Potty Training

Just look at the look - does he look like he is on board with this whole potty training thing? NOPE!

Sebastian will be 3 at the end of September. It seems as though we should be potty training him. After all, Timmy was potty trained right around 2 years old. Savannah was about 2.5. Sebastian could probably do it if his wacko mother could focus for more than 5 seconds. Last week we bought the wonderful new potty chair. I stuck it in the walk-in closet. I really didn't want to deal with it. Tim, on the other hand, has been saying "we" should potty train him for the last few months. I was even just about to do it in June, when my very smart sister-in-law reminded me we were taking a long car trip in a few weeks. Not the best time to potty train. She really had to twist my arm to give up on the potty training idea. Let me tell you it took at least a whole minute for me to just let go of that plan. Well, the trip has came and went. My next excuse was we would be selling our house "any day" and then we would be packing and taking another long car trip... all of a sudden it just seemed like a good idea to keep postponing this potty training thing. Well, 2 more months have passed and we haven't sold our house. With his 3rd birthday approaching, I started to feel the pressure of getting this done. That led me to buying the potty chair. When I went to Sam's Club on Monday, I didn't buy the huge case of diapers. My thinking was that he would be wearing underpants while he was awake, so I would just get a regular pack of diapers. Tuesday came and we had co-op. I couldn't put him in underpants there because I didn't want him peeing all over the church. Wednesday came and I decided that was THE DAY! I put him in underpants and he was not happy. He kept telling me he "DON'T LIKE THESE!!!" I put him on the potty a few times. He did nothing. He did however manage to pee 3 times. Once on top of his train table, once behind the rocking chair and once in the driveway. Then there was a pooping incident in my bedroom. I kept asking him if he wanted to sit on the potty and he would politely say, "No thank you". You gotta admire his politeness. By about noon, I was realizing we had a problem. The problem was that I was too busy. My phone line was dead, I was trying to take care of transferring a car title, Savannah had school, and the list goes on and on. I wasn't focused on putting him on the potty every hour. When I trained Timmy and Savannah... I only had them to focus on. Timmy was an only child, so of course I could just spend the time he needed taking care of that. When I trained Savannah, Timmy was visiting relatives for 2 weeks. I took those 2 whole weeks and all we did was potty train. My attempt with Sebastian was sorta lacking in attention and planning. It was sort of like - here is your potty - here are your underpants - figure it out. Ummm... that didn't seem to work for him. By 1pm, I was exhausted from all the "I don't know what the heck you call it stuff that goes on during the day". I gave in and went to the closet for a diaper. I put it on and you could see the stress lift from ME and HIM! This is not to say I won't ever potty train him. I promise I will potty train him in the near future. I promise he will not be 4 years old and not potty trained. I just think I need to move first. I think that then I probably won't be running around right away (because I would be getting lost every second). I hope this will work. I just don't know. I do know that if they want mom to not run away to the loony bin than something has to be put off. I choose potty training!

Countertop Decisions...

UPDATE: After polling my family, homeschool message boards and a few email loops... we have come to a decision. We are going with the Beige. An overwhelming majority of you choice the beige - just not my extended family. Sorry family! =)

Can you help me? We had picked two choices for countertops and now we have to narrow it down. Well, not really right this minute. We haven't actually installed the kitchen cabinets and we can't order the countertops until that is done. Some of my cyber friends were chatting about countertops on the the WTM board. That got me thinking about making our choice. Anyway, below are some photos of the two choices. Our cabinets are golden oak in color and our flooring in a medium oak laminate. I tried to find examples with that color cabinets, but my choices were pretty limited. I just left out dark wood cabinets and white ones. These were the closest I could find to oak. Leave me a comment and tell me which one you like and why. Thanks!

The first two pictures are Rosa Grey. These are both Silestone from Home Depot.

The next pictures are Kona Beige.

Groceries, empty refrigerators, Target, kids...

Isn't the inside of my refrigerator the most interesting thing you have ever seen? I decided to clean it while it was pretty empty.
I will say this is pretty empty by my freezer standards, but STILL - there are some options in there. Timmy acted like he would starve to death.

This is not even that empty and there is a very good supply of sugar and fattening stuff in there.

Look! 4 kinds of cereal and 3 kinds of chips! Who would starve with that in the cupboard?

My shopping buddies. Yes, Sebastian is carrying a toothbrush and toothpaste. Good oral hygiene is important.

Our new groceries, plus a potty chair (a whole dedicated to post to the potty chair will come sometime soon!).

I have been absent from blogging again. It seems I can't think of much interesting to say. Take this post, for example... it is going to be about my TITLE above. How interesting can that be? If you want, you can run away and not read the rest. I am going to include another woman's very FUNNY ebay post. It is quite hysterical. I happened to read it the morning I was set to go grocery shopping. I have been trying to feed us on a very tight budget these days. I guess it is the two house payment we have. Tim and I made the decision to only spend what we needed to spend and hopefully we won't be broke before our house sells. There are only a few things you can really control in a budget. Things like mortgage, electricity, phone, etc. Those just pretty much stay the same. You can control fun spending (what's that - I don't remember?), some gas spending (if you don't drive all over town), and food (groceries and eating out.) We have a pretty good handle on fun spending. We, honestly, were never very big in that area anyway. We much preferred to save and take a vacation than shop for fun things weekly. We also tend to do pretty good on gas cost. Tim only drives to work and back mostly. I try to set my errands up to make the most sense. That brings me to groceries. Ummm... I guess I would say we were already on the frugal end there. I don't know why, but I never seemed to spend the amount I heard others spend. Maybe because I didn't include the money we spent eating out in the total food budget. Even then we don't usually eat out anywhere special. We are talking Denny's and KFC places. I had thought it would be virtually impossible to cut our food budget, but I think I did it. I don't have concrete numbers, just an overall sense that we have spent less! That brings me to this week - I had cleaned out the refrigerator. I got rid of leftovers, bags of who knows what, almost empty containers, etc. It looked scary bare! Timmy came in and was shocked! He was like - WE HAVE NO FOOD! The truth was that we really did have quite a bit of food. Actually like 5 days worth of dinners, 3-4 different options for breakfast, and probably 3 options for lunch. I guess that really puts it in perspective. Just to make sure my teenage son didn't fall over dead right there and then I assured him I was going shopping. Then even when I went shopping, I realized that if I planned my meals (I used to do that a long time ago) I could spend less because I had a plan. I think a lot of times I would just buy whatever came to mind and sometimes it would get yucky before I could use it, etc. Off we headed to SuperTarget. I used to always shop at SuperWalmart. I changed to SuperTarget last December. They don't have everything Walmart has, but they are so much less hassle. Sadly, when I move, SuperWalmart will be the only option. I load my kids into the big cart and Sebastian immediately asks if he can get a cookie. My trip was not nearly as funny (not sure that is the right word) as this sweet mom wrote about, but it does sometimes have strong similarities. Anyway, enjoy this laugh. I sure did. This is her actual ebay auction.


LOT OF POKEMON CARDS THAT MY KIDS TRIED TO SNEAK BY ME Item number: 130144061675

I'm selling a bunch of Pokemon cards. Why? Because my kids sneaked them into my shopping cart while at the grocery store and I ended up buying them because I didn't notice they were there until we got home. How could I have possibly not noticed they were in my cart, you ask? Let me explain.

You haven’t lived until you’ve gone grocery shopping with six kids in tow. I would rather swim, covered in bait, through the English Channel, be a contestant on Fear Factor when they’re having pig brains for lunch, or do fourth grade math than to take my six kids to the grocery store. Because I absolutely detest grocery shopping, I tend to put it off as long as possible. There comes a time, however, when you’re peering into your fridge and thinking, ‘Hmmm, what can I make with ketchup, Italian dressing, and half an onion,’ that you decide you cannot avoid going to the grocery store any longer. Before beginning this most treacherous mission, I gather all the kids together and give them “The Lecture“.

“The Lecture“ goes like this…

MOM: “We have to go to the grocery store.”

KIDS: “Whine whine whine whine whine.“

MOM: “Hey, I don’t want to go either, but it’s either that or we’re eating cream of onion-ketchup soup and drinking Italian dressing for dinner tonight.”

KIDS: “Whine whine whine whine whine.“

MOM: “Now here are the rules: do not ask me for anything, do not poke the packages of meat in the butcher section, do not test the laws of physics and try to take out the bottom can in the pyramid shaped display, do not play baseball with oranges in the produce section, and most importantly, do not try to leave your brother at the store. Again.”

OK, the kids have been briefed. Time to go.

Once at the store, we grab not one, but two shopping carts. I wear the baby in a sling and the two little children sit in the carts while I push one cart and my oldest son pushes the other one. My oldest daughter is not allowed to push a cart. Ever. Why? Because the last time I let her push the cart, she smashed into my ankles so many times, my feet had to be amputated by the end of our shopping trip. This is not a good thing. You try running after a toddler with no feet sometime.

At this point, a woman looks at our two carts and asks me, “Are they all yours?” I answer good naturedly, “Yep!

“Oh my, you have your hands full.”

“Yes, I do, but it‘s fun!” I say smiling. I’ve heard all this before. In fact, I hear it every time I go anywhere with my brood.

We begin in the produce section where all these wonderfully, artistically arranged pyramids of fruit stand. There is something so irresistibly appealing about the apple on the bottom of the pile, that a child cannot help but try to touch it. Much like a bug to a zapper, the child is drawn to this piece of fruit. I turn around to the sounds of apples cascading down the display and onto the floor. Like Indiana Jones, there stands my son holding the all-consuming treasure that he just HAD to get and gazing at me with this dumbfounded look as if to say, “Did you see that??? Wow! I never thought that would happen!”

I give the offending child an exasperated sigh and say, “Didn’t I tell you, before we left, that I didn’t want you taking stuff from the bottom of the pile???”

“No. You said that you didn’t want us to take a can from the bottom of the pile. You didn’t say anything about apples.”

With superhuman effort, I resist the urge to send my child to the moon and instead focus on the positive - my child actually listened to me and remembered what I said!!! I make a mental note to be a little more specific the next time I give the kids The Grocery Store Lecture.

A little old man looks at all of us and says, “Are all of those your kids?”

Thinking about the apple incident, I reply, “Nope. They just started following me. I’ve never seen them before in my life.”

OK, now onto the bakery section where everything smells so good, I’m tempted to fill my cart with cookies and call it a day. Being on a perpetual diet, I try to hurry past the assortment of pies, cakes, breads, and pastries that have my children drooling. At this point the chorus of “Can we gets” begins.

“Can we get donuts?”

“No.”

“Can we get cupcakes?”

“No.”

“Can we get muffins?”

“No.”

“Can we get pie?”

“No.”

You’d think they’d catch on by this point, but no, they’re just getting started.

In the bakery, they’re giving away free samples of coffee cake and of course, my kids all take one. The toddler decides he doesn’t like it and proceeds to spit it out in my hand. (That’s what moms do. We put our hands in front of our children’s mouths so they can spit stuff into them. We’d rather carry around a handful of chewed up coffee cake, than to have the child spit it out onto the floor. I’m not sure why this is, but ask any mom and she’ll tell you the same.) Of course, there’s no garbage can around, so I continue shopping one-handed while searching for someplace to dispose of the regurgitated mess in my hand.

In the meat department, a mother with one small baby asks me, “Wow! Are all six yours?”

I answer her, “Yes, but I’m thinking of selling a couple of them.”

(Still searching for a garbage can at this point.)

Ok, after the meat department, my kids’ attention spans are spent. They’re done shopping at this point, but we aren’t even halfway through the store. This is about the time they like to start having shopping cart races. And who may I thank for teaching them this fun pastime? My seventh “child”, also known as my husband. While I’m picking out loaves of bread, the kids are running down the aisle behind the carts in an effort to get us kicked out of the store. I put to stop to that just as my son is about to crash head on into a giant cardboard cut-out of a Keebler elf stacked with packages of cookies.

Ah! Yes! I find a small trash can by the coffee machine in the cereal aisle and finally dump out the squishy contents of my hand. After standing in the cereal aisle for an hour and a half while the kids perused the various cereals, comparing the marshmallow and cheap, plastic toy content of each box, I broke down and let them each pick out a box. At any given time, we have twenty open boxes of cereal in my house.

As this is going on, my toddler is playing Houdini and maneuvering his little body out of the seat belt in an attempt to stand up in the cart. I’m amazed the kid made it to his second birthday without suffering a brain damaging head injury. In between trying to flip himself out of the cart, he sucks on the metal bars of the shopping cart. Mmmm, can you say “influenza”?

The shopping trip continues much like this. I break up fights between the kids now and then and stoop down to pick up items that the toddler has flung out of the cart. I desperately try to get everything on my list without adding too many other goodies to the carts.

Somehow I manage to complete my shopping in under four hours and head for the check-outs where my kids start in on a chorus of, “Can we have candy?” What evil minded person decided it would be a good idea to put a display of candy in the check-out lanes, right at a child’s eye level? Obviously someone who has never been shopping with children.

As I unload the carts, I notice many extra items that my kids have sneaked in the carts unbeknownst to me. I remove a box of Twinkies, a package of cupcakes, a bag of candy, and a can of cat food (we don’t even have a cat!). I somehow missed the box of Pokemon cards however and ended up purchasing them unbeknownst to me. As I pay for my purchases, the clerk looks at me, indicates my kids, and asks, “Are they all yours?”

Frustrated, exhausted from my trip, sick to my stomach from writing out a check for $289.53, dreading unloading all the groceries and putting them away and tired of hearing that question, I look at the clerk and answer her in my most sarcastic voice, “No. They’re not mine. I just go around the neighborhood gathering up kids to take to the grocery store because it’s so much more fun that way.”

So, up for auction is an opened (they ripped open the box on the way home from the store) package of Pokemon cards. There are 44 cards total. They're in perfect condition, as I took them away from the kiddos as soon as we got home from the store. Many of them say "Energy". I tried carrying them around with me, but they didn't work. I definitely didn't have any more energy than usual. One of them is shiny. There are a few creature-like things on many of them. One is called Pupitar. Hee hee hee Pupitar! (Oh no! My kids' sense of humor is rubbing off on me!) Anyway, I don't there's anything special about any of these cards, but I'm very much not an authority on Pokemon cards. I just know that I'm not letting my kids keep these as a reward for their sneakiness.

Shipping is FREE on this item. Insurance is optional, but once I drop the package at the post office, it is no longer my responsibility. For example, if my son decides to pour a bottle of glue into the envelope, or my daughter spills a glass of juice on the package, that’s my responsibility and I will fully refund your money. If, however, I take the envelope to the post office and a disgruntled mail carrier sets fire to it, a pack of wild dogs rip into it, or a mail sorting machine shreds it, it’s out of my hands, so you may want to add insurance. I will leave feedback for you as soon as I’ve received your payment. I will be happy to combine shipping on multiple items won within three days. This comes from a smoke-free, pet-free, child-filled home. Please ask me any questions before placing your bid. Happy bidding! :)

Names...

I should be getting ready for my open house, but I am not quite awake enough to clean the floors. Soon though - I will do it soon. Anyway, somewhere on somebody's blog I saw a question about children's names. It was something like which one of your children most match the name you gave them. It got me to thinking about that for several days after. I couldn't really say if any of my kids really fit their name or not. It just seems like that is who they are. It was just one of those questions that floated around in my head and would pop up as I was putting dishes in the dishwasher, opening mail, etc. There is a story behind each of my kids' names as I am sure there is with most. Here are each of their stories...

Timmy - Timothy Neil II - He is of course named for his dad. They share the same name. We made him a II rather than a Jr. because we didn't want him to go by Jr. all of his life. You would think that would be the beginning and end of how we chose his name. It's not. Remember we were young, very young. Tim had known from the instant we were told he was a boy that he wanted to name him after him. There was no question in his mind. I, on the other hand, was not very fond of calling him Timmy. My fear was that he would be a grown man and I would still be calling him Timmy. I tossed out the suggestion Timothy James and we call him TJ. (BTW, my best friend, Jorgena, has a 5 year old boy named Timothy John and goes by TJ. Who knew that would happen so many years later?) Tim did not like Timothy James because he wanted him to have HIS name. So, my beautiful first born son was born and he wasn't given a name right away. I spent 2 days in the hospital and we sort of grumbled back and forth about this. Finally, we named him and left the hospital. We came home to my parents house. I took Timmy and put him to bed. I came back down the stairs and sat at the table with my parents. They still didn't know what we named him. I had sort of forgot! They were staring at me, like - "Hello? Are you going to tell us the name of our grandson?" Oops! I said, " We named him Timmy." with a much ticked off voice. They were thrilled! They loved the name and had sorta hoped we would choose that. Fast Forward to 18 years later. My son is 6'3 and quite a big guy. I still call him Timmy. I can't help it. My husband is Tim and my son is Timmy. That is who he is to me. Tim has no problem calling him Tim. My mom does pretty well with it. I, on the other hand, never seem to manage it. He will be Timmy to me for the rest of his life. Oh well... there are worse things.

Savannah Brianne - Her named was put into my mind from the movie Savannah Smiles. I had seen it when I was about 9 years old. I fell in love with the name. I rolled it around in my mind for many years. When I was pregnant in 1995, I had actually chosen the name Aubrey Elise for a girl. When I lost that baby, I decided I didn't want to use that name. Savannah came back to my mind. We were driving to SC for a visit and along the way we saw all the Savannah exits. Tim is not the best speller in the world. I told him I liked that name for a baby girl. He started spelling it through all those numerous exits. S A V A N N A H - S A V A N N A H - over and over again. By the time we were past all the exits, he had it remembered. That was in September of 1995 - a couple months after my miscarriage. We had Savannah in October 1998. Before she was born, I started to doubt naming her Savannah. I was thinking about the more traditional Rebecca Lynn. Debi talked me out of it. She said Savannah was much more unique and different. Her middle name, Brianne, comes from Tim. We used to do nursery at church and there was a little 2 year old girl named Brianne in there. He adored her. She was the sweetest little girl. He would have liked to name our child Brianne, but willingly went with that as her middle name. And so... we added Savannah Brianne to our family.

Sebastian Allan - His name was a struggle. When I found out we were having a boy, I thought I wanted to name him Samuel Allan and call him Sam. Nice and simple. I thought that was it. I had decided, end of story. Not to be so. Tim had other ideas. He didn't really like Sam. We went through a zillion names. Then is his sister, Jessica, brought a friend over. His name was something that I can't remember now. I do remember he said if he could have chose his own name - it would be Sebastian. Tim liked the name right away. I didn't. It reminded me of The Never Ending Story. The main character goes by Bastian. I liked the movie well enough, but not enough to name my baby after it. Months and months went by and we still didn't decide. We sent out family email polls with options. We got 50/50 splits between the votes. I just couldn't come to like Sebastian. Savannah hated it and said it was a cartoon crab's name (Little Mermaid). Tim stood strong on his choice. The day before I was supposed to be induced Savannah and I made big signs to welcome the baby home. I was trying to take her mind off of me leaving for a few days. We wrote WELCOME HOME and then there was a BIG BLANK! We didn't know his name! We couldn't finish the sign until we all decided. Tim came home from work and the debate began again. Tim and Timmy on the side of Sebastian and Savannah and I on the other. The thing is at that point the other name was Alexander John - AJ. I don't even like that name now! I don't know why I was even considering it. Finally around 11pm, I gave in. I decided it was Sebastian. Savannah was NOT HAPPY! She cried! First she was getting a brother and not a sister, next he was due on her birthday and last he wasn't getting the name she wanted. This was a lot for a 6 year old. She softened and helped me finish the sign - Welcome Home Sebastian! Now, I absolutely love his name. Allan is for my dad. My dad was Leo Allan, but his family called him Allan. We wanted something to honor him and well... Leo just wasn't what we had in mind. And so we welcomed Sebastian Allan into our lives.

My mom retired a few weeks back...

My mom!
Me and Savannah.

My sister, Michelle.

My mom and her friends and co-workers.

More of the party.

Savannah made her a card.

I have been meaning to post pictures of her party and share a little about her. I may or may not have all these details correct, but it is how I remember them. My mom started working in her teens at Kresge. It was a what Kmart was before it turned into the God awful store it is now. I am not sure exactly how long she worked there, but she left there and moved onto working at the Burlington Railroad. She took the train into Chicago each day and did key punch. My dad worked there too, but that is not where she met him. They just "knew" each other from living in the same place. Eventually, they were married and they both took the train into Chicago each day. Soon, she had my sister, Leann. She only took 6 weeks off and went back to work. She decided she had to have another baby so she could quit working. You know it was the 60's and feminism was moving up. You were supposed to work if you had one baby, but if you had two... well then you could be a stay at home mom. Next, she had my brother Steve. She spent the next 10 years taking care of Leann, Steve, and along came Michelle. They were all born in less than 4 years. She was busy. Very busy. I came along when Leann was 8, Steve was almost 7 and Michelle was almost 6. We spent the first 2.5 years with her being home like she had been for a long time. Then we moved to Boulder Hill. It was a nice house - a tri-level. Lots of room and a corner lot. They sold 2 houses to buy that one. Our neighbor told my mom that she would have to go back to work to afford the taxes on the new house. My mom freaked and started thinking of ways she could work and not have to get daycare for 4 kids. She decided to work in a nursing home at night. After all, she knew how to take care of people. That is what she did all day. She went to work part-time at night for awhile. I am not sure how long at the nursing home. Eventually, she got a part time night job at the hospital. She did 3 nights one week and 4 nights the next. I have NO IDEA how she did this. You never knew she was up all night. She was there to make breakfast in the morning and see us off to school. Then she would sleep while we were at school and wake up to see us when we walked through the door. She made dinner every night at 6pm. She didn't wimp out and go pick up fast food (like I do sometimes). She was very present in our lives. She started her hospital job on the floors as she called it, but eventually went to work in the ER. She loved that place and they loved her. She worked there till we moved to Florida. I think about 14 years. We moved here and she took a year off. Then she went to work part time at another hospital. She hated that job and all the BS that came with it. She finally decided to quit that and "retire". Retirement didn't last long. Soon she was caring for Dixie. A kind older lady with Alzheimer's. She sat with Dixie a few nights a week until she passed away. My mom took a little while off between jobs and finally landed her job at our local library. That was 8 years ago. She was the happy lady that checked out your books. Many of my friends would say, "I saw your mom at the library. She is so nice!" Her friends at the library gave her a going away party. It was very nice and fun for her. My mom has worked hard her whole entire life. She has never asked for much. She has always been kinder than most people and gave just a little more even though she didn't have to. People love my mom. They tell me this constantly and I always have the same answer, "Yep, we think she is pretty great too!" When I think of all the people that God could have given me to, I can't believe how incredibly lucky that He chose my mom and dad.

Real, honest to goodness things that I have said today...

Today we ran errands. We stopped at Albertson's to stock up on soda. They had it 5 - 12 packs for $10. You really can't beat that. So... I am the loony woman with the grocery cart that has the little race car on the front. I load Sebastian in. Savannah really wants to ride, but I tell her she is just a little too tall for this one. She REALLY wants to ride. Before I know it... she has CRAMMED herself into the front of this cart. I find myself saying, "Savannah, just because you WANT to ride, does not mean you can fold yourself up, crush the front plastic part and fit yourself in." Maybe not all that odd of a thing to say, but remember that is just one of many things that I find myself saying in a day. Things I really never thought I would say before. We then head over to pay for our 20 cases of soda. Yes, I did just type 20 cases of soda. Tim drinks Mountain Dew. I can be sure that we will eventually go through all of this and at $2 a case... you just gotta stock up, right? I now choose to use the self check out because I fear that the poor check out lady will have to ring it in 4 different orders because I never know if there is a limit of 5 per order, etc. I am the loony lady ringing 5 cases of soda at a time. I cringe thinking that somebody is watching me on a camera somewhere thinking why the heck is the lady buying all that soda and why on EARTH did she fold that poor little 8 year old girl up like that and smoosh her into the cart? I am sure I spoke while I was doing this check out, but miraculously I believe I only said something like stay in the cart. Usually, when we do self check out it is a nightmare. Sebastian believes he must scan everything whether it is my order or not. He will just randomly start grabbing things - books, gum, whatever and scan away. We leave the store and head to the bank. Sebastian knows what comes with going to the bank. He wants a sucker, of course. That actually went quite smoothly as well. Next we head to the fresh veggie store. Here is where I am starting to lose my children. Sebastian goes running off like a wild man. Savannah keeps asking for a green apple. I tell her that she can get a couple green apples. Savannah is carrying my mom's basket. My mom keeps asking her WHY she is getting green apples because she doesn't want any. I keep trying to tell my mom that I told Savannah she could get some for herself. My mom is not hearing me. Savannah is not hearing my mom. Sebastian is running around like a wild man. Finally, I say more loudly - "Savannah wants to eat a green apple - they are NOT for you mom. Savannah - apple - my basket!" You would think this would not be so difficult, but somehow it is. Next Sebastian is putting himself in the refrigerators. Yes, that is right... I have one child that folds herself up to fit in a cart and another that tries to close himself in the refrigerators. That comes my next line, "Sebastian, get out of that refrigerator. You are going to break it!" Okay, I am concerned that he could close himself in, but I choose you scare him with breaking it instead. After all, he has no fear of closing himself in because that is EXACTLY what he is trying to do. We finally get to leave the veggie stand and head to Michael's. We were only going to run in and get a quick thing. Of course, that never happens. Soon Sebastian is laying on the floor playing with his cars. My mom nearly trips over him and that gets me to say, "Sebastian, don't lay on the floor there, you are going to trip your Grandma!" As if laying on the floor in Michael's is a perfectly normal thing to do. We do finally leave the store and this is where the WINNER of all my lines come from. As we are crossing the main road to the parking lot, Sebastian pulls my hand and stops us. He tells me, "Wait, wait!" It seems as though he needs to stop in the middle of the road to pick his nose! I turn to him and tell him that, "We can't stop in the middle of the road to pick our nose, we must keep going or a car will hit us." Isn't that what all mother's tell their children in the Michael's parking lot?

Busch Gardens (from last week)

Savannah and I were lucky enough to get passes to Busch Gardens in May. Since then I have wanted my mom to go with us, but she just hadn't been up to it. When Leann came to visit, she decided that would be a fun thing to do with everyone. We saw that Tuesday was supposed to be cooler than any other day she was here. Ummm... it was cooler and WETTER! It rained and rained and rained somemore. That was okay though because I had rain ponchos for me, my mom and Leann. Savannah and Sebastian had swimsuits and were more than happy to run in the rain. I didn't bring their suits actually planning on rain. Savannah wanted to ride some of the water rides and wanted her suit for that. I thought we might get to the part called Land of Dragons where they have some water stuff for the kids to play in. As it turned out... we didn't really need to go there to play in water. It had been several years since I was there before we went in May. That time we were with her brownie troop and we did not get to see may shows, etc. This time we caught a few shows and did some things I don't think I have ever done before. I think Leann has a very nice time. I was worried because of the rain, but she said it was fun! Savannah rode what I think is called the Tidal Wave by herself... she was a little scared when it went down! I am amazed at how brave she was to ride that for the first time ALONE! Sebastian's favorite was the motorcycles. He told his dad the minute he walked through the door that he had crashed a motorcycle! Such a boy! I am hoping we can get back there before we move at least 2 more times. I promised Savannah I would take her without Sebastian and wait in line for more rides with her. I also want to go back with Sebastian to the Land of the Dragons. It is just so darn hot outside - it doesn't make for good theme park tours. Maybe we can hope for another rainy day!

Missing again...

I have some sort of excuse, I think... My sister was here visiting - Leann it is ALL your fault that I did not blog the entire time you were here. Yes, I know you have been gone since Wednesday and I still haven't blogged. I am still blaming you. There you have my reason. Okay, I guess it is not only her. It is the insurance industry. Remember my "no whining" on my blog rule - I can't really go into ALL of the DETAILS behind why the insurance industry has kept me from blogging without coming across as whining. If you have ever had to deal with obtaining health insurance privately, filing a claim on your home owner's insurance for a stolen air conditioner coil, and getting canceled by the previously mentioned home owner's insurance due to a dead tree - then you know how much time and effort can go into dealing with all that. I *think* I have done all that I can with those three things and I am hoping my efforts will somehow take care of all of those problems. Let's see, what else? I am STILL trying to sell my house. I am considering buying a Joseph statue and planting him in the ground. My mom did that to sell our house in Illinois. It is a Catholic ritual that is supposed to help you sell your house. Hey, I have already cut my neighbor's lawn and the lawn all the way up to the front of our neighborhood to sell this house. It was long and apparently NOBODY cares! I have listed it on every site I can find. I have copied hundreds of fliers. I have advertised in the paper. I have cleaned and cleaned and cleaned some more. If getting a little statue of Joseph is what is left on my list to try, then maybe I should look into that. We did have a fun day (wet and rainy, but fun) at Busch Gardens while my sister was here. I fully intend to get the pictures off of my camera and post about it. I also have pictures of my mom's retirement party. I plan to get that up on here too. I have some goals for the week, hopefully I will get to them. Anyway, we had a decent Open House today. Two people seemed pretty interested. One of them was a man on a Harley. He had a leather vest on and I was on the phone with Tim when I saw him pull up. I have read that it is not safe to have an Open House alone, but for the most part I thought it was silly. Then this man pulled up and as stereotypical as it was... I was nervous. I told Tim to please come back from the library (like 2 minutes away). He said he was on his way and then called me when he was pulling into the neighborhood. I told him I was fine! I was FINE because this very nice "biker man" had a leather vest that proclaimed he was a "Biker for Christ"! He had many more religious patches on him and he was a very kind and gentle man! I felt so incredibly silly for even thinking that about him. It turns out that he is a corporate guy and was transferred back here after moving away 7 years ago. His wife is in GA with their 3 cats. He was so extremely nice. His ministry is to reach out to biker guys that aren't living a good and decent life of knowing Christ. Boy, did I feel silly! Anyway, I hope he buys my house! God knows I have been praying non-stop along with everyone else I know. We shall see!

A dirty job...

Yesterday, Savannah and I were sitting at the table doing school. Sebastian wandered out into the backyard. He was CLEAN when he wandered out there. I peaked out and saw he was fine. After a little while, he came back in... well... NOT CLEAN. He simply sat down in his chair and went back to eating his lunch the way he had left it. When I started to laugh at him, he gave me this look - like "What's with you?" I let him eat his lunch - yes with dirty hands! Adds flavor! Then I put him in the bathtub. We actually had to scrub the tub when he was done. He was that dirty! I showed Tim the pictures when he got home from work and he asked me why I was letting these kids tear up his yard! Okay, he was kidding - I hope!

Savannah wants to drive a truck...

I read this blog from this other homeschool mom. Her name is Ree and she live on a cattle ranch in Oklahoma. It is a great blog and I have thought about posting a link here, but then I was afraid you would never come back to read my blog. She takes amazing pictures of her ranch and family. Today's post is about her two daughters helping with the work around there. They are 7 and 10 and they were driving REAL TRUCKS! I showed it to Savannah and now she wants to know when she can drive a truck! Ummm... I would be terrified to drive these trucks towing what they are towing... I don't even want to think about Savannah doing it. So, here is her blog -The Pioneer Woman - Please come back and read mine though... no, no, I am not insecure!

Homeschooling is a journey...

Somebody posted this on the homeschooling board I read. She posted it as a reminder that we don't homeschool to just get to a finishing point. We homeschool for all the adventures along the way. I went to lunch with my friend and former boss on Friday. She asked me if I was going to homeschool Sebastian. I told her that I just didn't see any other way. When we got into this it was because of a need that Timmy had, but now it has become our lifestyle. I told her that was part of the HUGE reason we decided to move to South Carolina - so I could continue to homeschool. This little video reminded me of that decision. Timmy is all done with school with me and it went quick. Savannah is in the process and Sebastian has yet to begin formal schooling. I have to remember it is the journey that is important!

The book is done.... that is all...

Okay, not really, but I can't say anymore until my mom has listened to hers on cd and my kids have read it. Sorry. I really enjoyed it and that really is all I am going to say.

The end of an era...

Last night marked the end of an era for me and for many other people. Some might think we are silly. Some might say too much is made of this. I don't care. I took a nap from about 10pm to midnight. Tim quietly asked me if I was going to get under the covers around midnight. I woke up and looked at the clock. Then I said, "No, I have to go get my book." He laughed quietly at me. He laid his head on my side and waited to see if I would fall back asleep. I did a little, but I kept thinking about getting my book. Again he asked if I was going to crawl under the covers. This time I woke up all the way. I got up and traded my pj bottoms for jean shorts. I grabbed my purse and headed to Walmart. I got there around 12:25am. The parking lot was full and people were coming out with their book. I walked in to find a happy lady handing out bracelets and posters. I grabbed them to take back to Savannah and also picked up a copy of the the first Harry Potter movie on DVD. We had gotten that on video originally. I went to one of the designated line and waited to collect my book - well actually - I grabbed some gummie bears first! I chatted in the line with the people around me. Behind me were two teenagers getting their copies and a copy for their boss. Ahead of me was a mom with her teenage daughter. Everywhere I looked I saw all different people. It was not a single age group or gender or anything specific. There were young and old and everywhere in between. There were men and woman and girls and boys and all sorts of teenagers. It was exciting! Sort of like the feeling you get when you go shopping really early in the morning the day after Thanksgiving. And, yet, even more exciting than that because that happens every year. Someday when I read these books to Sebastian, I want to tell him about the night his mom went to a plain old Walmart to get the last copy of this series. I want to tell him that it was exciting to see so many people want to read a book. Not play a video game or watch a movie, but read a book. It was nice to hear from the mom who started reading with her daughter when she was in 3rd grade. It was fun to hear from the teenager behind me saying she was going to read all weekend. It was just all good. I collected my copy and headed home. When I came in, Timmy was sitting at the laptop. He needed to get to bed because he had to be to work at 6am this morning. Then he asked me if I would read the first chapter aloud to him. My 18 year old, 6'2, fully grown young man asked me to read the first chapter aloud. At first, I just wanted to read. And then it hit me... what I have been thinking and writing about. This was the end of our era of reading Harry Potter books together. It seems like it was just a minute ago that I sat with him on the couch and read the afternoons away. And now he is all grown up. It has been a whole year of realizing he has grown up right before my eyes. I opened the book and I read aloud. I read the first chapter and then he asked if I would read the second chapter. I did. I would have kept reading, but my grown up son had to get to bed for work. He will read the rest on his own and so... the end of a wonderful memory...

Counting down to Harry Potter...

Yes, I am a self proclaimed Harry Potter junkie. It all started with a free book from Smarterkids.com way back in 1999. They were sending out a free copy of the first Harry Potter book with each order. I hadn't really heard of it at the time. I read the back cover and decided that Timmy may like it. At the time, he was in 5th grade. It was our first year of homeschooling and he hated reading. He was intimidated by reading. I had decided to read all of our books together that year. He would read one page and then I would read 2 or 3 pages. It helped him to get over the fear of reading an ENTIRE book. I slipped the book into his stocking and I even have him on video saying, "Harry Porker, what's this?" I corrected him. He really wishes that was not on video tape. After Christmas break we sat down to read. I had no idea what to expect. We were hooked! Even Savannah sat and listened. She was only 2! We read each of the books aloud over the year. I will say this - these books - are my favorite memories of homeschooling Timmy. It didn't matter how much he was whining over his writing assignments or struggling with math or whatever. When we sat down to read, we were happy. Now the last book is here. I am excited and sad all at the same time. Timmy is 18 now and barely ever home. I would never be able to get him to sit and listen to me read 800 pages! He has already said he is going to read it himself. I could still read it aloud to Savannah, but I just want to read it all before somebody leaks all the good stuff. So, my plan is to read and read and read as much as I can over the next few days. If I didn't have a toddler, I would probably completely neglect my family. I would get some good snack food and read. Unfortunately, I have a toddler who will not TOLERATE being NEGLECTED! I will have to read as much as I can while he is awake and then read even more while he is sleeping. And since I am here and talking about Harry... and since this is MY BLOG and I can write whatever comes to MY MIND... I don't get the whole Harry Potter is not for Christians to read thing. Don't get it, won't get, will never get it. If you don't like ANY magic and don't read or watch ANY magic, then... hey... Harry Potter isn't for you. If you watched or read Lord of the Rings or Narnia - HELLO??? Did you happen to notice all of the magic and good vs. evil? Ummm... don't knock Harry until you have really looked at all the other things that you watch or read with magic. Also, ummm... none of my children have tried to ride a broom or place a spell on me yet. I don't think I have damaged them. Actually, I am pretty sure reading Harry Potter with my son was one of the best school decisions I have ever made. Okay, I am off of my soap box now. Now, what should I do for the next 7 hours while I wait to go get my book?

Friday Feast (its been a long time, huh?)

Appetizer
On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being highest) how much do enjoy watching sports on television?

1 - I really only watch NASCAR and usually the Superbowl.

Soup
If you could completely memorize any one work of fiction, which one would you pick?

At the moment, I would be happy if I could remember all of the details to the Harry Potter books because I am getting ready to read the last book. I have forgotten lots of "important" things since reading the first book like 8 years ago.

Salad
What is your favorite breakfast food?

I don't really have one. I don't usually eat breakfast. If we go out to eat or if Tim is cooking - I like pancakes, eggs, home fries and bacon. I also really like these homemade cinnamon rolls I have a recipe for.

Main Course
Name something fun you can do for less than $10.00.

Go to Barnes and Nobles, pick up all the scrapbooking magazines and a few other celeb magazines, carry them to the coffee bar, order some chocolate thing, sit down with Tim, eat chocolate while flipping through magazines. Ummm... he reads DIFFERENT magazines! LOL! One of my favorite cheap dates!

Dessert
How long does it usually take you to fall asleep?

About 10 minutes - as Vickie says to me, "You have a Sebastian!"

Freezing in Florida...

We had an Open House this weekend. We decided that the vast majority of people don't think 79 degrees is really all that cool inside. We woke up and decided to crank our thermostat down to 75 or 76, I can't remember which. By breakfast time, my kids were wearing COATS and telling us how cold they were. Actually, I should back up... Tim had turned the temp down the night before. Sebastian woke up telling me he was "cold". I turned the temp up because I really like sleeping and not being woke up by a little person telling me how cold they are. I guess you can tell my kids are Floridians, huh? Oh and yes - that is MY blanket behind Sebastian. I was cold too!

Math Lessons

As I said in the last post... we started school last week. We started with a new math program this year. The first few days are basic review of addition and subtraction. Somehow, my lovely daughter has forgotten how to do this. She took SEVERAL hours to do a couple pages of triple digit addition. I really thought I might lose my mind waiting for her. I decided to go ahead and clean for the Open House. After all, she didn't need my help doing this basic math. Somewhere in the process of doing math, Sebastian wandered into her area. Apparently, putting tiny pony tails in her brother's hair was much more exciting than doing math. He came in and out of the bathroom I was scrubbing several time. It wasn't until like his 4th visit that I actually looked up from the bathtub and saw Savannah's work! I just busted out laughing! Sebastian loved that! He was so pleased with his new hairdo! Ahhhhh... what siblings can do to their other siblings! She never did finish that math that day. I had to make her finish it this morning.

What is going on here and why I haven't written a thing...

I know I have been semi-silent again. We started school this week - well, does it count that we already took a day off? We tried to start school on Monday and we did. We even did school on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday, I ran errands and left my kids with my mom for the morning. Oh... I can't tell you how wonderful errands ALONE was. I thought I would come home and do school, but as much of my life goes, other things took over. Suffice to say, school did not happen. My hope is to accomplish it all today including much of yesterday's missed things. In between all of this we went to meet Daddy for lunch on Tuesday followed by stopping by Miss Vickie's to see her huge pool hoisted over her roof and installed in the gigantic hole in the backyard. I wanted to take pictures, but I didn't get to it. Sebastian got in a tussle with her dog and got bit. He is FINE, FINE, FINE!!! Miss Vickie is probably one of the sweetest people I know and she is greatly upset by this. My sister-in-law asked if I was going to post pictures, but I don't really want to since I know it will make Miss Vickie sad. AGAIN - HE IS FINE! Then in between all of that, I have been making about a zillion phone calls on a whole bunch of stuff. It has just kept me busy. Today will be cleaning from top to bottom for our Open Houses scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. We put in the paper and hopefully somebody will come buy my house. I hope! I will post a in detail list of school curriculum at some point for all you curriculum junkies out there.

Walking and stuff...

Okay, I didn't really push a car up the hill - just Sebastian in a stroller!

FLAT FLORIDA

I am getting ready to go cut my grass on my very tiny Florida yard. It has been growing so fast and as much as I normally like cutting the grass - I haven't really felt the enthusiasm for it lately. We did a lot of things in SC while we were there. Some were things we do here normally, but there were quite a few things that we found to be different from our Florida existence. One of those things was WALKING! Yep, I do mean walking. First of all my new house is a split level. That means when you come in - you either have to go up stairs or down stairs. Or if you want to get something you will soon find that is on the opposite floor of where you are thus leading to going up or down two sets of stairs. My brother-in-law's house is a split level too. Add to his stairs the fact that, Ranger, their rather large Golden Lab, lays in front of the door and doesn't move. Next up is my sister-in-law's Karen and Jennifer. They live across the street in a ranch style house. Should be easy because there a no stairs, right? Ummm... nope! Their yard and drive way is a monstrous hill that is even more work than stairs. But - I can deal with all of these things. I will probably find I don't even notice it after a few months. Then there is walking for exercise. Something I have done for like 18 years. I really enjoy walking. I have taken each of my children on probably thousands of walks around our FLAT neighborhood over the last 17 years. We have a fairly small neighborhood with no hills. I walk around the same way 2-3 times. I don't really vary it. I just walk and say hi to the neighbor dogs and cats and am content. Karen asked me if I wanted to do for a walk while we were there. Sure! I got Sebastian in his stroller and she got Nakia (their dog) on her leash. We headed down by the lake since I hadn't really seen the lake that actually connects to my yard at the very back of it. Next we took a path to the neighborhood on the side of of ours. There were a few hills prior to this, but I did okay. The hill UP out of the neighborhood nearly killed me! Okay, I am exaggerating. I was just extremely out of breath. It is something that will take some getting used to. As hard as it was to do - I enjoyed it! Crazy, huh? It was so pretty looking down the hill on our way back and it is so quiet compared to here. I really am looking forward to these walks even if I won't be able to breathe!

House pictures finally...

Okay, we got to SC on Saturday evening and began working. If you didn't see what the house looked like before we bought it - Click Here for BEFORE pictures. Oh and ignore the floor plan pictures in that link - that was the other house we were thinking about. As you can see from those pictures - the house was COLORFUL to say the least. It looked like it needed work, but when we actually came back to see it - it looked worse. Why? Well because my wonderful brother-in-law, Keith, sister-in-law, Karen and good friend, Dave, had begun the prep work. That included tearing out the carpet and mudding every single rough spot on the wall. Whew! What a lot of work for them to do for us! We were amazed and grateful! It was quite scary to see it though. Then the ceiling was painted by Keith and that sorta added more dimensions to the side walls. You really had to know it was going to get better or you would just have to sit down and cry! The first pictures below show some of the prep work that was going on. Then there are the finished (or almost finished) pictures, followed by two video clips. The video clips do NOT really show the colors right because of the low lighting. I just wanted to get a more glued together view to show my mom. We still have to finish the flooring. There are a few more boards to lay and moulding to go down as well as the shoe trim all the way around the walls. We didn't have a compressor and were running out of time. We also, of course, have to install the kitchen when it arrives. It really does look so much better - amazing what paint, carpet and flooring can do for a place!

We still need to paint his floor and finish the window trim.