Emily's Party

Suzy made this cake.


The bowling alley gave Emily a bowling pin for all her guests to sign.
These bracelets were our craft.

Weekly Preview and Review

Cirque Shanghai was FABULOUS! Suzy and I were amazed. Chinese acrobats - 10 young men and 6 young women skillfully entertained us with feats of balance, strength and beauty. Afterwards we went to Cici's Pizza Buffet, which I like very much. First time we went, but not the last!

Dental visits for the girls this week. Emily - no cavities. Suzy - two cavities. Hmmm.... The boys have their turn this coming week.

David finished his drivers ed makeup classes and passed both the tests in class. Now we visit the Secretary of State. He first needs to connect with his teacher and get his certificate.

Took Emily and some friends bowling today to celebrate her birthday. Had the party room at the bowling alley beforehand for cake, ice cream, gifts, and a craft. Then two games of bowling with 7 girls. I bowled too. One strike, lots of gutter balls for me. No gutter balls for the girls because they all used the bumpers. lol

After the party, Suzy, Emily, and I went out to eat and then shopping for Regency Ball shoes and then to the thrift store. Then a white-knuckle ride home in the blowing snow and on the untreated roads. Man, that was awful. The blowing stuff kept freezing on my windshield and I could not see.

I've been working hard on getting the yearbook done for Seeds of Faith and it's just about finished. Hopefully we can get it delivered before the next co-op. I want to get it ordered tomorrow.

Thinking about signing up for homeschool karate. We are about done with gymnastics, I think. Just this month left. But we are gearing up for soccer which should begin mid-April and run through the beginning of June. Do I want to do karate too? Well, since I can participate in the karate for free, I think maybe so. They are having a signup special, so I probably will take advantage of that.

A little lingering cough and wheezing is all that's left of my illness. The kids too are doing tons better. Only James seems to have a lingering cough.

On Monday, there wasn't enough work loaded, so I spent some time typing in some books I had set aside for sale. And I sold about $90 worth. So that was time well spent.

I finished reading Persuasion for my Austentatious class. Loved it this time through. Funny how the Austen grows on me. I disliked reading my first Austen a lot; it was Emma. I've since read it twice more and now I love it. Book club is reading another Gaskell - Wives and Daughters. I've started but I am still in chapter 1.

Sunday - Church?
Monday - WORK 5 hrs, Lessons, SOF meeting
Tuesday - WORK 5, Lessons, Homeschool rollerskating
Wednesday - WORK 5, Lessons, Dentist-D,J,S
Thursday - WORK 5 Lessons, Mammogram-L (funfun)
Friday - WORK 5, field trip
Saturday - Book Club Movie Night (Jane Eyre)
Sunday - Church, Contra Dancing!

Gotta work 5's this week to make up for 2 weeks ago when there wasn't enough work to keep me busy. And this is a busy week with something every day! Better take a deep breath on Sunday night. (And maybe start with a little extra sleep, eh?)

I also need to get moving on the soccer registration plans. It'll be here before we know it. Oh, and SOF co-op stuff for NEXT year already too. And make sure everything is in order for the Regency Ball.

Quite a few Regency Ball-related activities are on the calendar for March.
March 13 - Contra dance at Flint school
March 17 - Dance practice
March 21 - Persuasion Movie Day & Regency Hairstyle Practice (girls)
March 22 - Regency Portrait Day (wear your costume and do your hair!)
March 25-26 Regency Ball trip!

So, you can see, there's a lot involved. David and Emily and I will be attending, along with about 20 other people from our homeschool group. And it's in South Bend, so we're spending the night.

We'd love to see any of you at our co-op program on Friday, April 1st in the evening. David will be sharing a computer script he wrote. Emily will be dancing and in a skit. Suzy is doing a cheerleading routine. And James will have a very nice art exhibit. There will be other stuff too, but I'm not sure what all. And you won't want to miss my Austentatious class; they are doing Pride and Prejudice in 100 seconds. I get to play Lydia. LOL

Weekly Preview and Review

Saturday - James' Gym & Swim party
Sunday - Nutcracker Ballet with Suzy (shopping with Suzy)
Monday - WORK 5 hrs, Christmas School, SOF Meeting & Soccer Meeting (at the same time!)
Tuesday - WORK, XMAS School
Wednesday - WORK, XMAS School
Thursday - WORK, XMAS School
Friday - WORK, Gingerbread House Day, Babysitting Fundraiser
Saturday - Christmas Ladies "thing" w/Em and Suzy, Book Club
Sunday - Visit a church?

Sleeping in on Sundays - I just love it! Two weeks in a row now, we've done that. Argh - kind of at odds with our desire to find a church, isn't it? Then I spoke to a friend whose church meets Saturday night. Maybe that's what we should look for?

James turned 11 this week. He's just growing up so fast! His actual birthday on Wednesday was celebrated with family gifts, his choice of meals (pizza, and Hamburger Helper - yes, really), and cake and ice cream. On Saturday I took James and 4 of his friends to the local community center to play basketball and swim. That was fun (and low stress for me!).

David was sick this week; he slept most of the day on Thursday. He's feeling better but still congested. He got to spend the night at a friend's house Friday to celebrate that friend's birthday.

Co-op is over for 2010 but will continue with 7 more session in 2011 (Jan-April). We keep the same classes all year, so nothing will change regarding the schedule. We are enjoying it; the kids love most of their classes.

Tried to take Suzy to the Nutcracker ballet today. I'd bought tickets through Seize the Deal, which is like Groupon (a website that secures a local 'deal of the day'). I got 2 tickets for the price of 1 several weeks ago. Printed out the voucher and took it to the theater today and was told (along with a large number of other folks) that the organization that runs the theater had sold the tickets but apparently did not communicate that to the theater itself, who then of course ALSO sold the tickets. Double-booked. And SOLD OUT. So, we were out of luck. We were shocked but then just sort of shrugged our shoulders, thinking we'll get our money back. They offered us Holiday Pops tickets - not quite a replacement to my thinking. One woman was standing there with a huge bouquet of flowers along with her voucher. Her daughter was in the performance. She was out of luck too, unless they found her a seat. She had her mom with her to see her granddaughter dance. Another woman was so angry that she was threatening to call the media. The people who worked there were rather nonplussed by the whole thing and started a list, taking our names. We'll see how this plays out.

But Suzy and I had a nice afternoon shopping for Christmas gifts and then eating out together. She was all dressed up and I curled her hair - she felt very special. I took a pic of her at dinner but had intended to take one at the theater with the Nutcracker background. Since that was all messed up, I never got a full length picture of her.

Last week I worked 3.3 extra hours. I can work up to 5 extra hours every week until the middle of January. That gives me a total of 25 hours each week. If I can squeeze the extra hour in, I do it. That extra 20 hours a month really helps when the paycheck comes. Did you know I get paid only once a month?

I just noticed that everything hanging on my wall above my desk is crooked. Lovely. lol

OK, I am way way past my bedtime. I don't know if I can get up at 6:30 if I go to bed at 1:30. Guess we'll see, eh?

Weekly Preview

Sunday - Relaxing Day (and catching up),
Monday - Spanish (LAST ONE!), WORK (4 hrs daily)
Tuesday - WORK, Bob's Birthday, Field Trip
Wednesday - Lessons, WORK, Soccer Game (J)
Thursday - Lessons, WORK, Soccer Game (J)
Friday - Park Day, WORK,
Saturday - Open House, Book Club

Sunday is the 8 year anniversary of Bob's accident.

James scored a goal today and so did Suzy - ask them their stories. Maybe I'll video them!

Gonna go to a movie tomorrow afternoon- wanna come along? I need some time away from here.

Looking at campers. Trying to decide what to get.

Deciding how best to communicate expectations to my family so that I don't have to oversee every little bit of their lives. I mean, should I REALLY have to say to my teenagers - did you brush your teeth? Are you wearing clean underwear?

Going to work on soccer paperwork this afternoon and also some lists for the kids for lessons and chores. I love organizing things. This should be fun.

Spanish is done this week - hurrah! Ole! My Mondays will belong to me again.

Took an elegant Suzy and her doll to a tea party yesterday and then Emily and I went to JoAnn Crafts and shopped. Bought some neat new scrapbooking paper packs and then went for ice cream cones. Nice day out with my teen girl.

Suzy's 8th birthday (Wed) was nice, but low-key. We ate out at a Chinese buffet after the field trip Tuesday, getting an early start on her celebration. She opened her presents in the morning, before Bob went to work, and her dear friend spent the night. James had a soccer game and the weather was lovely, so the girls went along and hung out at the field. We had homemade pizza afterwards and cake and ice cream. Suzy insisted on white cake with white frosting, but she didn't really eat it. She doesn't really like cake. Her friend stayed with us most of the day on Thursday and we went to a bunch of garage sales.

Here's some of what I bought: a cool lap desk, a mini fridge (for camping; $10!), some clothes and shoes for everyone, a purse (now I need a wallet), a smiley face coffee mug, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (VHS), Sequence game, some perler beads, a comfy office chair (but it doesn't fit at my desk; boo-hoo), a nice winter coat for Suzy for next year (or the year after). Probably some other stuff, but I don't know now.

A Little Update - What Goes First

Sarah wrote: It would be nice to devote more time to blogging, but when life is crazy, it's the first to go.

Actually, when life is crazy, first exercise vanishes, then sleep. Reading comes next and blogging comes somewhere after that. So if I've made it all the way down to mostly not-blogging, then you can tell I'm crazy-busy.

I will devote 1 more minute to posting and then I need to work.

James and Suzy both had soccer games last night and James had one the night before. I love watching soccer in this weather. Soccer registration has morphed to mail-in at this point, but my work is just beginning. Paperwork! Entering player ratings from this year. Entering new players. Updating returning players. Matching coaches to teams. Ordering uniforms. Calling back people about late registration. Updating the phone message.

Enough about soccer. The weather has been gorgeous. Wish I could spend more time in it! Then again, who am I kidding? I've never been outdoor-sy!

I am reading Little Women for book club. Didn't really want to read it, but am enjoying every page. Emily read it for her lessons, so she will be attending book club with me this month. I don't think she'll be the only girl there either.

We went to a great field trip on Tuesday and Suzy had a nice birthday on Wednesday. Thursday was garage sales and getting David to his last dissection class (late! argh!).

OK, that was 2 minutes. I'm off to work. (Seeing as I don't actually GO anywhere, that's a figure of speech! lol)

Oh yeah, I'll have photos soon.

A Little Free Time - finally....

Well, there is no work for me to do right now, despite me sitting down to do it. The client needs to upload some more for us. So, while I am waiting, a quick blog entry can fill the time.

My cable was out this morning, so no internet or phone. Therefore I could not work then either. So far today, I've managed 40 minutes of work between the cable outage and the no-work problem.

I took Emily out for her 13th birthday today - we had lunch at the Chinese buffet and then went to the thrift store and tried on clothes. She got 3 shirts, a pair of leggings, and a skirt and I got a shirt. Then we stocked up on groceries at Walmart. As a new teenager, we gave Emily permission to wear one item of makeup outside the house. She chose lipstick, so we bought her one of those and some hair stuff.

A new battery got my van going again, so I have wheels.

I have not managed to work out lately. I want to, but I just haven't made it a priority. Can't WAIT for warm weather so I can just go running in the AM's again.

All this working is quite stressful, to be honest. I can do it, but it's going to require a bit more restructuring than I had imagined. Hopefully the kids all step up to the plate and help out, or they'll be in school. The job is a necessity. When I worked before, Bob was home all the time. Now he's working 4 days a week too. Thankfully I can set my own hours.

Homemade pizza is being created now (not by me, you notice!) and soon we will have some gifts to open and cake and ice cream.

Bob is working at the homeless shelter tonight and I think the girls are going along with him.

I finished reading Remarkable Creatures and started Wuthering Heights.

I'm sure there's more I could say, but I better go do some other stuff so I can work later.

Weekly Preview

Saturday - Veggie Tales Premiere, Book Club
Sunday - Dreamcoat w/Janet
Monday - Spanish, START New Job (4 hrs daily)
Tuesday - Lessons, WORK
Wednesday - Lessons, WORK, Teach Essay Class, Art class (E,J)
Thursday - Lessons, WORK, Emily turns THIRTEEN!
Friday - Lessons, WORK
Saturday - ????

I am way behind on blog reading and SLEEP. LOL At least my Spanish lessons are already planned.

Gotta figure out Em's birthday plans.

Must write two (easy articles) today, do Tae-bo, put together some quiche, some laundry, get the kids moving on chores, get a (hot, hopefully) shower and get ready to head out to Veggie Tales and Book Club!

James Turns TEN!

Perfect Day for a Tea Party!

The weather turned out perfect for Suzy's party today. I planned it in the sideyard. Bob set up the screenhouse and we decorated it. We had a couple easy games, a couple easy crafts, a couple cakes, a couple choices of ice cream, a couple of crying incidents, and a whole lotta fun. Several of the moms stayed, a couple brothers, and my friend Brandi took pictures for me! Thank you, Brandi!

Here's a slide show. As always, if you can't view it, click on it and it will take you to the Picasa album where you can view it. I made the slideshow too big and it covers up some of the sidebar, I know. Too bad. I don't feel like redoing it. :-) TIRED.



Off to go finish reading The Importance of Being Earnest....

Sweet Suzy, Dreamcoat Sighting, The glad game

Suzy's party will be here in the side yard. Bob is going to set up the canopy thing and we'll have an outdoor fancy tea party. The weather needs to co-operate!

By the way, the reason she has been sweeter lately is not for purely intrinsic reasons. She wanted her party and I wouldn't schedule it until I saw an improvement in her behavior. So there you go, Michele. Bribery works sometimes!

I entered soccer registrations this afternoon then picked the kids up from their last art class. David won't be doing it next year. The other two still will be. Bob had Suzy out at the farm checking the garden. I took the other three to the library after art and got some books. While we were there, I spied one of the actresses from Dreamcoat. No, I didn't accost her in the library and get her autograph. She's a high school student!

We watched a newer version of Pollyanna tonight. Surprisingly good! My kids all watched it and seemed to really like it! Masterpiece Theater broadcast it, I think in 2003. The kids also watched some episodes of Busytown (Busy World of Richard Scarry) that I had on VHS taped off Nick Jr. "Buh-buh-BUH! Face here!" :-)

Can't think of anything else, except David is almost intolerably bouncy because he is so happy to be going away to Cedar Point with his friend's family. They leave first thing Friday morning and come back Sunday.

Randomness

Randomness....

There's a redbox in the Kroger store in Imlay City now! YAY! I may just cancel Netflix, although when David heard me say that, he reacted with horror.

Suzy is playing across the street with her friends.
James is trying to figure out a way to fix the hanging basket he broke. (Anyone have an empty hanging basket pot?)
Emily is mowing the yard.
David is upstairs in his room playing with Legos and listening to Black by Ted Dekker. (At least I think that's what he's doing.)
Bob is working on the back porch. He's replacing the floor.
Lisa is procrastinating starting dinner. I think we'll be eating late tonight. lol

I took David to the thrift store to see if I could find him some more shorts. Ended up with another pair of shorts (white! ack!) and a pair of jeans. Got myself a long dress coat, which I have needed for YEARS. YAY! Also a fall coat on half price, 2 church shirts for James, and a smattering of clothes for the girls.

Suzy has been trying very hard lately to be sweeter and obey right away. It's very nice to see. I've been trying to reinforce it as much as possible.

I learned how to enter the soccer players into the online system. I am going to put some in tonight and see how I do. By the way, I am taking over for the current soccer registrar for the region. Right now I am Assistant Registrar and I am on the board, I guess.

Deb and Dar and I met last night and got the co-op schedule into some semblance of order. I've been emailing back and forth with teachers all day, getting their assignments straight. I have a phone call or two to make and I am waiting on several to get back with me. Then the schedule will hopefully be all set.

Suzy is going to have a fancy tea party to celebrate her birthday. I am looking for a place to have it since I don't like having parties at home. I am pretty happy she decided on this instead of a sleepover. Twelve little girls for two hours vs. five or six little girls ALL NIGHT on the living room floor? Yeah. lol

So, I have lots to do instead of blog, so I should get at it! lol

Suzy's Birthday Slideshow

There are supposed to be captions along with this slideshow, but I don't see them. So, if you want to see them, you can click the slideshow and it will take you to the web album.

Suzy is Seven!

The birthday crown was from children's church on Sunday morning. She was SO THRILLED with it. She wore it all day and saved it for today!

Happy Birthday, Suzanne! I am so blessed to have had you for SEVEN YEARS!




More pix to come later!

The Week Ahead

The Week Ahead

This is our last week of lessons for the official "school year". It's also the last week of soccer for Suzy, but James has a game next week. Suzy's birthday is the busiest day of the week!

Sunday - Church, Grocery Shopping, Youth Group (D)
Monday - Lessons, Work
Tuesday - Lessons, Suzy's Birthday, Book sale?, Keepers at Home "Banquet", James Soccer Game
Wednesday - Lessons, Work, Help with soccer registration at night
Thursday - Lessons (LAST DAY), Work
Friday - Park Day, maybe a meeting with my coleaders, then I wanna do something FUN tonight! Anyone? Anyone?
Saturday - Soccer, Book Club & Cookout!

Actually Suzy has a soccer game Tuesday night too, but she and I are going to miss it because of the banquet.

Stylin' Suzy, Playing in Puddles

Thursday I had intended to go to some garage sales, but it was very very windy. I didn't look forward to fighting the breeze so I decided to put it off for a day. So, Thursday we hunkered down in the house. At least until soccer practice. Both James and Suzy had a 6pm practice scheduled. It was still rather windy, but it was warmer and sunny, so practice was pleasant.

The garage sales occupied quite a chunk of Friday. I am not an early morning garage sale shopper, though. I still find good stuff! I came home with quite a few items of clothing, mostly for Suzy. Found a book, a VHS movie (A Walk in the Clouds - love it!), a fitted sheet for one of the boy's beds, a pair of winter boots for Suzy, a couple computer games, a turntable for my spices, a couple of art smocks, and a bunch of other stuff. James got a pair of heelies that he was pretty excited about and you should have seen how Suzy was stylin' by the time she got home! Oh wait, here's a photo. The shirt is the only thing left of what she was wearing when we left the house. lol

Also, I bought a huge box of Polly Pocket stuff for Suzy's birthday. (Yes, we do secondhand gifts here - more bang for your buck. Which would you rather have? One piddling Polly Pocket set for $15 or a huge box of it for $15? Well, I know which my daughter would rather have! lol) Also got her a dressing table with mirror and stool. It's white metal, but Bob is going to paint it pink for her and we're going to recover the seat. She is THRILLED and doesn't care a bit that she knows what she's getting. Will post pix of those on her b-day.

By the way, three of the kids went with me to the sales since they had accomplished five days' worth of lessons in four days. One had to stay behind and work to avoid being grounded for the weekend.

After the garage sales, I heated up a couple frozen pizzas and moved on to part two of our day - taking Emily to a party. A trip to Walmart was necessary beforehand and then on to the birthday girl's house. Suzy and I were invited to hang out for a bit, so we did, watching the gift opening, sharing the delish chocolate cake and ice cream. (Have you ever had Drumstick flavor ice cream? Like the cones, but actually mixed in? Yum!) Then we played kickball until dark and headed home.

Today Suzy had 9:00 soccer. The fields were even wetter than last week, but this time around, the league allowed the coaches to make the decision. So we played! No more rescheduling, please! The kids were wet wet wet! So was David, who wiped out before the game. lol He always ref's my games for me.

James had a 10:30 game and by this time, it was windy and rainy. Lovely soccer weather. But he played great, with at least one assist and some GREAT defensive play! Both the kids' teams tied up at 1-1.

Can you believe I haven't taken any photos of spring soccer? Coaching messes that up big time!

I signed James and Suzy up for soccer for next year. They asked me about coaching and I declined. Be proud of me! However, I am considering a registrar position which would be RIGHT up my alley with data entry and organizing. Pray about that, if you would. It is a big commitment, but one I think I'd enjoy and excel at.

Emily has been napping since she came home, for a couple hours, but I've rousted her and made her do her chores. Kids who stay up all night still have to participate in family activities. :-) I'm thinking she'll be early to bed.

Bob's going to head out to a perennial sale soon, in hopes of scoring some nice plants. I also want some LILACS cut and in vases here. I hope he brings some of those back from somewhere!

We have one more week of lessons and then we're calling our school year complete! We will continue to work on Bible, math, reading, and writing through the summer, as well as a unit on map skills and one on child survival skills, as well as some nature study.

Suzy turns seven this Tuesday!

Oh yeah, one more thing. David ordered his Tracfone this week. Yes, we allowed it. However, if it's abused? It's confiscated. No questions.

Several good friends are going through some awful things lately. I'm amazed at how much tragedy surrounds us. I'm spending a lot of time praying.

Kitty-Korner Party

We were invited to a birthday party for a friend of Suzy's. They live kitty-corner from us on the opposite corner.

David didn't want his photo taken, but I got him anyway! Ha-ha!

Emily gladly posed. I don't think I posted about cutting her hair. I cut about six inches off a couple weeks ago.

James was reading when he wasn't running around and I posted HIS photo at Cornerstone.

From Quingly Things

The neighbors set up their bouncy hut and the kids played endlessly in there. Suzy is wearing a flowered dress with leggings underneath. (She has her own style! lol)





















A face painting lady was there for the party as well - Sparkles. The kids were ga-ga for their faces painted and even some of the adults had theirs done. (Not me and Bob, lol) Suzy was THRILLED. The same lady had done face painting at church a few weeks ago and I didn't get a pic that day, but I made up for it with a GORGEOUS pic last night!

She still hasn't washed her face!

Emily's Sleepover

Emily had a gaggle of little girls over to spend the night Friday night and my good friend stayed the night as well. That was good as it upped the ratio of adults to children. :-)

It was a lovely warm afternoon so we walked down to the school playground and let the girls run around for a while. I served tacos for dinner and Emily opened many lovely thoughtful gifts and graced each giver with an appreciative hug. After dinner, we made book thongs (see Cornerstone for the details) and had cupcakes and ice cream.

Then they headed upstairs for games and movies while the adult women watched movies and ate popcorn. Lights out at midnight or thereabouts, but several girls whispered into the wee wee WEE hours of the night, leaving all the adults bleary with sleep deprivation. Morning came far too early.

Breakfast was some yummy goodies set out for the girls to serve themselves and they went back upstairs. I haven't ventured up to see the extent of the necessary clean-up, but all-in-all, it was a memorable and enjoyable sleepover party for my twelve-year-old!

An Even Dozen

Emily is twelve! She will be having a party on Friday, so today was our low-key family celebration. Gifts in the AM; pizza, cake and ice cream at dinner. And being twelve gives her a later bedtime, so she's thrilled with that new privilege!

Clearance Shopping!

Clearance shopping is fun! I like to get wrapping paper and bows and gift tags. I bought wrapping paper that COULD be Christmas-y, but it isn't specifically. So, I can use it year-round. EXCELLENT! :::plays air guitar:::

I also found some of those new LED Christmas lights, and a hanging light globe thing. Got a few things for gifts next year - Christmas socks and such, as well as 4 gifts to put away for birthday party invitations. What else? Hmmm... Some plastic Christmas cups and bowls. I'm sure there are some other things. Candy, of course. lol

I also bought David a birthday gift and a cake and some pizza. He's FOURTEEN tomorrow!

Miss Finney

Emily was invited to an American Girl Mystery birthday party. The American Girl is Kit (1934). Emily had to dress up as Miss Finney, a nurse. She did her costume all on her own, except I bought the skirt at the thrift store and I put her hair in a bun and stuck her hat to her head. I think she looks awesome!