New Toy!

 Here's Dan driving off towards home with it!

We've been wanting a new vehicle toy for some time and after the Christmas we had...we got it!! Yes, we drove all the way down to Laguna to pick it up and in hind sight we should have rented a trailer to bring it home, but it was SO worth it!

We decided on the Baja Bug because it is old enough not to need a smog check, runs on little gas, it's cheap, and well...it's just so cool looking! This one needs a little minor work, but we can use it as it is right now. The engine and transmission have had lots of work and it runs great. We had only one problem. It's not charging the battery as it runs, so when it got dark and the lights came on, it died on the freeway. Hmm...that's why they guy through in a set of jumper cables!

Dan was behind me on the freeway and in the left lane, no where near an exit when it died the first time. He got it on the shoulder and then called me. When I came back, the Highway Patrol was there giving the car a charge. That guy was super nice. We got it off at the next stop, but it died crossing the street and two people stopped to help Dan push it. I was praying he didn't have a heart attack pushing that thing! So we sat at a gas station charging it off our truck for a bit. Drove another piece and charged it again. Stopped at a Walmart that time and picked up a meter so Dan could see how much battery he had left. It's amazing how comforting a Walmart is to us. It was a huge nice one too. I was envious.

We stopped and charged up one more time before we got home. It was at the Whitewater rest stop we know and love. There was a pony asleep by the fence. I wanted to take a picture, but my phone doesn't work well at night. Dan called Mom from there so she would know we were almost home. He talked to Tom and told him about our plight. I'm sure he was working on fixing it in his mind.

The kids came running out when we got home. The boys are so excited! I think we will take it out to our favorite camping spot this weekend for a trial run. There are several spots we've been dying to get to but couldn't do it in our truck!

Christmas Is Over!

Oh man! It was, once again, the best Christmas ever!

Sword Play!

Where's Christmas?! I know! I'm getting caught up. Christmas will be discussed later!

The boys and I drove down to the OC for a class on how to make foam swords last week. Cool, huh? It was given through a school called "Celebration Education" that offers classes designed for homeschoolers by homeschoolers. Much fun was had by all! They made two swords and then had an all out war. I tried to take some pictures, but they were moving pretty fast.

After the "class", we stayed for our old park day and a Christmas Cookie Exchange. Then we headed to Great-Grandpa's house and took him out to dinner for his Birthday. That was my favorite part. I love my Grandpa and I love spending a little time with him and my boys. I didn't get a picture though! Grr...

Uncle Sam Magoo!

 I know! You probably haven't even thought of Mr. Magoo! This came up on my Netflix as a suggestion and the boys and I just finished watching it. Lately, I've been watching a documentary or biography on Netflix in the afternoon. It's a subversive attempt at getting the boys to watch something besides the Simpsons! Ha! Today I chose this instead. Mom's time on the TV! They were both sucked in and it was great. I love that they both know what parts of American History they are talking about before the show put a name to it. They knew all the historical characters and had comments about how accurate it was or not. The word "propaganda" came up, and we talked about using original sources if you really want to know what happened or what someone thought or did. There were also a few quotes at the end that have spurred us on to knowing more. They were from people I hadn't heard of or don't know much about.

Another great hour with my boys and now they ran off to play Halo at Grandma Anne's house. And I just saw one of the chickens chase a cottontail across the yard!! It's cold and wet out, but it didn't snow, so I'm sulking.

Finished St. Augustine Reading

This reading was only to Book IX, so I haven't finished the book. I'm following the reading plan written in "The Great Books" series.

This one took me awhile because of the language. It was bit harder to read, but once I got into it, it was amazing. I'm not reading to understand every paragraph fully. I'm reading right now just to get through the selection and glean what I can. The next time I read, I will get more. It is a great way to give yourself and education! I only read about an hour and a half a day, and slowly but surely the books open up their wisdom to me. I love it!

Rain!

The weather report says it will rain like crazy today. Oh, it better! There are clouds in the west, but no rain yet. Our big plans for driving down to Orange County for a foam sword making workshop and park day have been postponed to next week. Well, the class part has been postponed. I still have to drive down and pick up Nikki from her friends house. She spent the weekend there. The best laid plans...I guess.

Last night, the boys and I finished reading "Anne of Green Gables". You would think that they wouldn't enjoy a book as tame as that, but they loved it. Both of them want to read the next one right away. That book is just filled with awesome descriptions. I think that Tom especially loves the clever ways that Anne deals with her situations and feelings. He identifies with her over the top imagination. There are other books that I would like to read out loud, but I think the next Anne book is going to be first.

Oh Wow...that St. Augustine Again

You wouldn't think that a guy that wrote some 1600 years ago would have anything relevant to say to me, but wow! Here's the bit I found I had to share today:

"For a froward will was a lust made; and a lust served became a custom; and custom not resisted became necessity."

Everyone has desires and all of them are natural, not all of them serve us well. If we give into these "lusts"(and we're not talking just sexual here, people), we serve them and they become custom, normal, to us. How many feelings and desires do we give into that become a normal part of our lives and we feel that we must work around them because they have to be there? If your action does not serve you purpose in life you must give it up. Only things that make us better people and help us toward are goals as human beings should we keep in our lives.

Oh, the other thing was that he described giving up his carnal nature to serve God as waking up. It was glorious. Funny to hear someone so long ago describe something that we all feel today. You're all warm and comfortable and you want to wake up, in the back of your mind, but you don't want to make that final effort to jump up and get dressed. The transition from comfortable sleep to enjoyable waking is a pretty tough one. Much like the transition from inactivity to activity, from reading about a subject to acting on that subject. Crazy!

Karate Class & Christmas Trees!

Yep, the boys are still taking karate! There was a while there where they had to be encouraged to continue but now they are crazy about it. I never told them they had to go, just told them that from my experience I believed they needed to give it more time. Jake always wanted to go, but he didn't want to go if Tom gave up. Tom was growing weary of the other kids in the class. He thinks they should be more serious about learning and gets frustrated with them. We talked a lot about people and their styles. I also told him to have a bit of patience. Some of these kids don't really want to take karate, but have to because their parents think it's important. And all of them have been in school all day and are kind of burned out on focus by the end of the day. That seemed to help him and he's been getting along a lot better.

They want to get there a few minutes early on Tuesdays and Thursdays because theirs is the first class that day and they can practice together without younger kids running around crazy. When it's their turn to lead the class, they are so serious and full of authority. They watch all the kids as they do the basics and help them fix the things they are doing wrong. Jake is adorable with the younger kids. Yesterday they were sparring, but there were only the three little ones with them. Sensei took turns sparring with Tom and Jake and they took turns sparring with the little ones. It was so cute. They love sparring with their Sensei because he is bigger than them and can teach them a few things. I like watching them fight with the little ones because they let them get a few punches in and act like they get knocked down.

We got our Christmas tree at Home Depot this year. There were no little Christmas tree lots in town this year. It made me sad. The last time we bought a real tree at Home Depot in Anaheim, there was a place out in the parking lot and it gave the feel of a little tree lot, but this time they were in the back of the garden department. A guy came up and told us he would open any of them up for us, but we decided to play the lottery and pick one that was all wrapped up. We were there about 10 minutes and that includes looking for lights...which we didn't get because they were almost completely out. There were no pretty multi-colored ones! We brought that wrapped up tree home and Dan put it in the stand. It was perfect! Tom wondered how they get them all to grow perfectly triangular like that and I told him to look closely at the ends of the branches. They cheated!!

Yesterday, the boys put the lights on it, with much arguing about doing it wrong. Tom did the "Traditional Tree Skirt Dance" with much flair. And some of the ornaments are on. Maybe we will finish it today?

My new Kitchenaide Mixer came too! Dan got it for me for my birthday. I've been talking about it for years and he finally got it. Funny too. Saturday was my birthday and he took Nikki out to practice driving. They were gone for hours. When they got home, Dan said they drove all over town (two stores) looking for one. Wal-mart said they were out but had ONE on order. And Sears (which closes it's doors this week) said they would order one if we needed it. Ugg. So he came home and ordered me a bright red one with the BIG motor, so there! It's gorgeous. Like art on my counter top! I made cream cheese mints yesterday and we all made ourselves sick on them. Today, I'm going to make marshmallows and take them to park day!

What's wrong with this Segway?

Tom was just too much a Walmart yesterday! He had several things that he just HAD to get so we went on a SUNDAY! Actually, he deserved the trip. I asked the boys to get the Christmas decorations out of Grandma's shed and bring them up to the house and they did it...without a fight between them. Crazy huh? So there we were going through Walmart and Tom was the king of smart ass the whole way through. It was hilarious and reminded me of my brother. We stopped in the garden department to see how much trees were this year and he runs to the stack of dollies yelling "I've always wanted one of these!" He stands on it, leans forward, it goes no where. He tries to scoot if forward with momentum. It goes a couple inches. He does it several times. Another customer looks at him and he says "These segway things suck. I don't know what people see in them!" I just about fell over laughing. We then went to look at getting some new Christmas lights and proceeded to fake an arguement about whether or not we needed more lights. Tom being on the side that we had plenty. Me, I wanted more!! I'm fairly certain people thought we were insane.

Saturday was my birthday and my Dad and Step-Mom took us all out for lunch and to see a movie. We saw "The Muppets", which was awesome! I don't think I've laughed harder than that at a movie in a long time. It was hilarious!  I remember watching the TV shows at my Dad's house, eating spagetti! Good times!

We also stopped by the towns Craft Fair and I got some new soaps and cute Christmas Cookie earrings. Cuteness!