We went "Camping"!

                       We (Rene, Sagan, Ayla, the folks and I) went "camping". If you can call what we did camping. The folks (Rene's parents) bought a pop up camper about a year ago and refused to use it without us, so we finally said "Let's do it".   
                    First the sleeping and bathroom situation was a pain in the bum!  I am not using a toilet with just a curtain around it just 1 foot away from where the folks are sleeping! So I had to wake Rene up in the middle of the night (just one beer will do that to you) and he and I had to walk across the grounds about 200 feet or more to go use the public toilets (which were very clean) and then back again. As for sleeping, the darn night light the folks needed to see when they got up to use the bathroom was down at the other end of the camper by our bed and was shining in my eyes all night long. It turned out to be very cold that night and we didn't bring enough blankets, so I was freezing! The camper has built in heaters under the mattresses that Rene turned on and warmed us up, but half way through the night I started feeling like a slice of bacon sizzling in a pan. And I woke up every time someone got up to use the bathroom. Even Dad wouldn't use the camper toilet and would get in his truck and drive over to the public toilets. Loud truck.  
                  Other then that it wasn't all bad, even with all my complaints. I got to relax a little and play games on my iPad (no one would play any board games with me) and we had 'KINGS INN' for dinner. If you don't live around here, 'Kings Inn' is a great seafood restaurant. They have this horseradish sauce that is just fantastic! And the firmest tomatoes to put the sauce on! Excellent salad and wonderful fried shrimp and fish. I'm getting hungry just writing about it!


My ping pong hubby



Sagan with his prize



                   Rene and I also got to play some Pool and Ping Pong! I haven't played pool in about 5 years! I love to play pool, so that is truly sad. And I have never played ping pong before. I wasn't very good but it sure was fun! Even Sagan "played" a little pool. He had a great time putting the balls in the pockets and watching them roll back to him. Ayla didn't want to come.



Sagan "playing" pool



Me playing pool!



                   Sagan and I had a birthday party of a friends little boy to go to. He had just turned 3 and Sagan and he are best buds. So we left just a few hours after getting to the camp site and drove back home and went to his party. It was dinosaur themed and the kids had a great time. Sagan won a stuffed triceratops and has been sleeping with it ever since.



Sagan's dino nose from party



                  The place we stayed is called 'Sea Wind'. It is gated and very clean. Only $25 a night and it has a game room (hence the pool table and ping pong table), a rec hall (perfect for a family reunion or wedding which was held while we were there), a skeet shooting range, a pond, a laundry mat, horse shoes, and lots of other fun stuff. So, yeah, I think I could go back there to "Camp" out.





Enjoying grandpa's watermelon





Ayla playing iPod



                 

Sagan pretending that this chair is a camera and is "taking" pictures of us. What an imagination!













Home Schooling Success

               Well, I have been home schooling Sagan for about a month and a half now. And so far it is going pretty good. The little man is very smart. Smarter than he lets on most times. He is catching on to everything we have covered very quickly. Which makes me feel good about the whole home schooling thing. I know the 2 of us can do this.
               We started earlier then the school year so I could test the waters, so to speak. See how he would take to the structure. The everyday or almost everyday working on school related stuff. We haven't settled into a routine, yet. Partially because I don't want to fight him on what we are going to do and when we are going to do it. He is very head strong! If it isn't his idea, he usually doesn't want to do it. But I'm working on that.
                Home schooling a preschooler is a bit different then home schooling a, let's say, 4th grader. A 4th grader can be told/shown what to do and you can leave them to their work for awhile. You can go do the dishes or do something productive that needs to be done. A preschooler, however, needs the constant attention and instruction. Needless to say, I don't get my chores and other important things done. But I am learning to adjust. I am hoping by the start of this next school year, we will have a great schedule down that works for the both of us.
                During the summer I still have to work on the "lesson plans" and curriculum. I want to make sure we are going to touch every base and then some. Right now he chooses the letter of the alphabet he wants to work on and then we put it on the board. That is our letter of the week. We are learning any, even the vowels, that he chooses. We have already covered, D, J, M,  and O.
                 He LOVES to use my iPad for learning, too. I got him about 20 apps so far and he is really getting alot out of them. They really have some great Montisourri apps. I am trying to use as many different teaching aids as I can. It helps to keep his interest and even when he doesn't want to "work" that day he always ends up learning anyway.


Working on our shapes




Beading





Drilling fun






Roll Playing





Discovering Nature







Artist at work



                 When Ayla was little she was a true sponge. She soaked up any and everything that I taught her and was ready for more. Sagan on the other hand has taken his time with everything since the day he was born. I really have to be creative sometimes to get him and keep him interested. My children are almost night and day. (I wouldn't change them for anything though.)



Finger Painting




Our little classroom




Our Classroom



These are just a few pics of some of the stuff we do and will continue to do. I am hoping we can expand and set a good schedule that will still leave us with time to volunteer at the school, run our errands, get my chores done and 

iPad app

still have lots of fun. That is one really great thing about home schooling. We can set our OWN schedule. As long as the learning gets done we can do what we want.



(This app is a Montissouri geometry app. There are alot more colorful ones on the iPad for him to play.)

Treasure Your True Treasures

          I watched the news this morning. I usually don't get to watch the news. I am too busy in the mornings before Sagan gets up and then after he's up it goes to child appropriate viewing. Watching the news just reminded me of just how lucky I am. I actually try to remind myself what is truly important everyday. But sometimes it hits home more then others. Watching the news really made it hit home today.
           With the flooding in Mississippi and so many people having to abandon their homes, the first full face transplant in America to a man who got his whole face burned off in an electrical  accident where he worked two years earlier  http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/ , all the
tornadoes hitting the east coast and all the people loosing not only their homes but loved ones as well, the terrible earthquakes in Japan and all that devastation and all the acts of violence that surrounds us everyday it shouldn't be hard, at all, to realize what is truly important.
            Life truly is too short. You never know just how much time you have, so enjoy every minute of it. Show your children how much you love them. Spend some extra quality time with them. If they have been extra naughty, take a pause and rethink the punishment. Have some friends over and play some board games. Throw a party. Tell those you love, you love them. Take a deep breath and feel how good it feels to breath. Enjoy a sunset, a sunrise.  "Live! Live! Live! Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!" As Auntie Mame would say http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi4218159129/ .

My handsome little man

getting along

Molly



Friends



 

Like father, like daughter





Cheetah



              So look at all you have and be thankful. Take a few moments and don't worry about the bills, the chores or any of the other numerous worries we have these days and just be thankful for what really matters. Treasure the true treasures!!



(I would put up a picture of all my friends, family and the kids at school if there were enough space. I treasure each and everyone! I am a truly lucky person!!)







Making a Bid

(I have both the camera & the dog)

                   April 7th, just 2 Sunday's ago, My family and I thought it would be nice to take Molly (our Doberman) for a walk around the neighborhood. We decided to take a different route than we normally go. As we are out enjoying the scenery (joke) and soaking up the vitamin D, we came upon an empty store that my daughter and I used to go to to find treasure. (It was being rented out as a Used Stuff Store or you could say a Thrift Store, but they had moved out a while back. It is hard to keep any kind of business running in this rink-a-dink town.)

                  We thought it would be neat to walk around the building  and look in the windows and just plain check out the place, when Ayla said "It would be cool to live here!" That statement took both Rene, my husband, and myself back a little. We rent our house right now and haven't tried looking for a house to buy for some time. Then we notice the FOR SALE sign. This property would be a little unorthodox for a home, but had excellent possibilities. Well, that started the whole ball rolling. My husband gets on his iPhone and opens up the Zillow.com app and gets any info. he can on the place. We are all chattering away about the possibilities and the need to contact someone A.S.A.P., when we come across yet another property FOR SALE. Only this property is a little more down to earth and just 2 houses down from the house we use to rent years ago. (My Husband has always liked this particular house.) Again, my husband starts searching and comes up with some great news. The house just couldn't be the price he found!  The rest of the walk home is noisy and exciting with all of us spouting possibilities and hopes.

Some of our "Scenery"

                    That Monday I waste no time in calling around to try to get some information on these 2 properties and I make contact almost right away. A Realtor can show me the house the next day. Sagan, my son, and I go to see the house and we love it. I love it for it's charm and built-ins and Sagan loves it for the echo and space to run. I couldn't wait to get my husband there! We make another appointment the next day to see it again and to see the other property also. We all ended up liking the house best. So we tell the "folks" about it and then take them to see it. (Dad has a great eye for spotting trouble.) While we are taking our tour another Realtor shows up and rudely tells our Realtor " When are you going to be done?! I have clients that are here to see the house." I was a bit livid to say the least. I decide to take just a little bit longer and discuss with the "folks" what they think of the house. That little bit turned into 20 minutes. (Shame on me.)

                  Ultimately we decide to put in a bid but so does the other couple.  When we found out about the other couple making a bid, we agreed to to go up on our bid, which takes away that little extra cash we thought we might have had every month. The Realtor tells us it could be 3 to 4 days before we will hear anything. (DARN!) Now we have been waiting in suspense since Monday when the bids were presented to the morgage company who owns the property. This waiting is KILLING me! Well, O.K., it's just very distracting!  Are we going to finally get a house that we can call ours?!? I hope we hear soon!!