Mama On The Move

He's totally freaking me out. The first time I let Ben drive, we went out to a fairly unpopulated place (hard to find on Oahu, let me tell you). There's a long hill that I had him drive up and down, up and down for an hour so that he could get the hang of how firmly to push the pedals and how to turn around. Fortunately for him, I just learned to drive a stick shift and now I remember how hard it can be to take on this new skill, and just how much practice is required before he can be released onto roads where other people may actually be in our field of vision. About fifteen minutes after we arrived, a white truck passed by us, then stopped at the bottom of the hill and stayed there. After thirty-minutes of watching us, the driver drove up toward us and headed toward us as if he was going to T-bone us. I calmly told Ben to just stop and the other driver swerved and came up beside us. "Are you learning how to drive?" the man asked us. "Yes," I replied po...

Kerry hasn't gotten to finish his posts about Australia; hopefully he will have time one of these days. In the mean time though, I really want to post this video. Kerry brought back with him, an Australian delicacy called Vegemite. The first time I ever heard of Vegemite was in the Men At Work song "Down Under". There's a line in there which says, "He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich". I remember wondering what Vegemite was. In later years, I heard an Australian man say that they love to spread Vegemite very thinly on toast and crackers but when Americans come to visit, they always try to get them to eat a big spoonful of it because it's fun to watch. With this in mind, we all tried the tiniest bit of Vegemite on crackers. For a few seconds you think, "Oh, that's not too bad." Then suddenly it stomps on your tongue. Oddly enough, there were two people in our group who were unaffected by the taste. They didn't like it,...

Emily had a babysitting job Friday night. She has babysat for this particular neighbor several times before. The neighbor's husband is deployed and she has two kids. She pays Emily very well so that she can go to dinner and a movie with friends. The neighbor's house is behind ours and one to the left. When Emily comes home, it's usually very dark, so I tell her to always call and I will walk out back and meet her. It's only a few yards, but there have been several break-ins in our neighborhood, and one sexual assault, so I'm not taking any chances. I stayed up late, waiting for Emily to call. Around 12:30 she called to let me know that the mom had called to say she would be home around 1:00 a.m. I told Emily I was going to lay down, but to still call and wake me up so I could meet her out back. I went to bed, with both the house phone and the cell phone on the bedside table. I did not wake up until my cell phone made it's "You Have A Text Message...

We went on a field trip today to an air show. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking I finally let my kids out of that giant homeschoolers safety bubble I have around our house and took them out in public. The kids were pleased. Actually, just Ben was pleased. Emily and Katie decided to stay home. So just one kid got some socialization. Emily and Katie don't like loud noises and standing in the sun for several hours. Darn kids. Can't teach them anything. We got to ride these go-cart bicycle things. When Ben realized he was about to be beaten by a girl, he crashed into her so she wouldn't win. I was so proud. And the Blue Angels flew. And they were cool.

So. Emily and I took a few days off and went to Waikiki. More about that later. Since Kerry was going to be at work most of the time, Ben was in charge. Before I left, I bought plenty of groceries and instructed him thoroughly. "You can not just wait for Katie to say she's hungry. You have to make breakfast and lunch. If your Dad isn't home, you have to make dinner. I bought hamburgers, sandwich stuff, chicken sandwiches, pulled pork, and chicken strips for lunches. You can not assume that since you haven't heard a peep out of her that she is fine. Check on her. Ask her if she needs anything. Tell her to do her school work. It's okay for her to call me any time she wants. Don't let her watch television all day and don't you stay on the computer all day." I had arranged for rides to Katie's various activities, did all the laundry before we left, and left fresh fruits and vegetables for them to snack on. When I got home today the house lo...

I was at a ladies Bible study at my church this weekend. We played an ice breaker game called "Human Bingo". The Bingo Board, instead of having numbers on it, had things people had done. One square would say, "Has attended an Olympic event". Another square might say, "Has built a snowman". One of the squares said, "Has lived in a trailer". The idea was to get to know people by walking up to them and asking them if they had done any of the things on your Bingo card. If they had, you got them to initial that square. The first person to get five squares in a row initialed won a prize. One of the ladies walked up to me and said, "You're from Georgia, right? So, I'll bet you've lived in a trailer!" Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha.

We were on our way into the house this week when Ben's cell phone rang. He answered and sounded really puzzled about who was calling. A few minutes later, he came and told me that three teen girls were going through the list of boy scouts just calling random scouts to see how they would react. Ben listened to them giggle and twitter for a moment, and then told them he had to go do homework. I'm so glad he can spot vapidity quickly. I've trained him well.

She's not afraid of cameras.

Vampires are everywhere, ...............thanks to the horror Stephanie Meyer has unleashed upon us. I can not imagine many things less sexy than a teenage girl falling in love with a 104-year old vampire whose skin is as cold and hard as marble. And yes, I have read them, so I do feel I have the right to offer my opinion on them. Or, more correctly, I read the first two books, and then half of the third book, and then my brain threw up and refused to read any more. I honestly don't understand why these books are so popular. But mostly, I don't understand how this book has reproduced and spawned babies....... In the "Romance" section of our local bookstore, you can actually find Twilight copycats. There's also the historical twist of adding vampires to King Henry VIII's court. For teens, you could buy "Twilight" in Manga form or just start on any one of a dozen other vampire romances. (Why are they all romances? Do teens seriously need to look t...

Ten years ago this week, this little girl entered the world. If I had known then what I know now, her blanket would have had sequins and feathers on it. I had a C-section and had to wait quite a while before they would let me hold her. The nurses had whisked her out of the surgery room while they sewed me up. Kerry took pictures of her then brought them to me so I could see her being cleaned up. When I was finally out of recovery, they took me to my room and finally, finally brought my baby to me. I looked into those beautiful, dark eyes, held her tiny fingers........and threw up all over the top of her head. True story.

Aloun Farms is the most productive farm in Hawaii. It is 3,000 acres of cantaloupe, lettuce, zucchini, apples, bananas, parsley, onions, watermelon, beans, eggplant, cabbage, and pumpkins. We were planning to go there in October on a field trip to pick out pumpkins, but said field trip has now been cancelled. Why? Because the two brothers who own it have been convicted of human trafficking. They shipped 44 farm laborers from Thailand and then once they were here, took their passports and used them as cheap slave labor with threats of sending them back to Thailand where they would have to face the money lenders who helped them get here. The kicker? One-hundred and twenty letters have been written on behalf of the two brothers asking for leniency with "little or no jail time" because their farm is too important to the agriculture industry and because the brothers really have excellent character (other than the fact that they own slaves, apparently). Those who support th...

Miss Smarty-Pants was inducted into the National Honor Society today! We are proud of you, Emily!