Mama On The Move

We have two sick dogs. Not sure what they got into, but it is coming out both ends of them. Rigger seems to be over the worst of it, but poor Ringo has thrown up twice again this morning. My house stinks. Apparently my house in North Carolina stinks too. Our realtor called to say there is a leak in one of the upstairs bathrooms that has come through the ceiling in the downstairs. We just finished repairing all the damage from the water heater valve bursting and ruining all the kitchen and laundry room flooring, sub flooring, and joists. Also, to top off the good news, our renters are moving out in the middle of next month. So now we need new renters........... On the more exciting side, Kerry has a classmate who is from the Dominican Republic. His wife is with him for the year and she doesn't speak English. Kerry told the husband that I've been brushing up on my Spanish with podcasts and they asked if I would help her learn English and she could help me with my Spanis...

We were at Tae Kwon Do last night (wearing my snazzy new yellow belt, thank you) doing our warm up exercizes. Everything was rocking along nicely. Then as we had to stretch our arms up over our heads the instructor calmly said, "Someone is wearing a watch." Now, no one is supposed to wear jewelry of any sort during class. Wearing a ring, watch, necklace, earrings, etc. is strictly taboo. And holy cats, he was talking about me! I totally forgot to take my watch off! So I sheepishly whip my watch off and trot to the back of the room to deposit it with my shoes. And my darling, supportive husband tells the instructor that he thinks I should have to do push ups ! My husband said this! The man who is supposed to support and protect me through thick and thin! The man who swore to forsake all others until death do us part! He suggested punishment for me! I got the last laugh though. The instructor, apparently thinking along the same lines as me, made the entire class do push ups, ...

Last night, my son Ben and his friend Jack were walking around outside when a Neighbor Lady in the next building came out and asked them if they knew "that boy" named Jo-Jo and where he lives. Now, Jo-Jo is Jack's little brother, BUT, since Ben and Jack didn't just fall off the turnip truck yesterday, they recognized immediately that Neighbor Lady was gunning for Jo-Jo and they denied any knowledge of his existence. (They later excused this outright lie by saying they aren't supposed to give a complete stranger the last name and address of any kid, which is true, but they clearly only thought of this excuse after the fact.) Neighbor Lady tells the boys that Jo-Jo has been riding his rip stick (that's a new fangled skateboard for you old timers out there) way too fast and without a helmet. Then, taking a good look at Ben and Jack, she tells them she's seen them climbing trees and they shouldn't be doing that. Then, noticing their lack of footwear, she t...

Memorial Day is always a special day in our hearts around here. Being a military family really brings it home for us. Every year we join the scouts to place flags on the graves of soldiers who have died defending our country. One year we went to a parade on Memorial Day. There were many active duty soldiers marching or riding in the parade. But the regiment I'll always remember was the group of veterans who marched together under their flag. They were old and gray but they held themselves straight and proud and their eyes stayed locked in front as they marched. That was the group that made me tear up as they marched by. I knew they had seen a lot in their many years and yet they were still proud to come back and be recognized as soldiers. I have never forgotten the image of those men marching along. Today we honor the men and women who have given their lives in service to this country. We honor their sacrifice and the sacrifices of their families. We do not forget.

We took a trip to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Nebraska this week. I've never been to Nebraska before, and quite honestly it's never occurred to me to want to go. No one ever spends there whole life hoping to visit Nebraska before they die. But Omaha has a pretty phenomenal zoo. We heard about it from some other friends here and decided to go check it out. We had to drive up one evening, spend the night in a hotel and spend the whole next day at the zoo. We didn't even get to see half the zoo, that's how big it was. The weather was cloudy and it sprinkled every so often, but luckily many of the exhibits are indoors (including an indoor rain forest and an indoor swamp). I've been to a lot of zoos around the country, and I'll say this is the best one we've ever tried. Ben of course, loves the aquarium. He wants to be a marine biologist one day and frankly I don't even have to read the information posted on the tanks because Ben can tell me all about any sea c...

A video all teen girls should watch. It really bugs me how our society encourages girls to want to look like models. I love this video because it shows that the women we see in ads aren't real and even the models can't look that good with just makeup.

I am addicted to Facebook . I admit that freely.................. It has been 15 minutes since the last time I logged in to Facebook . I've checked my Facebook page probably six times today. I can not stop. I initially set up my Facebook page after I saw some homeschool moms at Sonlight talking about their pages. They were saying that they set up Facebook accounts in order to keep an eye on their kids pages. I thought this sounded reasonable. Although my kids aren't yet into the Facebook world, I thought I could get a jump on it so I would know all about it by the time they ask me if they can have one. I set up a page, put a few pictures on it, and put in my school dates. Then it showed me a list of people who went to my school during the years I attended and I immediately spotted an old buddy I hadn't heard from in years. I sent a request to add him to my friends list. He accepted and I could view his profile and he could view mine. From looking at his friends list, ...

We just got the pictures back from the Father-Daughter Dance. My beautiful family!

Yesterday was not only Mother's Day, it was mine and Kerry's 17th anniversary. Seventeen years sounds like a long time, but it doesn't feel very long. Which is better than saying, "The last seventeen years sure has drug on and on and on. Feels like it's been for-ever ." Since it was a combo-celebration we took the kids out to dinner with us (after I did the dishes at home - on MOTHER'S DAY - not that I'm complaining) instead of having an "alone" night. We went to a Japanese hibachi grill where they cook the food right in front of you. We shared our table/grill with a family of six who were celebrating Mother's Day with the mom, grandmom, and great aunt. Great Aunt was largely deaf and mildly retarded. She was thrilled with the chef's show and it was as much fun to watch her as it was to watch the chef. When he was tossing an egg up and down on his spatula, she cackled and clapped in absolute delight. He did six eggs that way and she...

Last night we went to see the movie "Penelope". Cute, cute, cute! It's a great movie for the PG crowd. Katie was spending the night with her best friend so we took Ben and Emily to see it. We found good seats and then had the kids save them while we went back out to the lobby to get popcorn. The post theatre does not salt or butter their popcorn but they do provide salt and butter (or some yellow greasy liquid that passes for butter) next to the drink machine so you can add it if you want. We usually pass on the grease but we definitely like salt. Kerry was holding the bag of popcorn, so he picked up the salt shaker and and shook out the salt. Then he shook the bag to distribute the salt thoroughly. Then he asked me, "Do you think it needs more salt?" And I replied, "No, that's plenty." Whereupon he picked up the salt shaker and added more. ???

Yesterday, the kids and I went to a homeschool class on Geocaching . I knew very little about Geocaching before we went, although I had heard of it. One of my homeschool friends set it up and I thought it would be fun for the kids to learn to use a GPS. Plus a lot of their friends were there so it counted as a social opportunity for us unsocialized homeschoolers . The instructor gave everyone of us a GPS for the class. She talked us through how to use it and set it up step by step. Very interesting! I never knew that you can have your GPS "mark" the spot you are standing so you can find your way back to that very same spot later on. Very handy if you are lost out in the woods. She called out coordinates to all of us and we plugged them into our GPS's . I double checked my coordinates each time she called them out, and checked them against the kids around me to make sure they had theirs right too. Then we went outside to try them out. Once you start moving, your GPS s...

Last night when we arrived at Tae Kwon Do, our instructor held out a list and said, "If your name is on this list you will be testing for your belt. Next to your name is the belt you will be testing for." I looked at the list and all five of us were on it. Kerry, Ben and I would all be testing for a yellow belt. Emily and Katie would be testing for a half yellow belt. I wondered if the test was going to be right then, during class. We hadn't been given any warning. I thought we'd be told ahead of time that tests were coming up. Our instructor held several nice new yellow belts in his hand and set them down by the list. Then we had our usual class, and nothing else was said about it. I started thinking that at the end of class, he would tell us more about it. About 20 minutes before class should end, our instructor called up his helper and told her to take over. He put his arm around Emily and pulled her to the rear of the class and started running her through Taeguk O...

I saw this quote today and just had to share it: Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a best-seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher. - Flannery O'Connor

Last night there was a tornado warning. Kerry and I were just about to head next door for Bible study when the warning came on television. We saw that the tornado watch was for a neighboring county and although we wern't worried it would get to us we decided we should be prepared just in case. We got out flashlights in case the power went out. We lined up everyone's shoes by the back door in case we had to head to the basement. We explained to the kids what we would need to do in case of a tornado siren which is basically, grab the flashlights and your shoes and head to the basement. We told the kids we would just be next door and if the power went out we would come home immediately and the tornado watch was just a WATCH and it wasn't for our county but we were just being prepared. The kids heard, "A tornado is coming and we all might die." Or maybe they heard, "A tornado is coming and you might die; we'll be safe next door." It didn't even rain...

I saw this years ago, and it has never failed to amuse me. Just thought I'd share it here: Lamentations of the Father by Ian Frazier Of the beasts of the field, and of the fishes of the sea, and of all foods that are acceptable in my sight you may eat, but not in the living room. Of the hoofed animals, broiled or ground into burgers, you may eat, but not in the living room. Of the cloven-hoofed animal, plain or with cheese, you may eat, but not in the living room. Of the cereal grains, of the corn and of the wheat and of the oats, and of all the cereals that are of bright color and unknown provenance you may eat, but not in the living room. Of the quiescently frozen dessert and of all frozen after-meal treats you may eat, but absolutely not in the living room. Of the juices and other beverages, yes, even of those in sippy-cups, you may drink, but not in the living room, neither may you carry such therein. Indeed, when you reach the place where the living room carpet b...

The time is coming. It's on it's way. It's close but not close enough. We should be getting orders letting us know where we are moving. We'll get those orders sometime between June and September. That's just really too wide of a gap. If you were expecting a baby, and the doctor told you it was due sometime between June and September, wouldn't you want something a little more specific? We've already begun speculating. There have already been job possibilities . Some of those possibilities have been shot down. Some new ones have arisen. We just don't know. If I knew, I could prepare. I could be getting excited. Or be learning to hide my disappointment. This is the hardest time, when we know the news is close, but we don't know what it is. I wish they would just tell us all, "You will get your orders on Sept 30 th ." Then if it happened before that, we would be surprised and pleased to know so soon. Knowing that it could happen as early as Jun...