!!!

There were times I wanted to be Valeria Bertinelli just because she was married to Eddie Van Halen!! And look how that turned out.

I can't believe that there wasn't a man there who didn't want to be like a pro football player, baseball player, or rock star at the time they were growing up. I was shocked that nobody could relate.

Then I thought that maybe I was "abnormal". It would not be the first time that this has been brought up.

I look back at my life and I know that I would not have done anything differently. God meant for me to go through everything I did so that I could get to where He wants me to go.

There were things in school that I did or happened that I needed to go through. This way I can share them with my children at the right moment. Hopefully, that will keep them from doing the same thing. But they will have to lead their own lives and figure out who they want to imitate or not.

Maybe we should remember what we were like before Christ came into our lives. Remember who we wanted to imitate and be thankful that God showed us who we truly should imitate.

Remember imitation is the highest form of flattery.

Bloggin' Friends

I miss my Bloggin' Friends...some of them haven't posted in weeks or even months...They have all of these excuses like: Homeschool, church, work, driving to and from work, whatever!! I have missed reading their post so much that I thought I would post some pictures of them so I could at least remember what they look like. ENJOY!!!!!

Blogging Moms, commercials and MY SOAPBOX

Did anyone see the ABC evening news the other night about Blogging Moms?

The woman at this blog Because I said so was the one being interviewed. Guess what?? Her blog brings in around 1,287,966 people (according to her stats) and around $4000.00 a month from ads.

My husband said that I needed to get on the ball with the bloggin'. WOW!!! I need to check into adds. According to the report blogging is a way for Moms to get in touch with one another and Moms are now turning to other Moms for advice. WOW!!
ABC News

Shouldn't we have been doing that anyway???

Today was a rough school day. So much so that we had to go to WalMart and buy something. Something creative...paint and a birdhouse. We were also looking for something for this FIZZ that I call hair. I know I should be grateful that I have hair but I am a fuzzball!! My Frizz Ease NO LONGER WORKS!!!!!

If I were to cut it, it would be EVEN WORSE!!!!!! I think I might start doing like my great Aunt and wear hats!! She always has a hat on I have often wondered if she has a night hat. You know, like the ones that Mary and Laura Ingalls wore on Little House on the Prairie???

Anyway...

A new friend of ours will be leaving this Friday for the Middle East. Be careful John and our prayers are with you!!!

And has anyone noticed that in the news lately everything seems to involve a little, three letter word that starts with "s" and ends with "x"??????? (Don't want anyone to search that word and end up here). Maybe I'm getting old, really old. I'm getting really tired of everything revolving around that 3 letter word!

God intended for that to be "special", between a man and woman not thrown around lightly...

On GMA this morning there was a discussion about schools providing birth control to Middle school girls...birth control as in the pill. Here's the article, read it for yourself. How Young is to young .

Why, Where, When and How!!!! Can you imagine an 11 year old taking "the pill"??? I'm speechless...

Dove has come out with a commercial called Dove Onslaught...you can take a peek at it on Youtube. It deals with little girls, self esteem, beauty industry and all of the ads and commercials that we are bombarded with. Every single ad that is represented on their commercial has to do with how we look, what we weigh, or what society thinks we should be like and it is all directed toward women.

Speaking of commercials, Have you seen the one for T Mobile My Faves??? The red headed kid who oinks in it belongs to a girl that I went to school with down here. She was one girl that you DID NOT WANT TO MAKE MAD!!! or be on her bad side. His name is Eddie Hassell, we called his mom "Sam". My Faves

Let me see if there is anything else I can get on my "soapbox" about???

No, I can't think of anything else. Please pray that tomorrow will be a better school day. I don't think I can handle going to WalMart again...

Say it NOW!!!!

Yesterday, I attended a funeral of a cousin who was 7 years older than me, we share the same middle name and our mothers were first cousins.

Let me say that this was the oddest funeral I have ever been to.

While sitting in the pew at the funeral home I realized that the music being played was country music. It was bar hopping music, beer drinking music. No hymns, no soft, comforting music
no Amazing Grace is played.

I hadn't seen Tammy in quite a few years so I didn't really know how she lived her life. From attending the funeral I assume that Tammy liked to have a good time, play loud country music and party. She and her family are/were into the rodeo scene, I believe they had a box at the Mesquite Rodeo or something. At the grave site--a cowboy rode in Parade Dress leading a riderless horse with Tammy's name on it.

During the service a slide show and video interviews were shown. This is what struck me as odd...in the videos the family members talked to Tammy as if she were still alive. For example, we'll see you soon, I love you and I'm going to miss you, thank for the memories.

Now I am NOT criticizing or judging anyone. Everyone deals with death, loss and grief in totally different ways. I was sitting there watching these interviews thinking, "Why didn't you tell her this stuff when she was here" or "did you tell her this stuff when she was here"? "Why are you waiting until she's dead to say these things"?

Then it got me to thinking...How many of us actually do this with our family? How many times do we regret not saying I love you to someone we care deeply about? When it's too late, we can think of so many things we want to say.

Why not act like it's too late and go ahead and say those things to our loved ones? Write a letter, email, text, call or meet for lunch.

I have 3 younger sisters, although I look younger, I have decided that I am going to do just that. I am going to call them, email, text and get together with them for lunch. Now they won't like it because they seem to feel as though I am always judging/preaching to them. I think they are being convicted and don't like that feeling.

You mention God to them and they can't get out the door or off the phone fast enough!!! But if I truly love them I will let them know that I do, and that there is someone who loves them even more than I do!

So, May the words of my mouth...be pleasing in your sight (and not confrontational).

Science projects, etc...

I told you...it would be between Albert and Wayne...but I thought it would be Wayne Newton booted off of Dancing with the Stars. I have to say if Mark Cuban had been kicked off I was going to have to boycott the show. He did good but the judges DO NOT like him for some reason...I'm just saying...
In Science last week we studied about protons, neutrons, electrons and atoms. Along with that Amanda had to conduct a few little experiments using this battery and wire.
She made a magnet out of a long screw and learned that the like sides of a magnet will repel one another instead of attracting each other.
Amanda also had to connect a switch to the wires and battery. She attached a compass to the wire and was able to see the power shut off and on. The needle would spin around and around when the current flowed through the wires.

This week in Science we will be looking at digestion! Yummy!!Digestion Video

During Bible Truths class Monday and Tuesday we studied The Temple that King Solomon built. I found this really cool site that someone took a long time to put together. You're able to take a virtual tour of the Temple and Tabernacle.
3 D Bible Project

Did you know that if you are a licensed gun owner you are able to take your gun into the State Fair of Texas??? Of course you have to show proof of registration, How crazy is that??

Wonder if you can get ammunition while buying a corny dog??? WOW!!

William Tell Overture