TGIF

I hate that restaurant! Love the food. Hate the service. I've been to three of them and they are all the same. No, I did not eat there today but it's Friday and every time I hear TGIF, I think about that restaurant.

Anyway, there is no real reason to TGIF at this house because there really is no difference between Friday and Saturday, or any other week day really. OH, except the days that Nikki is at school and we have to take her and pick her up. I'm sure there is a BIG TGIF from Nikki since she won't have school tomorrow, but she isn't at our house on Friday's usually. Dan will still get up at 4am and work on his computer. It may be "work" but he has the option of playing. I wish the boys would come take a picture of us when we get up. Both of us at each end of the couch with our laptops, coffee, and the news on. Thank God for that Tivo thing! We usually catch the last word of something and then have to rewind it so we know what happened.

We tie-dyed some shirts today. We are doing the CHOC/Walk at Disneyland on Sunday morning and we got shirts for it. They are white with Mickey balloons and the boys won't wear them, or at least they didn't wear last years. So this year, I bought camoflauge tie-dye and we went to town on those shirts. We made some extras and we'll see how they look tomorrow.

Tom and Jake watched Modern Marvels - Environmental Tech today. THAT was fascinating. It was all about how they are inventing ways to do old things more environmentally friendly. There were triangle frames office buildings, CO2 eating algea, and a new way to drill for oil. I was cleaning the bathroom when I came down stairs and found them watching it. I sat down for a second and was hooked. It was very interesting.

The Runescape thing has faded with Tom. I think he gets tired of looking at the screen. He asked to help him find something that didn't involve looking at things. Ok? We had a hard time with that one until he decided to play fetch with Whiskey for a little while. Then he read a book that we got from the library yesterday. Jake is still very much attached to the game. He now has Grandma Ann on the game and he runs back and forth from the front room to Grandma's livingroom telling her where he is and what he is going to do. She likes the game, too. Jake says I should get a player too, but I told him I barely have time to read my email and write my blog.

We had pizza for dinner tonight because Jake has been asking for two days for pizza. He said that he has "been craving pizza for an eternity". How can you resist? The boy has to have pizza! It's understandable. We watched that new show about the Iditarod dog sled race in Alaska that we recorded.

It's been a good day.

Thursday's

Thursday's are usually pretty slow around here...for the boys anyway. I always have a lot to do for some reason and now I can't even sit at my computer and play games on Facebook! Tom and Jake spent almost the entire day on Runescape with Cameron. They did break for an episode of Mythbusters (which was hilarious, the fainting goats and creamer cannon one).

I went to the library today and got some books for the boys. I like to find cool picture books. There are so many great ones. And Tom wanted more Magic Tree House. I got him a couple Time Warp Trio books too. They looked so cool that I read one myself! While I was there I saw something interesting. There was a couple Mom's there at the little tables with their sons. The one I want to tell you about was about 4 or 5, probably Kinder age. His Mom had his homework out on the table and was trying to convince him to do it. It was printing practice with the huge lines to write on. I can never figure out why they use those huge lines. I mean seriously! I could never write decent letters on that paper and I'm sure I couldn't now either! But she was so patient as he found other things to distract him. He was absolutely refusing to do any of it. I felt so bad for him. I'm sure he could find other things to do beside copy meaningless figures on a piece of paper. He probably can't even read so I'm sure he is bored senseless. I kept walking by with my HOMESCHOOL bag, looking for books, hoping she would see it and find a better way. I doubt it worked.

I'm still at the library and I walk by the parenting books and see flyers, so I look at them and then I think, I should ask to put California Homeschool Networks flyers there. And I did! Are you proud of me? The woman at the Children's Library desk said she didn't know if they would let me since it was city property and they might not like it. Huh? Now, mind you, I've put things up before and I thought that was odd. I told her that and I was really nice to her, don't worry. She said she would ask and give me a call, so I gave her my card. We'll see. I'm going to go back and pick up the other flyers and see if they are "city" related, because I don't think they are.

So now I'm off to turn in our donation money for the CHOC/Walk on Sunday and pick up our TShirts. The boys did not come with me because there was very important business to do on Runescape. Then I got gas for the truck, stopped at Micheal's for tie-dye stuff, went to Target for bubble bath (and found none, how can that be?), deposited my check, and then went to Henry's for some potatoes to have with our steaks. They had pumpkins on sale 2for$5. I got six! Yay! The boys were thrilled with the pile of pumpkins when I got home. So guess how long this took me? Over 3 hours!! Yikes! Traffic and stop-lights. This place is so crowded, you really can't drive more than 35 MPH on average. It drives me crazy. But I did get to listen to a lot of talk radio and that makes me happy.

I'm making dinner and my Mom calls and tells me that she can't find Grandpa and everyone is out looking for him. Oh man! He was supposed to meet her at the hospital hours ago and he never showed up. Turns out his car broke down and he didn't have his cell phone with him. I'm sure he isn't a happy camper. Poor Poppy!

My Mom is doing well at the hospital, by the way. I told her that tomorrow she will be better. The poor Mom. She is hurting and lonely. I told her I would visit, but she won't have it. Maybe I will harass her tomorrow anyway and bring her some chocolate!

Ok, Tom's out of the tub so I better run. It's Jake's turn to get ready for bed. This system is working out great!

Making this my official blog.

Ok, ok! I need a change anyway. So this is my official blog from now on.

Today was a good day. Chores done, dinner prepared, kids up, we went to a new park day. I have read about this Dragon Tree park day in Long Beach for years. For some reason I was convinced it was too far away to make it our regular thing. But I found today that it is just as far to our Monday park day. This park day is mostly unschooling families. And there are several veterans there. Today Pam Sorooshian was talking and explaining some things about unschooling and about how she did things with her kids when they were little. It was a huge help to hear about other people feeling the same way about children as I do and hearing how they got through things and what could have been better. I was very happy. I told Dan all about it and said it sounded like unschooling church. :) And it is. Once a week we get together, someone preaches, questions are asked and answered, and there is support and fellowship. It is nice. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to stop going to my Monday park day. I have really made friends there and so have the boys. We can't stop going there! But now I have another day as well. It is another group of people to hang out with, get ideas from, and make new friends.
What else happened today? Not much. Tom and Jake are completely consumed by this new Runescape thing online. They spent most of yesterday playing it and it was the first thing they started doing today. I took Nikki to school this morning and when I got back they were both playing it already. Grandma likes it because they don't fight over the tv or Wii while I am out taking Nikki to school.
I'm on my 23rd day of working out on Wii Fit. Don't laugh! I really like this thing. I've worked up to 45 minutes each day. And many of the exercises I could barely do when I started have begun to get easier. I haven't lost much weight, but that is because I have a hard time turning down good food! And I've been building muscle so it is heavier, right? Anyway, I feel good and that is all that matters.
I'm praying for my Mom tonight because she is in the hospital. No big deal and I won't go into details, but she had some surgery done and I hate it when any of my family is in the hospital. It scares me. I'm sure she will be fine though.
Well, goodnight. I'm off to play on Facebook for awhile and then Dad is going to read to the boys. I'm going to lay on the floor and just go to sleep instead of reading until they fall asleep. I've just been so tired lately. And tomorrow I get to sleep in since Nikki is at her Mom's house. AND Dan has figured out why the puppy sits at the top of the stairs and cries for me at 5am even when he is up. So I'm off the hook! Yay!

Still thinking

I like being able to subscribe to other people's blogs and I like the look of this thing too. Hmmm. Maybe I will make it my own.

I do have a huge following though... :)) It may be hard to change things.

New Blog

I started this blog to check out the service on here. I'm not sure it I will use this one or not. We shall see.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving at my crazy house!

Another Thanksgiving come and gone! Well, not quite. We have several feasts due to the large size of out extended family. But the actual day of Thanksgiving feast at my house with all the parade watching, cleaning, cooking, and cleaning up again has come and gone.

This year we had a whole lot of fun! A whole day of eating and playing. It was perfect. Can't really describe the goings on though. Hmmm. Watched Animal Planet shows that were very odd. I watched the parade on and off between cooking and cleaning. The boys impressed their Uncle with stunts in the back yard. All the food was cooked on time and was actually good. If you look in the picture you will see my boys on each side of my brother, the favorite uncle. Let's just say there was no peace at THIS table.

And now I'm knitting! I'm going to take down my Thanksgiving Fall decorations and slowly put up my Christmas decorations while we celebrate the Advent. That should be fun. I love dragging all the Christmas stuff out. Next week I'm going shopping with my friends. THAT is my favorite night of the year!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope yours was as blessed as mine!

The Great Toy Clean Up 2007

Every year my boys and I (ok, just me really) have a Great Toy Clean Up in November in anticipation for Christmas. It sounds terrible, I know. But it needs to be done. We go through all the toys in their rooms and around the house and throw out broken and unused toys. Our house is getting crowded and some of these toys that they never play with just have to go. The ones that used to be favorites get boxed up and put away. Who knows what kind of treasure they may become in the years ahead? The ones that are broken are thrown out. And the ones that some other child may want to love goes to the thrift store. This part really helps my five year old who gets very sad at the thought that no one loves that toy. I totally understand, because I feel the same way!

So...I'm a little bummed that I didn't think of it earlier and take a before shot, but here is the (almost) end result of the cleaning out of the boys room.

Ok, no the beds aren't made and yes they sleep with all those pillows and animals on the bed every night. I don't know where they fit in!

This is what happened downstairs while I was upstairs.

This is all the army stuff I told them to take downstairs. It is all part of my plan. As we clean up this mess, I throw away broken bits and pieces and consolidate the pile. Sometimes they have all this stuff spread all over the living room in a mock war. You can't even get through the room.

The weirdest thing is that, while standing in the bedroom or the living room, or any room in my house, I think "Man this place is cluttered and crowded!" but in the pictures it looks so spacious! Why?