Our weekend with TWO outings...

Yes, I actually went out TWICE this weekend. I know that is absolutely amazing! My mom and my sister, Michelle, gave us a gift certificate to our favorite Mexican place. We didn't use it on our anniversary because he wanted to go fishing, so we went out Friday night. It could have been completely uneventful and it pretty much was, but this one small thing happened that I think we will probably laugh about for years. Here is the story:
We seat ourselves and the waitress comes over. She asks us about drinks. He very clearly orders a COKE and I order an ice water with lemon. We always order this anywhere we go. She comes back with two ice waters with lemons. We nicely correct her and tell her he would like a coke. She looks a little ticked, but brings him a coke. I gladly snag a second lemon for my water. We order dinner and life is good. She walks by and dumps ICED TEA in his half glass of COKE. I tell her that she just put tea in his coke and she gives me this look like I am the biggest pain in the you know what. Hello... we didn't ask for a refill. They charge for refills and his glass was still pretty full. She just decided to dump tea in there. She very snottily asks if he NEEDS another coke. Well, hmmm... I am eating hot, Mexican nachos, I may very well like to wash that down with that coke I had ordered and was quite enjoying. A very long time seems to pass and she finally comes back with his coke. Back to our nice dinner. We get the check and he looks it over to see if she charged him twice for his coke. No, not because we are poor and on the verge of bankruptcy, but because it was her mistake. Well, she didn't charge for two cokes, but she did charge us $1.55 for "agua w/ lemon". Huh? They give you a small glass of water for free, as many as you want. So, if I get a lemon slice with a larger glass of water, it is $1.55. Call me cheap, but I think that is nuts! And, no, I don't order water to be cheap... I really pretty much only drink water. If I am paying $1.55, I would like a small dish of lemons! LOL! We did not contest the bill, we were ready to go home. We are faced with the dilemma of loving the food and hating the service. I think we will try their other location and see if it is better there.

Our next outing was very nice. We went to the movies with our son, Tim II, a lady friend that he likes, her parents, her brother and another male friend of our son's. Our good son treated us to the movies for Father's Day and a belated Mother's Day gift! Very nice! We saw The Fast and The Furious Tokyo Drift. I really liked it! I know that probably sounds surprising, but I really did enjoy this movie. I actually liked the first The Fast The Furious as well. I didn't so much like the second one. The funny thing about this last one is that it stars, Lucas Black, from Sling Blade. So, Tim and I spent too much time imitating Billy Bob Thorton saying something like "I need to sharpen my them thar sling blade hmmm... hmmmm..." If you have seen the movie, you know just what we are talking about. If you haven't, (like my mom) we just sound like nutcases. Tim leaned over to Timmy in the middle of the movie and did his best impression of good ole' Billy Bob. Good thing Timmy wasn't sipping his soda because he just lost it laughing! A very enjoyable night out!

My Life Monday

I am actually going to do this on Monday... no pressure... it may not always be Monday, but this week it just happens to be Monday! HOORAY! This week's topic in honor of Father's Day:

Tell us what makes your spouse great!

Wow, now there is a topic. I know most people think their spouse is great. At least I hope they do. But, seriously, my husband is REALLY GREAT! I mean he is. I know you are saying that I am just saying that because he is my husband. No, really, even if he weren't my husband, I would say he was great. He is just this really nice guy. He is fun to talk to and pretty easy going. Not to mention, he is really quite good looking. Actually, I think he gets better looking the older he gets and I find that incredibly unfair! So, specifically, what makes him great?

1. He is a wonderful, terrific, fantastic, magnificent dad. He listens to his kids and they love to talk to him. They meet him at the door and can't wait to share whatever is on their minds. He wants these kids to be happy more than any other single thing.
2. He buys me chocolate. Even if I am trying to lose weight. He knows it is my one very favorite thing in the whole wide world to indulge in. He knows that I love it with probably way too much enthusiasm. He doesn't look at me like I am eating all those calories, blah, blah, blah!
3. He keeps his promises. Now, there are some who may read that and say, huh? Aren't you always nagging him to finish this or do that? Well, yes, I do nag. I admit it. I mean the really big promises. You see, I met him when I was 14 years old. He says he knew I was it right from the start. He asked me to be his family and that he would take care of me and stick around. At 16 years old, I took that step and he kept his promise. He has stood by me no matter what and did exactly what he told me he would do. So, he keeps the really big promises and yes, he even does most of the little ones too.
4. He smells amazing! He just does! There is nothing like walking into my bedroom in the middle of the day and catching that scent from his pillow.
5. He loves my family. He cares about them and knows they are people that I feel responsible for. He adores my mom and would do anything for her.
6. He lets me talk endlessly. He may not follow all that I am saying, but he will let me talk until I can't talk anymore.
7. He can fix just about anything. We have a spot on the counter and it seems Savannah puts every broken thing there for him to fix. He fixes the big things too. If the water heater breaks, I don't even hesitate to think that he will just take care of it.

I am sure there are many, many more things to write, but I like the number 7, so I will stop there. Wow! That was sorta fun, listing some of the great things. Good thing he didn't just tick me off or this could have been a really different post! Just kidding!

Can you explain this to me?

Savannah has been watching Little House on the Prairie at her friend's house. She got to act out some of it with them and had a wonderful time. She now wants to watch every episode. Great! Right? Well, here is the thing. She was saying that she was the youngest girl, Mary. I was like ummm... Mary was the oldest. She says NO! That is not right. Okay, can somebody please tell me how my little girl that is 7 years old can tell me the logistics of a show that has been off the air for how many years? I know you are saying these are just one of those things kids do and you have to let it go. I know and I will, but first I had to start remembering "my little house days". Little House on the Prairie was on from 1974 to 1983. I was just 2 years old when it started. Obviously, I don't remember watching at 2 years old. I do remember watching it from the time I was probably 4 on up. We must have watched reruns as well, because I am fairly certain I have seen most of them. I distinctly remember my sister, Leann, (hi Leann) insisting we watch it. I would like to tell you about the PRE-remote control before the invention of what we now know today as a remote control. See, we had a typical turn the knob big console TV. Somebody broke the channel changing knob. I have no recollection of it ever being there, so I don't know when it happened. My parents improvised with a PLIERS to change the channel. So, the keeper of the pliers was in control of what channel we watched. I know it is not nice to name names, but let's just say there was a certain sister who liked to be in control. I remember my brother saying he hated Little House on the Prairie and then the fighting that would happen next. Leann always won! (Oh, I forgot I wasn't naming names.) Okay, back to my present day story... so Savannah is telling me that Mary is the youngest. I go on to tell her that Carrie was the youngest. I always thought about Carrie because we shared a name. Then I suddenly remembered that they had another baby girl named Grace. I told her you never really got to see that baby all that much and I didn't know what happened to her. Next I told her that Mary went blind and then married a blind guy, Adam, and started a school for the blind. AGAIN, she tells me NO - that is not what happens to Mary! Ahem... where does she get this stubborn nature? (La, la, la, I can't hear those people saying it is from her mother!) Well, I located that Little House is on the Hallmark Channel at 4pm each day. I feel as though I must enlighten her to the truths of this show. It is my duty, right? I know she won't believe me when I say that Laura married Almanzo (I always loved saying his name- ALMANZO!) Or she will be telling me that Nellie was a nice girl! I just can't have it. And does she even know about poor Albert? Probably not. My work is just beginning - there is a whole frontier to teach her about.

A little slow on blogging this week...

I don't have any real excuses for not posting SOMETHING, at least pictures. I just haven't been doing it. I did clean my house, so that has to count for something. Anyway, rather than several different posts for each thing - I am doing a week in review type of thing. I have to change up the norm every now and then.

So, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday - pretty boring. Unless you want to talk about using the Hoover Floormate or typing up address change letters for work. We did have have a neighbor girl come over to play on Wednesday for the first time. I guess it went pretty well. Not really sure how I feel about it yet. I think we need another playdate to see how it will go. Thursday was a little more exciting. Savannah's friend came over to play. I had eaten lasagna at work a few weeks ago and ever since wanted to make some at home. I got all the stuff and the girls and I had an assemble the lasagna party. I gave them each a pan and walked them through it. They had a blast! And I got 3 lasagnas made in no time! For those wondering, I do NOT make homemade sauce! I figure those wonderful people at Ragu have worked really hard to make the best sauce they can - I may as well benefit from it. I do add hamburger and Italian sausage to the sauce. We made 3 cake pan sized and one square one for my mom! I guess there will be lasagna for dinner if there is nothing else in the freezer.

While most of the day was HAPPY, my darling teenager came home and was a GRUMP! Can you sing the Noggin song - "If you wanna be a grump..."? Dad had a nice talk with the GRUMP and life is much better now.

This brings us to the pets part of my post. Savannah has 3 hamsters and a little breeding business going. A pretty lucrative business at that! Her one hamster just had her 3rd litter of babies this past week. Savannah was checking on them and Sebastian had to get in on the action.

Tonight, Tim got the little baby snake out and let Sebastian hold it for the first time. Boy was he excited! I am not so sure the snake was as happy as Sebastian was! I think that about covers the main parts of the week. I am sure I will think of something more over the weekend. Okay, so it wasn't the most exciting blog entry... at least there were lots of cute pictures! You can't have it all... maybe there will be some really exciting thing to tell you about next week. Stay tuned...

My Life Monday on Tuesday

The topic for the week is your favorite childhood toy. This is an easy one for me. I instantly thought of my dolls. I loved baby dolls. Santa brought me a new baby doll every Christmas. One Christmas when I was about 7 - my dd's age, I got a baby doll named Soft-A-Tina or something like that. I know her name was Tina and I remember something about Softa in my mind! She was the size of a real life 6 month old baby. Now, Santa, did not just bring this great doll... he brought all the accessories. I got a 70's style diaper bag - you know the hard sided one with the flip up tops? It was filled with real baby clothes (later I learned there was a fun visit to the thrift store to find these clothes), a real snowsuit, and finally a REAL UMBRELLA STROLLER! I can still remember how excited I was. Some people say they wanted to be a vet, zoologist, doctor, actress, etc when they were little. I always said I wanted to be a Mommy. I loved my doll. I got her all dressed to go to my aunt's for Christmas brunch. I was her momma! I would think there is a picture of her somewhere, but my mom has taken most of our childhood photos hostage for special albums. So, that would be my favorite childhood toy.

Winter Promise American Story Week 1

We started our History and Bible with Winter Promise this past week. It is still early, but from what I can tell... I think we are really going to like this program. It was not too much and not too little. We did the reading and some of the activities in about half hour to 45 minutes each day for four days. Being super busy like every other mom I know, that was a concern of mine. I would say that Savannah is enjoying the book selections and that she definately liked the hands on activities. The teacher's guide was extremely helpful. One of the books we read from was called Wild West. We are actually studying when the first Native Americans came over. I would never have thought to look in a book on the Wild West for info on that. It just seems to be the wrong time period. BUT... there is info leading to how the Wild West was before we came to settle there. That is the beauty of using this program. The author has pulled all these unique books together for you. I am assuming she probably was studying the Wild West and noted that there was some great info that could be taught about the early Native Americans. This really impressed me. I can go the library and spend a lot of time trying to find that info and teach Savannah with real books and I still would not have come away with this book. That in itself has made this program worth it to me. I am happy to find something that does the research for me. We made a Native American diarama, a 3-d map of the Bering Strait, a map of the different regions of Native Americans and finally she made some Navajo bracelets. For anyone considering the program, the prep work was very minimal. I just got a few of the books from the library. Then I used my printer to copy the diarama and 3d map onto cardstock. The bracelets were made from a toilet paper tube, tinfoil, tape, and blue cardstock - all easy to find. We are really enjoying the story of The Birchbark House. I think we are getting a good picture of how these Native Americans lived. All it all, I successful week! I am excited to move on with this and see what is next.

Today is our wedding anniversary...

Somehow 16 years have passed since these pictures were taken. I am not sure how exactly! Today has been a good day. A typical day, but when I really think about it - a good day. I woke up beside my husband this morning and cuddled with him. I told him "Happy Anniversary" in a sleepy voice and he replied with a sleepy "Happy Anniversary". He called me on his lunch hour like he always does and told me again. The rest of the day has been our usual routine. We are going to go out to eat when he gets home. Then we are going fishing for awhile. So, what do I think about when I think about the last 16 years? For the most part, they have been good. We have had lots of happy times and lots of blessed moments. Don't get me wrong, we have sure had "those" times. Honestly, there was a whole year when I had to remind myself to "BE NICE" to my husband. My sister-in-law, Debi, and I shared the little joke of the "BE NICE" phrase. I had told her that was my motto for the year and she kept me accountable to it. But, overall, we are lucky. We have grown up together and we fit together. Clark Gable said the following quote once and it stuck with me.

"The most important thing a man can know is that, as he approaches his own door, someone on the other side is listening for the sound of his footsteps."

I remember the first summer we were married. Tim would come home on his lunch hour with our little blue Chevette. He would drop it off, so I could take the car. Then he would take his motorcycle back to work. I watched the clock all morning waiting for him to come home. I was excited to see him! It has been 16 years since then and at the end of the day, I find myself looking at the clock every few minutes because I know he will be calling me on his way home. Then when we hang up from talking, I keep watching the clock because I know he will be home very soon. I am still excited to see him!

Gone fishin'

I am a little behind on getting these pictures up. We actually went fishing on Sunday night. One of the perks of having your kids so far apart, is that the 17 year old can get the little ones to bed. We ran by Checkers for dinner and then it was off to fish on the bridge. We do this every so often and everytime I think how much I like doing this with Tim. Then for whatever reason, we don't do it again for quite some time. So... this time... we are going again soon. Matter of fact, we are going tomorrow night! We didn't catch much. I caught one and Tim caught two. Sorta pathetic! But I enjoyed talking and watching the sunset! He just loves fishing. It doesn't matter if he catches anything!

Introducing - Mr. and Mrs. Chris and Leann Lowe...

My sister got married on

Tuesday, May 30, 2006.

I am so excited for her and love that she looks incredibly happy in this picture. We were not all able to attend her wedding, but the happy couple along with her son will be visiting all of us in August. My sister's 3 daughters will all be arriving from different states as well. We will have what my Tusie Emma used to call a "potty" to celebrate! Congratulations to my sister! You deserve great happiness and love! Enjoy!

My Life Monday... so it is Wednesday... adjust...

I looked to see if she had posted a question for Monday, but I didn't see a new post. Well, I ACTUALLY read the rest of her last post and saw that she had put a topic for "next week". This is one of my faults... reading ALL THE WAY TO THE BOTTOM of something. I tend to skip and skim and never read everything. This has gotten me in some interesting messes! Anyway, so it is Wednesday and here is my post. Maybe next week I will actually get it on Monday. No promises.

Take a picture of something (not somebody) that represents part of who you are. Share that object and tell why it is significant to you.

What the heck is it? You mean you don't KNOW what that is? Okay, I don't know the official name for it, but I call it "The Smasher". Why is this significant to me? This little item used to belong to my Great-Grandpa - my mom's grandpa. He was a baker. He owned Burkel's Bakery.
He used to this little smasher to "smash" meat through the grinder. They made other things besides baked goods, obviously. When my mom was a kid, her mom used this to grind meat as well. When I was a kid, I remember my mom using it to smash walnuts, etc. Fast Forward to sometime in the 90's. We had moved to FL and we had pretty sorry windows. My mom put this thing in the window to hold up the window. I bought this house from my mom about 7 years ago. Along with the purchase, we retained certain things... the grill, patio furniture, washer and dryer... oh and THE SMASHER! I have had the house for 7 years and until this past winter, have had this sitting on my window ledge for the times when I needed to prop the window open. My WONDERFUL husband put new windows in this past December. I LOVE my new windows! They are pretty and they actually open and close - such a bonus! I took the smasher down off the window ledge. I put it away in the cabinet. I still use it to "smash" the big bag of frozen shredded mozzarella cheese or to "smash" graham crackers for a homemade crust or for ice, etc. You get the idea. It still gets used more than 80 years later. Recently, I was making chicken parmesan and I was needing to smash the frozen cheese. I was on the phone with Tim and all of a sudden I couldn't hold the conversation. I couldn't find the SMASHER! It was not in the cabinet. It was not on the window. I was in a small panic! Did it get tossed out during one of our gatherings? My mom would be so sad to hear it was gone! Tim was like, ummm... where did my wife go? I was talking to you and now you are in your own world. I started to tell him I couldn't find the smasher! He assured me it was somewhere. Alas, there it was on the wrong counter in the wrong place. I smashed my cheese and made my family dinner. I wonder which one of my kids will inherit the smasher. Maybe we will have to create a "pass the smasher" ceremony...

Nutrition 101

We are not the most nutritious eating family. I do try to do what I can. My kids don't like veggies. Well, for that matter, Tim and I don't really care for much of them. We like a few here and there, but you get the idea. We all do enjoy fruit. Okay, I guess Tim doesn't really but he will eat the occasional fruit to get me to shut up. A friend of mine gave my kids some Hi-C ice pops. They liked them and I was going to get some. I haven't been able to find them at Walmart, Sam's Club, or Target. I don't do grocery stores. I am sure that is probably where they came from and I will ask her if I ever think about it. So, we are at Sam's Club and I decide to just get the Flavor Ice pops. Here is my problem with these... my kids don't like certain flavors. Those flavors end up on the bottom of my pantry. Eventually, a box or something breaks one open and I have a mess. Then I don't buy the stupid things for at least a year. I also have noticed that for some unknown reason these ice pops make us all choke for no apparent reason at all. But... I have had lots of kids over and I thought cold, ice pops would be good to have on hand. The big box goes on the bottom of the cart. Next, I go to look by the juice to see if there might be the other ones because I am hard-headed and can't believe you can only get these Hi-C ones in the grocery store. Well, they didn't have them in the juice. All of a sudden, a lightbulb goes off. You know the homemade popsicle thingies most of us have clutter a drawer or cabinet??? Yes, I have those! I have had them since Timmy was little. How many times have I actually used them? Well, let's just say that is a small number. Brilliant mom asks Savannah if she would like to make her own popsicles. Of course! I remove huge box of sugar water ice pops from my cart and instead get apple and orange juice. This is for a whole 'nuther story about how Savannah and Sebastian cannot eat or drink anything the same and make my life easier. Apple juice for her and orange juice for him. We came home and made popsicles. I knew she would eat them, but I was not sure he would. He will occasionally drink OJ, but it is hit or miss. I casually give him an apple juice one because that was what we had first. He was very cautious, but in the end... he ate it! Hooray! I actually got at least a serving of fruit into his body! We moved on to the OJ ones later and this he liked very well. It is a small thing, but it sure makes me happy!

Afternoon swim...

Tim II, Patrick and Savannah enjoying the pool this afternoon. Yep... my son... the one who would not put on a swimsuit for the last 3-4 years... actually... bought swimtrunks today! Wow! I am glad he decided swimming was fun again!

My convention purchases...

Here is what we have on the agenda for Math... Bob Jones 3. Then my sil showed me the Addition Adventures. You have to solve the math problems to get the numbers to solve a riddle type question. Finally, my friend, Vickie, lent me Times Tables the Fun Way.
These are our Pathway Readers. They don't have a very exciting look, but Savannah really loves the stories.

Next up... Handwriting Without Tears and Explode the Code. I actually already had the next workbook, but I bought her a writing workbook to keep practicing in once she zips through the workbook. These are the last two Explode the Code books. I am sure Savannah will be SO HAPPY to see them be gone after that!
These are some of our science things. I am sorta winging it on science this year. I bouth Dinah Zikes Big Book of Science to get some lapbooking ideas. My friend, Susie, got a different lapbook guide. We are thinking we can pull the two together and get some great idea. I just got some of the little sticker type books to add to the lapbooks. Finally, my mom HAD TO HAVE this frog book. She was going to buy it if I didn't and she had already bought way too much stuff... so I went ahead and got it. I figured we could get some tadpoles and do a lapbook on frogs.

I actually bought this Children's Art Journal last year, but decided it was a bit too old for her last year. I think it will be just right for this year

I bought some things from Corps of Rediscovery to go along with her history study. I couldn't post a picture because I am thinking I will give them to her for one of her birthday presents. I got her a make your moccasin kit and a really nice Lewis and Clark compass. This booth had really cool pioneer stuff. I also bought myself a t-shirt and Savannah a t-shirt. I think that covers it except for a few odds and ends of gifts for other family members. Between this stuff and my Winter Promis and Amazon order... we should be pretty busy next year!

Hey... we have a new format...

I am trying out a new format for my blog. While it may not be as colorful, I like that it uses the whole page. Most of the templates have that sidebar and it is just wasting space! I, personally, think it reads better if you get the whole width of the page. I have not looked at other templates that you can get on other sites because I fear my brain is not ready for that much technical knowledge. Someday...

My Life Monday

Okay, I realize it is TUESDAY, but I just found this today! I liked the question and I wanted to answer it. So, just pretend it is Monday! This comes from another blog - Rachelle's. I don't actually know this person. I just read a blog my sister sent and then that led me to this blog and well... you get the picture. Anyway, apparently, each Monday this very nice person posts a question for you to answer on your blog. Last week's topic was:

My parents named me Kari because...

My Tusie Karen suggested it. Oh, Tusie means Aunt in Romanian in case you were wondering. My dad's family called their aunts - Tusie. We have kept it going down the line. So, my mom was looking for a name and my aunt said, "How about Kari?" My mom loved it because my aunts on my dad's side were Karen and Kathy. My aunt on my mom's side was Carolyn. My mom is named Lynn. So, my name is Kari Lynn. It sorta includes Karen, Kathy, Carolyn and Lynn all in one name. I think one of my kids should name their baby girl, Kalynn. That would include my name - Kari, my mom's name - Lynn and my mother-in-law's name Kathryn all in one name. Not that they are going to ASK me what to name their baby girl anytime soon, but I can think about my not even a blip on the screen grandchildren if I want to!

The topic the week before was:

The Story of How I Met My Spouse

I met Tim in my freshman year of highschool. My very best friend pointed him out to me on the schoolbus. She was saying she was thinking she would like to go to homecoming with
"that guy" and what did I think of him. Well, I didn't think much of anything, I am sorry to say. Not at that particular moment, anyway. Then all of a sudden... out of nowhere... I became interested in who he was. We all sorta sat near each other on the bus and you could sorta hear other's conversations. I heard him talking to another girl one afternoon. They lived in the same apartment complex. He was telling her he lived in "101 Hillstone Road". She said, "What?" and he repeated, "101 Hillstone Road". Now, to back up, I had NEVER really dated a boy. I was incredibly shy. I did NOTHING on my own and I was not OUTGOING in any way, shape or form. Anyone who knew me would have said I was very shy. So, what happened next I can only say was because that was the way God wanted it to be. My friend and I walked to the little grocery store down the road. We had to pass by the apartment complex that Tim lived it. I found myself drawn to turn down the road instead of just going to the store like our normal daily routine. Before I knew it, I was standing in front of 101 Hillstone Road. I did not have a plan and really had no idea why the heck I was there. Poof! I walked up and rang the doorbell. Tim answered the door. I don't think he had any idea who I was or why I was there. I, for the life of me, cannot remember what I said to him. I do remember we ended up sitting on the stoop and talked for some time. That day turned into days and those days turned into months and those months have turned into years.

He loves his Grandma!

Caution: Unsocialized Homeschoolers...

The teens from our group all purchased matching t-shirts. The caption on the shirt says:

CAUTION

UNSOCIALIZED

HOMESCHOOLER

You just gotta love it! These shirts came from Homeschool Mania. I wish I had taken a better close up of all of them, but this will have to do!