So, I've been in hidding.

Not really, but I'm a bit behind on my posts.

Jonathan turned the big 3-1 today. I made steak, scalloped potatoes and New York Style cheesecake to soften the blow.

We went to Norman (Friday through Sunday) to visit family and we went to Bristow Wednesday to visit friends.

V is auditioning for High School Musical tomorrow.

I got new glasses (red horn rimmed, so groovy) last Monday.

V's floor is almost done. I bought bedding, now I need to make or buy curtains. Then we are down to paint and trim. YIPEE!!

Both babies are fussy (I blame more teeth or allergies).

We are going to the OSU surplus auction Saturday morning.

I've also tired to figure out how to start making stained glass "art". I'm not artistic, but I have a need for a few pieces and I think I can do it (there are tons of books with patterns). We'll see.

I also messed up or pulled something in my back. I'm a little sore during the day (no big deal), but it hurts beyond belief at night and it's making sleep hard (I pulled off the bottom sheet I tossed so much last night). Feeling like I can function during the day has made me think I don't need to go to the doctor. It's been about a week, I hope it goes away on its own soon.

So, how are you?

The New England Primer and Teachers Unions

Terry in response to what you said about teachers unions, I totally understand and agree. That is the reason my father-in-law "retired" from teaching. He wouldn't join the union and his contract wasn't renewed, I think about 11 years ago. He's the kind of teacher you would love to have, full of knowledgeable, fun, funny, and interesting. My husband has been blessed with some of his gifts and can explain anything, so anyone can understand it. That helps when I can't.

As for curriculum it may not be the New England Primer and it's just for English, but Victoria's current English book is from around 1900. It's called Primary Language Lessons. I've been more impressed with the selections that come from my curriculum provider, then any others I've looked at. It uses a lot of real books and some of them are pretty old. It's good stuff.

Reunions

This past June was my 10 year high school reunion. Did I go? No. Did I care? No. Since that time I've done a lot of thinking about my 4-H friends. These are the people who mattered to me and had a greater impact in shaping me. I've made attempts at finding and contacting old friends, but when you want to reunite from an orginazation and not a school it's harder to find those people.

I posted a letter to my 4-H friends on facebook and I plan to do the same on myspace later today or tomorrow.

Any suggestions as I begin a greater search?

HEY BUDDY!

My little buddy Xander (that's what we call Alex now) says that all the time now and Owen mimics the Empirors March from Star Wars. I'm so proud of my little geeks!

The tall and SHORT of it. (UPDATED)

Short women may live longer.

Yeah, for me I'm only 5'2".

(UPDATED)
I can verify we are meaner.

This could spell trouble.

You can read it here, or you can get the RD (Readers Digest) version from me. In the 2nd Appellate Court in Los Angeles it has been ruled that you can't home educate your children without teaching credentials.

As most of you know we homeschool in Oklahoma. Whether you agree with that or not doesn't matter to me. I have my reasons, just as others have their reason for sending their kids to public or private school. I don't have credentials (I was working toward my BS in Aerospace Engineering), but I do have the help and support of both of my in-laws who are credentialed and a friend who is a retired school teacher for support. My curriculum is sound and and developed by credentialed individuals. My children are also VERY socialized (I honestly think I run around more homeschooling then if I didn't).

Most people who are against homeschooling have little understanding of it. My usual gripe that I get deals with them being involved with other kids. We belong to a group called BCHEF (B'ville Christian Home Educators Fellowship-you don't even have to be Christian to join-one family was Hindi). My children have church, 4-H, P.E., swimming lessons, holiday parties, field trips, sports and V even attends an enrichment program one day a week with other kids (for music, P.E, science, art-things that are more fun in a group). We also have the only trampoline in the neighborhood and we have a handful of kids in our backyard whenever the weather is good.

If testing is the issue people have, a private school here in town will allow us to let our children sit for standardized testing for $20. Some think hoemschooling isn't regulated enough, but why is that an issue when in Oklahoma homeschooled children are winning the robots competitions, spelling bees, geography bees and they are begin heavily courted by universities.

Credentials mean very little to me in the realm of education. I've had my fair share of credentialed "teachers" who were narrow minded, poor educators who had a pitiful grasp of the subject matter, and should never be allowed to be around children or teens.

My husband and I are both smart people who were never challenged in school. We received good grades for minimal effort. We want our children to have a challenge. Educators will tell you that 1 on 1 education is the most effective. I love that she can accelerate at what she is good at and that we can pull back and work longer on the things she struggles with. My daughter is like me, independent and she is just as content to be alone as she is in a group. I want her to remain her own person, not turn in to societies Lindsey Lohan/Paris Hilton knock offs (I'm giving Brit a break here).

I can site friends who were homeschool, that are well rounded, "normal" individuals. The best example I can site here is my friend Jeremy, who's blog is listed in my links. I understand the reasons people don't homeschool, I respect their decisions. I just wish more people would respect ours.

Getting back to normal.

If you read this post, things are getting better. I'm on a roll, I've been up before 8am (before 7 Sunday and Monday) for 4 whole days now. Ya, it's not much, but it's all I've got.

The caffeine consumption is still way too high, but I'll work my way back down.

I think everyone is better finally. We did have some puke Sunday and yesterday, but it was minimal and short lived (and Sunday I was singing in the first service when it hit) and I haven't had to clean much up.

How inconvenient.

Well, changes have happened in J's office. We were blessed for a period with him working 4-10 hour days and having 3 days off most weekends (he did have to work a few Friday's). Well, changes have occurred in his division and they now have a new GM and have been moved back to 5-8's.

I'll be honest I'm not to happy. Our spring weekend plans will have to be reevaluated, b/c they will require vacation time. Maybe they will change it back someday. Right now I can only hope.

Both Grandpa's are at the hospital (UPDATED)

Okay, the Grandpa from yesterday has a little blockage behind a stint, but they will probably let him go around 5 and they will schedule a stress test to see if they need to do more to fix it.


I just got a call that my other grandfather passed out and was in the ER at Norman. The guess is that his blood pressure meds made his blood pressure to low and he passed out. I'm not sure.

UPDATE

Grandpa T (the one who passed out) was almost kept, his sodium was a little low. When his doctor was contacted he said to release him and that he'd take care of it. Grandpa T went home, changed clothes and went to El Chico. Mexican food-a good source of sodium. I wish we had an El Chico here.

Grandpa O should be out of the hospital in the next hour and a half.

R.I.P. Bill Buckley Jr.

I was first exposed to Bill Buckley in college. He was mediating a debate that was telecast to the Oklahoma State campus. Even as a mediator he was more interesting and intelligent then either of the debaters.

He was a man of the type intellect that you honestly don't see very often. Whether you agree or disagree with his politics (even I don't always), if you ever have the opportunity to see any talk he has given it is worth the time just to hear is gift of the English language.

He will be missed.

Prayer Request

My grandfather was taken to Norman Regional Hospital. I'm not sure what is wrong. They thought it was a heart attack, but the EKG wasn't showing anything (I think). This is all I know from my dad, so if you can throw a prayer up for my Grandpa O.

For love of Scrabble.

Okay, so I'm a geek. I love me some Scrabble. I play on Facebook, so I play a game virtually for about a week before it ends, but I never play my husband. We have good reason, he won't play me online and we have 4 kids and 2 under the age of 2. Imagine the mess of tiles from a well played game. I know it couldn't be left for a moment, or all would be lost. I needed a solution.

I found a bought the solution.

We went to bed the other night and played on the bed laughing. We come up with some pretty stupid stuff. We can close the game and save it for later. It's just SCRABBULOUS!

I love politics,...

...but this election season is getting on my nerves. I usually love the election season (maybe it's just been going on too long). I guess this goes to remind me that it is the politics and issues I love not the people. Maybe I'm not into it, because there is no one who really stirs a fire in me. I'll be glad when November is here and we can have the election behind us and get back into policy. I'm just tired of listening to them slam each other, as they don't really say much about their plans and policy ideas. I need more then catch phrases, rhetoric, vagueness and dirt. I'm just needing some depth and more substance.

Blogger Spell Check

Did anyone else have issues with blogger's spell check not working lately?

It's up and running again.

Ya, I'm glad.

I lucked out.

Jonathan was supposed to be gone overnight last night. He went to Wichita to meet with Cessna. He finished up about 4 o'clock , so he drove a little over 2 hours to come home last night and drove out again this morning.

I can handle the kids when he's away, but it is just so nice to have back up at night. I'm so thankful he came home.

Ha! Ha! Ha! (UPDATED)

Babystepper just posted this comment under my Um ya... post:

"No wonder you've been a away for a bit! You have always had amazing amounts of energy."

I'm sorry Babystepper I laughed. The only reason I'm functioning lately is the kids are sleeping until 9 and I'm being lazy and sleeping until then too. Yes, I am sleeping 9-11 hours a night, because I am absolutely wiped out. I also went from drinking very little caffeine to consuming 2-5 Dr. Pepper's or cups of coffee a day. I've hit the wall.

UPDATE

For the record this sleep pattern has only been going on since everyone has been sick. I honestly think it's what has kept me from catching the crud.

When I grow up I want to be...

... a carbon copy of what I see in women's magazines.

Scratch that I want to be me and comfortable in my own skin.

My friend/family over in the Babystepper household had a great post today. Go ahead...read it...I'll be waiting here when your done.

She's an excellent writer and makes great points, but this one is one that has struck home with me around Christmas and it's nice to know I'm not the only one.

I rarely buy a magazine outside of Family Fun (for some random craft or an easy pirate ship cake) or recipes from Rachel Ray. I found I don't have time to read them and I’m not going to execute most of the ideas and suggestions they had. They aren't me, they don't fit my budget and I have better things to do.

Reading about the article that frustrated Babystepper reminded me of a conversation Jonathan and I had about V before Christmas. Jonathan had taken V to Toys R Us to look and give ideas of what she would like. Every "girly" thing she looked at she expressed interest in and then thought about it and said, "That's neat, but I really don't think I'd play with it." V did not request a Barbie, a baby doll, kitchen stuff, or dress up clothes. The one thing she really wanted was a lightsaber. Needless to say Jonathan got bummed. He thought he was losing his little girl.

I had to explain a few things to him. I asked these questions and I answered them for him:

"What are girls expected to play? House, dress up/princess, dolls/mommy"

"What do I do everyday? Clean house, cook, and take care of babies/kids, married (to my prince)"

"Those imagination play things are the daily activity in our house and she's bored with it. She knows it's not all fun and games. Let her go beyond and be an astronaut, a pirate, or buy her some K'nex to build what she imagines. Let her not be conventional, because she's not. Neither was I at her age. At 7 all I wanted were Transformers and G.I. Joes (I only got 1)."

This brings me to what Babystepper was talking about. I am a person who is content to be alone. I have few female friends, but we are all unconventional in what we find fun and funny. Going to the garden center with goody bags would just be weird. Normal for us would be karaoke, working on a musical or play, inflicting pain on each other at the YMCA, or being messy and helping paint a room. Spontaneity reins supreme and it's just doing what we like and acting like big kids (who can have an intelligent conversation) together.

I want my daughter to know that different is good, life can have its conventional (wife, mother, student), but you still get to be whoever and whatever God made you to be.

I like to embrace my weirdness and I hope V will too.

America's Next Top Model

I really don't watch TV so I haven't seen this show, but a girl from where I currently live in on the show. Out of curiosity I looked at the web site to see her picture. She looks like Mila Jovovich.

Wow!

I admit it I love Daimond.

Neil Diamond that is.

Yes, it's hard to admit, but my mother is a huge fan and has past it down to me (I'm the only 1 of her 3 who is). It's strange element in my music style. I like rock, alternative and metal as my standard (I like most stuff in some form). Right now I really want my mom's old records and a record player for a little Neil. Maybe it's because I have so much house work to do (because I'm lazy, people have been sick and home renovations), it seemed to be the standard stuff mom played while we worked. It was peppy and made for some silly dancing on mom's part as we worked.

Ya, maybe I need to go to Hastings and see what they have.

I smell poop!

I hope this makes you laugh. If it makes you ill I'm sorry.

O and A are both cutting teeth. They are usually normal babies having 1-2 BM's a day. Right now they are teething and we have increased to 5-8 a day. All doctors will tell you teething doesn't cause diarrhea, but it's happened with all 4 of my kids EVERY time they cut teeth (even 6 year old molars-sorry V). I would love to be believed by a doctor, but this proves my point, they call it medical practice, because if they knew what they were doing they'd call it something else.

I usually buy a big box of diapers every 2 weeks, but I've had to buy 1 box a week for the last 2 weeks. That's 94 diapers, that is almost 7 diapers per kid per day. That's like the number you go through with a newborn. I just want it to stop.

Also be warned 100% grape juice and diarrhea stains their rear end. It's like perminent marker. You have to scrub and scrub.

Now that I've grossed you out, have a great day. I just had to share a mommy moment.