Medication?

It's 9 am and all is still quiet at my house, so I thought I'd write a quick post. I'm letting the kids sleep in because of Austin's bug, and the others have seemed a little snotty. (literally, not their behaviour) Nathan was up and out this morning about 8 because he gets to go play golf with the Atlanta Falcons football team. I don't have any idea who is paired up with though. They are in groups of 4. One of the bankers that is vying for his business invited him and is paying the cost. I think he said it was $1500 bucks for the privilege of playing. Kinda sickening isn't it? I do believe it must be some kind of charity event.

I thought that I was going to wean myself off my medication, so I cut my dose in half last night, but now I'm wondering if now really is the best time considering the adoption, but I don't know when it will ever be a good time. I am also a little apprehensive about it, since this is the first time in a long time that I resemble the real me. Since my hormones are getting back on track I think that will help tons, plus I have had some slight side effects that have affected an aspect of my life that I would like to have back. So the dilema is to wait until Dania is home and adjusted, but who knows when that will be, or to go ahead and bite the bullet and do it now. I know that I do not want to be on them for the rest of my life, and I don't know if the longer I'm on them the harder it is to get off, I don't know if they work that way or not. I'm feeling fine now though, so I will just be thankful for that, especially since I am the only one in my house who has not puked, so far.

Memorial Day

It was not only memorial day, it was also my mil b-day. So we headed over to the local Walmart to pick up some hot dogs and get a little cake. My brother in law and sister in law (Ryan and Jenny ) were out for lunch as well, so the whole family that now resides in Toccoa were together. It is a significantly smaller family now that T & L have moved to AL, and sil Sandi is in Africa for the summer and fall. The weather was fantastic all weekend, even though we are so dry from the lack of rain.

The puking has started again. Last night it was Austin's turn, he seems better this morning so maybe it won't be so bad this time. The truth is ever since May 3rd we have had stomach problems, Nate and I felt icky off and on and have had trouble with the bowels since the homeschool conference, and Austin has had bowel troubles for the last 4 or 5 days. We need to do some serious detoxing at our house and get our insides healthy again. I have felt sluggish for at least a month now.

Since it is memorial day, I will take this opportunity to express my views on the current situation in Iraq. I think the situation over there is a disaster and huge mess, however I also believe that if we had to do it all over again, I would choose to do what we did. Whether or not we found weapons of mass destruction, or if Iraq was involved in 9/11 is irrelevant to me. What is important is the fact that Saddam and his administration were ruthlessly and randomly killing, and torturing the citizens of Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of citizens had been killed over the years, and there was no end in sight, even with sanctions and pressures from the U.N. The torture was sure to continue even after Saddam was dead and gone, because his sons were worse than their father. So I am thankful and feel proud of our efforts to give the people of Iraq a chance to have a democratic govt, what they choose to do with their opportunity is up to them. I realize that civil war is likely, I realize that peace is a far off, unlikely hope, but I still believe that if you have the power and means to help the defenseless that you should, regardless of the cost to yourself. No greater love is this than one lay down his life for a friend. So my thoughts on this subject don't stop with Iraq alone, the north korean people need some serious help, as do the people of Darfur and the Sudan. Peaceful means to the end of the conflicts should be exhausted, but if that doesn't work, then the good people of the world should take action. A hero isn't someone who ways the odds, or studies the situation to see if the outcome will benefit him. A hero is someone who doesn't think about their own welfare and comfort, but gives of themselves sacrificially. I honestly believe that if the firemen and policemen of New York knew that the World Trade Centers towers were going to collapse at any time, they still would have climbed those steps to direct, comfort and save all that they could, even if they knew that the outcome would be that they would not return, because that is what a hero does, and they were all heroes in my book. Whether we "win" in Iraq, or whether or not there is "peace " in Iraq is irrelevant to me, what is relevant is that we were simply there to give the people a fighting chane of being free. I also realize that I can't honestly say that Americas motive for being there is that pure. I realize that one of the reasons we didn't help the people of Rwanda in the 90's and now the people of Darfur is because they don't have anything to offer our country monetarily. However, something needs to be done, I can not turn a blind eye to the suffering of my race, (the human race) I can not and will not believe that my life or the life of an American solider is more valuable in the eyes of God than a naked, poor, black farmer of Sudan. So when people start screaming about the cost, whether in American lives, or American dollars, that doesn't move me to re-evaluate my position, because one life isn't more valuable than another, and there is plenty of money to make the RIGHT things happen in our world

The Most Beautiful Thing Ever

I borrowed this from Susanah blog. It was so moving, I didn't want anyone to miss it.Eliot. Just click on the word Eliot and cross your fingers, because I stink at this computer stuff, and get your tissues out.

Horse Camp for Evan

We came back from vacation with our plates full. I had forgotten that Monday started horse camp for Evan, he is finally 8, and that's how old you have to be to join the camp. It is everyday Mon-Fri from 9-12. I did not take any pictures this week, because last year I spent tons of time trying to grab great shots from outside the ring, and then the instructor at the closing ceremony gave me many fantastic shots that she had taken all week. I ended up pitching mine and only using hers. Evan has been doing really well, although he is probably the quietest kid out there. He seems in his own world alot of the time, maybe it's because he was given the biggest, slow witted horse that they use in the program. His name is boss, and he is a whooper of a horse. I think they said he is a quarter horse for any horse enthusiasts out there. Evan has to really make this horse work, otherwise he would just take his time, and mosey everywhere. The instructor normally has to stir Boss up to get him to trot or loop, but the other day outta nowhere, Evan must have given the right signal, because Boss took off. Evan stayed on and said Whoa a couple of times, but it didn't seem to faze him too much. I asked him if he was scared and he said "why would I be scared".

In other news, I had planned to start school this week, but we are off to a slow start, so I guess next week is looking good to start the new curriculum. We already started spanish www.funclase.com
so far I am really liking this spanish program. Adios

Our Vacation

Evan wanted me to post this picture of a fish that he took.

SHAMU

It was unanimous with our group, Shamu was everybodies 3rd favorite show. He came in 2nd for me though. The dolphin show was everybodies favorite, then the sea lion show, and finally Shamu. I however cried through the shamu show. They did a tribute to the military families, the make a wish foundation was there with a little girl, whose dream is to be a zoologist, so it was kinda moving.

Sea World is pretty expensive, but we all got in free for 7 days, because of the time share thing, but we only used wed and fri. If you ever go, you must see the main shows mid week, there were literally no lines anywhere, we just walked in to places and got great close up seats. We hit the smaller shows on Friday, and rode some rides. Nate and I were the only brave ones to take on Kraken (a big roller coaster). Friday the lines to the shows were long and I heard them saying to get there at least 45 min before the show starts, and then they would announce that it was full. I heard lots of complaining, and I was so thankful we had done all that on Wed. I must say that I loved seeing all the animals and had a blast touching everything that they would let you, but Nate was glad we didn't pay, because he thought of it more like a glorified zoo. He was happy that the kids and I were so happy, even Evan who didn't like to ride had a blast, because he is like his momma and loves the animals. The dog and cat show was pretty adorable.

This Buds for you

The Budweiser Horses

Waiting for the show to start.

Evan DOES NOT like to ride anything even slightly scary, but we always manage to force him to ride one thing. This is him on baby shamu, I must say in his defense that even though this is a kid roller coaster, it does go pretty fast, and my stomach did a little flip on it. He wished us dead after screaming and crying about this one.

Us at the sea lions home.

My camera is way to slow to catch action, so this is the best shoot of the dolphins flipping. We did manage to get some video of our trip, but I don't know if I have the desire to tackle that yet.

This is right after we saw the dolphins. I will take this time to tell you that of all the 85 pictures that we took on vacation only 67 were usable. Of those 67 there were only 8 of me, and in 4 out of the eight all you can see is my backside, one literally of it when I was crawling through a tunnel to look for Luke. That is why I won't be putting to many shots of me up from this trip, plus the boys are much cuter, even if it is a picture of their backside.

A photo op at the flamingo pool. Aren't they handsome?

The sea turtle exhibit at Sea World.

Evan, always the little scout master.

The boys looking for lizards while they waited for their turn at the putt-putt course on the resort. There are 4 courses, 2 are pretty and new like this, the other 2 are old and run down a little, the boys preferred the old ones, of which I have no pictures of.

Luke hops on water. I told you he was special.

Evan and Luke begging us to jump in.

This is the pool complex right outside our building. It was a little cool and breezy this day. Austin is to cool to smile.

Luke scores big on the driving range. Evan was there also, but he cut out before I got the camera out.

Nate gets a little coaching at the Orange Lake golf demonstration.

WE ARE OUT OF THE BLACK HOLE!!!!!

Just got back a little over an hour ago to a message on the answering machine from my adoption coordinator. She told me that we have exited IBESR, which has been known as the black hole. The next step of my adoption is suppossed to take 4-8 weeks and then we travel. However Haiti has encountered another hold up, and it is taking 2-4 months at least. I am so happy to be out of IBESR though that I won't even worry about the next stage.

I will post about vacation another time. We had a great time, and took lots of pictures, but I will have to find another time to talk about all of that. I will say that the highlight of my trip was when a dolphin threw me a pink ball and then swam over to me for a pat, and the toss back, then he splashed me in the face and was gone.

We are off to see the...

sights and sounds of the Disney Magic. We are actually more likely to go visit Shamu at Sea World. Disney might be to young and girlish, Universal is likely to be to scary for half my bunch, the half that includes me. And Epcot might be way to educational and dull for half my bunch, the half that doesn't include me. We are staying in a timeshare at Orange Lake in Orlando. My parents are owners there and usually we go with them, but this year we are going alone. We have been to this place 4 times at least and it is top notch, there is so much to do on site that the first 2 years we went we never left the complex. I am looking forward to spending time with my family, but I tell you the truth, the complexities of balancing family fun without ruining the kids is difficult. There is something in me that revolts to the idea of spending so much money to feed my kids god of entertainment. It makes me sick to drive down the blvd. and see so much stuff to do, one place after another that keeps on trying to outdo the last guy. I don't think doing a trip like this once in a blue moon will kill us, but I certainly don't want to make a habit of indulging our flesh like this to often. Well enough said, I plan to thoroughly enjoy our week together, and I plan to eat out, which is my favorite part of vacation, especially a really good breakfast at Bob Evans, or buffet place.

The Antics of Luke

Every family should be fortunate enough to have a child like Luke. He is definitley our most confident child and keeps us on our toes when it comes to parenting, he is also good for a few laughs. These stories all happened in the last 2 weeks.

We had been watching some baby birds all day last week, they were hopping around our driveway near the fence where the black moron resides. They were also trying to get into my right side neighbors yard, who happen to have 2 morons of their own. This was an all day affair of rescuing baby birds, relocating baby birds, and keeping the cat at bay. Well that evening we saw one dead in the neighbors yard, Luke was upset and angry about it. This past tuesday I found out from the homeowner that Luke had gone over there last week and was calling for Marshall (that's the neighbor) at their gate.
Marshall "Hey Luke, what can I do for you"

Luke " Marshall do you know that one of your dogs killed a baby bird yesterday"

Marshall "yeah I saw that"

Luke "what are you gonna do about it"

Marshall "I can't do anything about it, the bird is dead"

Luke " I want you to do something about it, one of your dogs is a killer and I don't like it"

Story number 2 took place sometime last week also. My left side neighbors love all my children, but get particular pleasure from Luke because he goes over and talks to them all the time. Well the other day Linda (my neighbor) was cleaning her teenage daughters bedroom and bathroom, when Luke walked in. I hope he knocked but it is questionable, I think he does the hello at the door and then walks in, anyway she was cleaning and Luke starts in with her.

Luke " what are you doing in here"

Linda "I'm cleaning Cameron's room"

Luke " why would you do that"

Linda "I don't know, it's just something I do"

Luke" Aunt Linda Cameron is a big girl, and she should clean her own bathroom"

Luke"you should make her clean it up, since she made the mess"

Linda " ya know Luke you are right, I will"

Of course I found this out after the fact.

Story #3
Last night I ran to the grocery store while Nate was home supervising the kids chores. They were all doing extra chores to get more spending money for our vacation next week. Luke was cleaning the hall bathroom, Nate had said he would give him 2-3 bucks depending on how good of a job he did. When I got home trouble was a brewing.

Luke "Mom, Dad is a liar, he said I would get 3 dollars and now he says I'll only get 2"

Me "No I heard him say 2 or 3, and don't call daddy a liar"

Luke " Well he is one, and I trashed the bathroom"

Me " If you call daddy a liar again you are getting some swats"

Luke"I trashed the bathroom"

Me " what does that mean"

LUke "you'll see"

Me "not now I have groceries to put away."

I talked to Nate after I had put the groceries away to see what happened with Luke. He said it took him about 45 mins to clean the bathroom and 2 bucks is what he wanted to pay. I thought that it was more than generous, but we were trying to be extra generous since we are going on a trip. I walked by the bathroom and saw dirt on the floor, then I went further in and saw dirt in the sink, as I stared aghast, I saw dirt on the toilet and behind the toilet. It looked like potting soil all in the bathroom.

Me "NATE GET IN HERE PLEASE, and HURRY"

Nate" LUKE GET IN HERE NOW!!!!"

Luke "what?"

Nate "what happened in here"

Luke " I told mommy I trashed the bathroom because I'm mad that you are a liar"

Me"I can't believe you would do this" "This is so naughty"

Luke " I trashed the shower also", "I quess you can see that I was pretty mad"

The story goes on but I will stop there. He ended up paying us an extra 2 dollars to clean it up and had to go to bed by himself, plus a few other things.

Story #4
Today Luke comes running in the house and asks if he can go to the store with Peter (left side neigbor married to Linda)

Me " sure, but don't ask him to buy you anything"

Luke" I won't, I think he wants to buy me something"

Me "I don't think so, but make sure you don't ask him for anything, do ou understand?"

Luke "yeah mom, bye"

I go out to see them off, and I tell Peter that Luke is not allowed to ask for anything. Peter asks me if it is okay if he buys him something, and I say ok thinking it would be some candy or small trinket. Luke comes home 10 minutes later with 3 brand new disc for disc golf for he and his brothers. I went over to the neighbors to see how this went down. Apparently Luke saw them driving up and met them at the truck.

Luke" Hey Peter, Aunt Linda, Isn't it about time we head over to Hibbets to check out the disc golf stuff?" You probably will want to buy me one"

The boys spent some time writing a little thank you note. We have got to work on their handwriting.

Story #5
Linda and Peter were having company and Luke went over to meet the company, all this happens without me knowing, he just pops over. Anyway he met a man over at their house who spent some time talking with him about the things Luke was interested in. Luke told him that he was saving money for a motorcycle and asked the man if he wanted to help him out. He came home with 78 cents, and by the time I found out about it, the company had gone home.

Honestly, except for the bathroom incident this is a typical week in the life and times of Luke. See what I mean when I say every family should be so lucky. God help me!

Out with the old

In with the new. I am cleaning up my homeschool room and getting rid of all the stuff I won't be using. We are quitting our old curriculum and starting the new. I am going to be using Saxon Math for everybody. I bought 4th and 5th grade for Austin, I think we will start at the end of 4th grade and then go into 5th probably by the fall. Evan will start 3rd grade and Luke 1st and 2nd. We are going to be learning spanish this year http://www.funclase.com/ and it looks great for children, plus my mom is puerto rican so she can help us out. We are doing The Story of the World Volume One (The Ancients) on CD and I have the workbook, I don't if we will do workbook stuff or not. I just want them to listen to it over and over. We are still doing our online www.spellingtime.com , for reading I have the phonics program from Tonya's blog and Christian Liberty press nature readers. Finally we are doing A Reason for Handwriting www.areasonfor.com, I also bought Ken Ham creation evolution starter packet for 5-9 year olds, it covers, fossils, dinosaurs, geology, and Genesis bible based science stuff. We have some DVD's to watch about evolution and creation, plus I have a science kit with over 100 experiments that Nate will be doing with them. They look really easy, but Nate said he would contribute to HS with his help on the experiments whenever possible, and I certainly will take any help I can get. I hate doing crafts and experiments. I also bought the boys some art books that teach you how to draw dinosaurs and another one that covers farm animals, so that is what the upcoming school year is going to look like, as soon as we get back from FL.

I Made it

I made it to the home school conference for most of it. Nanny offered yesterday afternoon to watch the kids so Nate and I could go, but 30 min before we were to leave Nate got sick. Poor baby spent the night in the bathroom, I on the other hand did not know this because Nate had already sent me on my way with my friend Deeann. He wasn't very sick at the time I'd left. Well God is good, I didn't get sick while down there, I had a great time with the girls, and I found material that I think I'm going to like a whole lot better than the stuff I used this year. I've decided to just go ahead and get started with my new stuff, and either sell the stuff I used this year or save it till they are alittle older. The only downer is that Austin was suppossed to get baptized Sunday at church, and he was really looking forward to it, now he will have to wait a while before they do them again. Oh by the way Nate said he never supervised the children at all today and had no idea what they did, well the house smells a little funny, but the boys for the most part kept it pretty clean. I'm proud of them.

Homeschool Blues

I am so disappointed, Luke was up last night puking and having diarrhea. Normally I don't mind these nights to much, but this means that the much anticipated weekend away for Nate and I at the Homeschool conference is not going to happen. Luke is still having cramps and the runs this morning, so even if he was feeling better friday, we still couldn't go because my parents were going to watch them for us, and it might hit the other boys while we are gone. My parents are going on vacation next thursday, so I don't want to take the chance of exposing them and ruining their plans. They will be attending a long time friends wedding up in PA, so stomach problems would be bad. Also ever since my dad had cancer, I try to keep the kids away from him whenever they are sick, things linger longer with older folks. If I am not sick I plan to drive down to Atl on saturday and shop only. I have no idea what materials I want to use for next year, so I was already coming to this conference unprepared. Oh well, such is life, at least I can be thankful that this didn't happen while we were on vacation, in 9 days.

A Busy Weekend

Friday night our homegroup was meeting at Longhorns for some adult conversation and good food, when Nate got a call that his very elderly grandma had died. We didn't tell anyone, because we didn't want to dampen the mood, and also we were quite happy that grandma was finally with the Jesus she loved. I had a shopping trip planned for Sunday after church, but that was the scheduled funeral date, so I called my friend DeeAnn and we bumped it to Sat after her daughters birthday party. I was on a mission to get a swimsuit for our upcoming vacation in May. I've gained 10 pounds this past year, and all my old suits were actually starting to come apart at the seams. Not from the weight gain, but I've had most of them for at least 4 years and it showed. We went to the mall and I tried on pretty much all the modest ones that I could find. I bought a cute skirt and tank top combo thingy. I felt relieved that at least I had one functional suite to wear. So we skipped out of the mall, after having one of those fantastic pretzels from Auntie Anne's and headed to my favorite store of all times, Ross. If you have never been, all I can say is, "I'm sorry for your loss." They have name brand stuff at the most ridiculously low prices of any store I know of. I find Teva, Merrill hiking boots and sandals for 20 bucks. I bought a fantastic powder blue lined Liz Clairborne suit for 40, regularly 200. I get just about everything I own from there, anyway this saturday I found something that makes me just about the happiest I've ever been there. I 've had a hard time keeping my eyes off my feet this weekend. I even put my latest find on the night stand, right next to my Bible, which by the way I do love more. Look on only if you have a strong heart.

My Obsession

I absolutely love my new shoes. They are even quite comfortable, I wore them all day Sunday, even to the funeral. They were on my feet from 10 until 7. Not bad for heels like this. Now all I need are some tortoise sunglasses and I am set.