Fun in the summer sun!

Well, vacation is over. A sad yet happy thing. We had so much fun staying with Jen and the guys, it was a great time of family fun and relaxation! I commented to Jenny that I think this was the LEAST busy I have been in well over a year, and it was great! we did manage to squeeze in some fun while we visited. Rob and I went to Charelston for a day and spent 3 hrs at the Museam and another hour in two the museam owned homes taking the tours, I laughed at how old we have become.....spending our 10 year anniversary in museams ( and excited that the kids wern't with us so we could enjoy them!). We all also made a trip to the beach for the day while rob was visiting. Jen and the kids and I took a trip to the Fort Jackson water park one day, spent the whole day on the waterslides, pools, and lazy river :) we took the kids to play at chick-fil-a and Mcdonalds a few times, went to the library twice, toured the base, played at the park, and even went "looking" at the new model homes that are for sale (I SOOOO WANT ONE!), it was very fun, and we are sad we have to leave them in S.C. for a few more years!
But.......I am also happy, Happy to be getting back to my Hubby, and my animals, happy to get to sleep in my own bed and enjoying the routine of life with my kiddos again, and I know the rest of my family is looking forward to it too!

In 10 days we have a wedding at the house, I can't wait to watch "my girls" walk down the isle and enjoy thier day, its gonna be alot of fun! In the mean time, we have to get all of the food prepaired, I have to help rob make the cake, and we need to go and pick up samantha's dress and flower girl basket, and arrange the music on the ipod so we can play it. Oh and I need to figure out where I am going to take the wedding pictures at too!

after the wedding its just about a week before we meet with matthew's resource teacher and get the materials for the new school year, and about two weeks before Samantha starts again! We are planing to take another camping trip or mabey two before all of that with some friends, and just our family.

SO I guess I'm offically back to the "normal" pace of life, busy busy busy! but ya know what?? I wouldn't have it any other way!

I have much more updates with pictures and such about our trip, and my anniversary, but they will have ot wait until I am home and not sitting in this cramped airplane seat with two restless kiddos next to me while I try to recal the majority of vacation thoughts and get them written down before I forget them!!

Enjoy what's left of your summer dear friends.......I know I will!

summer vacation 2009 ROCKS!

vacation.......ahhh....

My vacation has been wonderful, I am so enjoying spending time with the best friends I could ask for and watching my children play and enjoy themselves surrounded by people who love them deeply. If I had only one thing to change, it would be that my husband could have been here with us for the last two weeks, and the rest of the vacation for the rest of that matter! BUT I'll take my one week that I get! :0)

The kids and I have had the best time, we haven't done anything "huge" but just relaxing, playing, swiming and making the occasional trip to the store or the base has been great! I don't remeber the last time I did THIS LITTLE for this long, its awsome! I sorta wish I would have brought some scrapbooking stuff with me, this would be the perfect opportunity to get some layouts done!

Rob gets here on Tuesday in the morning, and we have a few activities planned for the week (ok mabey its more than a few!) Tuesday night we are going to see the new transformers movie, One day next week we are going to the beach with the kids, Rob is going to install two outdoor electrical outlets for the house, we have 4th of july festivities of course, and on the 6th Rob and I are leaving the kids with Jen and Gary and Rob and I are going to Charelston for our 10 year anniversary celbration! I have plans for us to visit the old exchange musuem, take another walk down rainbow row, have some She Crab soup for lunch and at night we are taking a historic "graveyards, and ghosts" tour. On the 7th Rob leaves again, and the kids and I have almost 2 more glorious weeks left to spend with my amazing friends! If I knew where more things were, I would like to take my nephews out for an afternoon just to hang with them since I never get to do that. Hmmm mabey I'll put some more thought into that one......

I hope everyone is a compleatly content as I am tonight! untill next time my friends, Happy summer!

wondering what's ahead?

wow Its been forever since I was on my blog!

You know how sometimes you feel like the space on earth you operate in has come to a halt and yet the world seems to go on without you? well that has been our life for the past 2 or 3 months it seems.

Starting back around the end of April, We were almost done with our classes, stressing about passing the enlish essay exam. My dad called to let me know that my grandfather who had been in the hospital for almost 3 weeks already was not doing well, but they were trying new things and he would keep me updated. Well we passed our english class! so that was a relief. I also booked Matthew's surgery for May 27th to have his tonsils and Adnoids removed.

By the 1st of May, Rob's job had informed him that by June 1st they would most likely not have anymore work for him to do. May 15th was our last check, it was $700 less than normal. (of course we didn't know for sure it would be the last one, but I figured as much) we used the last of our saving to carry us through about a week, since we had already used a little bit to carry us through the slowing down that started 2 weeks before. On May 18th My dad called, Grandpa's Kidney (he only had one, having had the other removed a few years ago) was only functioning at about 25 %. He had decided to refuse dialysis, it was now a wait and see wether the meds would work or not. May 20th in the evening I got the call I had been dreading.....Grandpa had passed away that afternoon. Suddenly plans were being made for me to fly to Minnesota and attend the funeral the following Monday. In a very short time I packed my bags, and made the hard decision to miss my son's surgery (they couldn't reschedual him until the end of AUGUST) and fly to minnesota for the week to attend Grandpa's services. I am so thankful to my Dad and his wife for purchasing my ticket for me so I could be there. The week was emotionally draining, and I was very happy to be back home just two days after my baby boys successful surgery.

I came home emotionally drained and yet had a hurting little man who needed his mommy, I don't think I slept through the night for the first week that I was home.

With all of this going on, we also got some new roommates, temporary ones, but none the less we have a house full! Our friends Amyee and Chelsey, and Amyee's mom Sheryl are staying with us until school starts in August and they can have the income to get there own place, after a series of bad roommate situations for them. Having them all here has had its challenges, but I couldn't be more thankful for the extra help and love for my family during all of these difficult times. The girls have been great with the kids, helping around the house, and helping with what little bills they can.

June 1st Rob was offically removed from the payroll at his work, and applied for unemployment. We should get a check 10 days from NOW. I got the first shut off notice the first week of June, it was for the water bill, Jenny paid it. (I LOVE YOU) last week I got the second notice I knew was coming, Chrysler was Repo-ing my van on the 22nd of June if I could not pay the interest that was due $320.00. Now mind you at this point we have a negative blance in our account of about $400, PGE and gas company are nearly 2 months behind, and we have barely been able to keep food in the house and enough gas in the car to get rob to his summer classes and Sherly to her job at Jack in the Box which is what has kept the food in the house!
after having a miniature panick attack, Rob tells me that his dad has agreed to give us the money for the van. again I am indebted to this man who just last month let me borrow the money to put 2 new tires on my van because they were COMPLEATLY bald. BUT I think.....at least they won't come take the van! then I find out they wouldn't take the check because it didn't have our name on it, so my lovely husband went ahead and depositited it into the BANK (remeber the bank is in the red?) well as you could guess the bank took the money to pay what we owed them.....which ALMOST got us out of the hole, but left us with NO money to pay for the van.
at this point I sat at my kitchen table and cried, the ends We had been working so hard to make meet, were fraying right before my eyes and I could do Nothing to stop them. Then, an angel came into my home. Her name is Katie ( I don't even know her last name!) she is Chelsey's maid of honor in thier upcoming Union on August 2nd. she was here to help us finish the last of the invitations that we were making for the girls. She heard about our problem, looked right up at me and said "I have $350 dollars in my savings, you can borrow it to pay for your car if you need to." I couldn't believe it, this young girl just 19 years old, was willing to give me nearly $400 of her hard earned money and she had just met me!
We took Katie up on her offer and paid the car company. This will hold us off from another repo threat for almost 60 days. By that time we hope to have gotten enough from unemployement that we can pay our bills up to date.
So for now the ends are meeting, its taken strangers and friends, family and some tears, but we are holding them together!

On an up note, Rob's class is going great! and the kids and I leave for South Carolina in just 3 days for a 6 week vacation to see Jenny and her family. (we got comp'ed tickets last time because of a flight cancellation!) I can't wait to get away from all of this for a while! by the time I get back, we should be caught up with the important bills and recieving regular unemployment checks, and I get to help Amyee and Chelsey with the last of the wedding planing before the ceremony in our back yard on the 2nd of August.

Hopefully I'll be able to update soon! until then, have a wonderful Summer all of my dear friends!

New adventures in homeschool land :)

Things are going great here at the kitchen table classroom!

This week I will have an opportunity to teach both of the kids together, since its spring break and Samantha's school is closed. Today was day one and things went great!

I planned out Matthew's cirriculum for the week last night and made sure I had all the papers ready. Then I went on the hunt for preschool/kindergarten matterial for Samantha and I found some great things!
I printed her 5 sheets for the week: some handwritting practice with the letter B, a matching page, a more or less/bigger and smaller sheets, and a what doesn't belong? sheet......well, she did them all today!
I figured she would want to get up and go play LONG before she finished all the sheets, and was actually planning on doing just one sheet for about 15 min. with her and then letting her be part of the science reading about earth day, and social studies about easter egg history story that I read. I figured a this point 45 min was probably her limit for sitting in one place and paying attention.....Boy did I underestimate her! LOL
Of course this is just day ONE, so its all fun still, but she amazed me knocking out sheet, after sheet, and very eagerly stating "I want to do another one, that on please!"

so far the only stubling block seems to be Matthew being so interested in what she is doing that he had trouble staying focused on what he needed to do! but that will become less as he gets used to her being there I suppose!

So that morning went great, and Samantha sat through all 1 1/2 hours of instruction, even sitting and listening to her brother finish his reading work :)

I'll let you know how the rest of the week goes!

I love teaching my children!

We took the kids to see the new movie "Monsters vs. Aliens" today~ it by the way is great, but not the reason for my post.........
As we were sitting in the theater watching previews of other movies that are opening sometime around HALLOWEEN, one of the clips showed a school house getting coverd in an oversized pancacke, butter, and syurp and then immeadiatly panned to the group of school children. The gazes of the little movie kids changed to glee, as they all shouted " YEAH! NO SCHOOL!!" about half of the movie theater chuckled......and my son.....looks and me and very frankly asks "why would they NOT want school?"

I Love that my children love to learn, and that I get to be such an active part in them doing that!

Yesterday evening, Rob got a piece of chocolate candy out of the fridge, and Samantha asked if she could have a piece. Instead of speaking to her, (because as a typical man he had already stuffed the chocolate in his mouth) he SIGNED to her: No, You have cookie. In ASL and she immeadatly responded: " I get a cookie?? yea!!!" It amazes me how fast she is picking up sign! her use of it is still not much, but that is to be expected since she communicates 99.5% in speech, but just the fact that she is able to understand simple commands and statements is AWSOME!

emotional rambling

I am sorta down today. I went to another babyshower for a "friend" and I just felt like an outsider. I am in desperate need of some mommy time with some good friends. I have come to the conclusion that I am tired of surrounding myself with people who can't accept my family and my children, and people who don't have "time" to build relationships. I need friends.....good old fashioned FRIENDS you know the people who have you over for a game of yahtzee or margaritas just because? the ones who are willing to come and help you move, or watch your kids so you can have a night out with your hubby? I have made a promise to myself from here on out, I am only surrounding myself with people who care about me, who love me for me and all my crazy, sometimes cussing, garbled religious view having, homeschooling, over weight, gooffy, emotional ME.....and people who can accept my childern, even though they aren't perffect little angels, even tho my son has social/emotional/behavioral issues, and my daughter is a cranky little brat at times, I will only have people in thier lives who love them despite all of that.......who love US. If you are one of those friends now......thank you! you should know that I hold you dearly in my heart and should you ever need to call on me for anything, no matter what the distance I will answer....and if you arn't one of those people who feels the same way about me......then leave me the Hell alone!

funny

On our way home from the Museum going down the I-5 freeway, we were stuck in a traffic jam just sorta rolling along and I was watching the Big Riggs go by reading the little sayings they sometimes have printed on the Cabs, and seeing what state they are from and THIS truck drove past us.....I couldn't help but snicker at the lable for the Flame exstinguishing device: