Mama On The Move

The kids and I got to show off our mad square dancing skills in the Christmas parade yesterday. Our square dancing group procured a truck with a trailer on it and we attempted to dance on the trailer as the truck pulled us along in the parade. Space was very tight - it is nearly impossible to weave in and out and spin around in a group of people when you are all wedged tightly together. Fortunately, we had enough people to have one square of dancers on the trailer, and one square of dancers walking along behind the trailer. Any time we had to stop, we'd square up and get to dancing. Unfortunately, sometimes those who were dancing in the street got left behind when the parade started moving again. I had an exciting moment when the truck started forward while I was standing on the trailer, and I sat down rather unexpectedly on a hay bale. My square dancing skirt did not quite make it in between me and the hay. I hopped back up, but had plenty of hay stuck to my skin ( underneath my...

A few weeks ago, our homeschool co-op took a trip to the Waikiki Aquarium. The younger kids in our co-op are studying ocean animals this year, so most of our field trips have revolved around swimming creature. Hawaii is ideal for this sort of study. The Waikiki Aquarium is small but has a lot to offer. We had docents give us a talk about marine animals, then they took the kids in groups of two and three all over the aquarium and showed us all the interesting species and answered questions. I've never had so many docents leading so many small groups. It was much better than being in a large crowd of people with everyone trying to hear the speaker. When we arrived, the kids all immediately discovered a banyan tree outside and they swung monkeys from the rope-like growths. We also discovered someone is using the banyan tree as a house. That is a sleeping bag, beach mats, and a bag of food tucked inside the tree. Well, if you're going to be homeless, be homeless in Hawaii...

Kerry called this morning to give us the amazing news that he will be home for Christmas!! God is blessing my socks off!

Our Thanksgiving started off with a bang.....literally. We met some friends at a nearby stadium to spend some time running and walking around the track. I only walk, but the teens like to run. They usually run a mile, then they go "free run" because regular running isn't dangerous enough. Free running involves leaping over fences and running up walls. I tried to find some videos on you tube to link to, but most of the ones on there involve people doing back flips and other extreme moves that Ben doesn't do (yet). On Thursday, Ben and Nate were leaping over two chain link fences. One was four feet high the other was six feet high. They were practicing going over one fence and then the other without pausing. Ben cleared it the first time he tried, but the second time, he didn't quite get his feet up high enough. His shoes tangled in the top of the fence and he landed smack on his face in the dirt from four feet in the air. He was dizzy and slightly nauseated when he...

I'm car shopping. I HATE car shopping. This is Kerry's area. He usually does the research. He usually does the dickering. I stink at dickering. A car salesman can tell me why I need this car right now , why I can't leave the lot without signing the papers today , and why he just can't reduce the price of the car one bit and I will say, "Oh....okay then." They train on people like me. My southern girl politeness won't let me be rude or possibly hurt their feelings (yes I know how ridiculous that sounds) by walking away after all the time and effort they have put into showing me their available vehicles. Knowing they will do this to me, I have so far only surfed on line for cars and have not set foot on an actual car lot for fear they will get me in their clutches. I did, however, go ahead and get an auto loan approval. I wanted to make sure I had the financing taken care of before I ever get to the lot. I figure it might make me sound like I know what I...

If you have never Elfed Yourself, now is the time! It is very simple to upload pictures of yourself onto this website and make a hilarious video clip that will superbly entertain your kids (and you too, really). Here is the "Singing" version of Elf Yourself. You can also see us Shake Our Groove Thing ! Or see us bust some cool moves in the Hip Hop version !

Put your curser over the picture for the play button to pop up.