Some Washington Pictures
Just thought I would share:
This is a park where I would go to read or sit on the phone. Doesn't that ivy-covered building look so cool?
I took in a Major League baseball game while I was there. It was a beautiful and sunny evening at the ballpark. :)
I discovered I am a "water baby". I loved hanging out on the peers and looking at all the water and boats.
I major highlight of the trip was sailing. I have never been on a sailboat before but I quickly discovered it is one of my favorite things to do!
Here's another place I frequented. Inside the market place they have a French Cafe which has the absolute, best crepes & coffees in the whole-wide world --- I'm just sure of it. ROFL
Update on the chickens
Guess what? You remember the chickens? Well the frizzle, the one you can't see very well in the picture, crowed this morning! It was so funny sounding too. It reminded me of a teen boy when his voice is cracking. Anyway, guess that's our clue that Felix was a good choice in names because he's a boy chicken.
A LOOOOONG FEW WEEKS!
Seven states in eight weeks! I counted them up. :)
It all began with a trip driving to Florida to spend about 10 days with our oldest daughter. From there we came home, unpacked, repacked, and the kids went to stay with their grandparents while I got on a plane and flew to Washington. I have spent the last 3 weeks up there and including a weekend trip down to Oregon.
Getting everyone back home and all together was a job in and of itself. But we're all home now, a little tired, but safe and sound.
While I was on my vacation the girls enjoyed their summer trip. They got to spend four days in a hotel!
We're all back just in time for the 4th of July celebrations. Hubby is off tomorrow and it promises to be a good summer day.
I am looking forward to getting us all back to schooling (we school year 'round and primarily in the summer and winter months) but I am afraid it is going to take a little bit of work to sort out our schedules.
Anyway, so if you were wondering where I have been, now ya know! 
Home Sweet Home
We're all back home now and the family back in one place - for a few days anyway....
Hello Again, Sweet Blog Friends!
It sure has been a busy season - pretty much non-stop since Christmas, it seems. We all know how crazy spring was around here for us, now we're into summer and it's starting with a bang too.
Half of the family came out to Florida to be with big sister during a medical crisis. I was at the wheel on this trip and left Dad back in Texas with the other kids. It was my first experience driving this far. What a trip! But we also had fun on the way. P absorbed any and all maps, and geographical things we brought with us and quickly made the promotion to Navigator on the trip. By the time we entered this state I had to pitstop into the Welcome Center in order to get her fresh material to learn about this region. (can you say Geography Lesson?  ) Dear kid still doesn't know she was learning the whole way. Muahahaha
We've also seen Dolphins while here and today we went to their little museum. There was a strange exhibit - post cards people have mailed in with their deepest secrets? Anyway, it really is an emotional ride reading and seeing all of that on display and the kids thought it was a unique experience. I guess it goes to proove that "Art" can be just about anything and can take your emotions on little trips of their own.
Oldest daughter is out of the hospital now and on her way to recovery. This means that we will be heading home soon. The thing is, once home I will be unpacking and repacking for my trip to the northwest coast. I will be up there for 3 weeks.
I was calculating the miles I will be traveling this month - about 7,000 miles once I get home again the next time. I will have crossed the United States from the South East corner up to the North West corner. I told hubby that I needed to just go for it and fly over to New York and then down to San Diego before coming back home next time. We laughed at that thought.
Well that's about it from here in Florida. We will likely begin our journey home tomorrow or the next day. Praying for clear skies the entire trip back. 
Baby Chickens!
We've grown into a new phase in our family! We now own chickens! Well, I guess I shouldn't say "we", I should clarify that P is now the proud chicken owner. She is beyond excited and grateful for her birthday present given to her by Jennifer.
We wanted her to name them Kevin, Fred, and Charlie (KFC)....but she wouldn't. Instead let me introduce you to Snow, Babe, & Felix.
Phoenix has been studying a book about raising chickens. I haven't seen her this excited about something in a very long time.
Future Wives?
Sunday ~ Mother's Day
There I sat with my family. My hubby made a point to attend with us for Mother's Day. He has been working so much as of late, including Sundays, so this was really a treat.
The sermon was on the Proverbs 31 woman. Gee. Talk about taking a beating on Mother's Day! Anyway, aside from my own feeling of failure, my mind took off into a day dream. In this dream I saw my daughters beginning their lives as wives and mothers. Suddenly panic struck me. Will my darlings be ready for being wives and mothers when that day comes? Hum. Something to think about.
The very next day I began to assess what skills they still need to learn. Kitchen. I am not so great in the kitchen but somehow I am going to have to give them at least the basic skills. We have three daughters still at home. I decided to give each of them a meal.
What I mean is, I gave over the responsibility of breakfast to one, lunch to another, and dinner to the third. They are going to work up to being able to menu plan, create the shopping list, budget, and prepare their meal each day for the whole week.
Our first week they just jumped in there and found what was available to prepare each day. This was a good start. This coming week I hope to guide them into the actual planning phase. At least this is a starting point.
Even though the day dream was a little frightening, I am glad I had the opportunity to adjust a little bit more to them getting a bit older. This teen phase is interesting, that's for sure!
Relay for Life
Last night we all participated in the relay for life. It was for a wonderful cause. But next time I think we'll prepare a little better.
To begin with, note that yesterday morning began at 7:30 am with a Tornado Warning. We'd planned on sleeping in to prepare for the long night ahead. Plans change.
Once up none of us went back to sleep. Before we knew it, time had snuck up on us and we had many things to do to prepare for the evening's events. A trip to Walmart, home for food, making Memorial display for loved ones already gone to heaven...then it was time to load up and head out.
We arrived at the track about 4:30 yesterday afternoon. Quite a bit of work took place just getting things set up, tents put up, coolers unloaded, etc. The actual festivities began around 7:00.
Friends came. Music was played. Walking. Lots and lots of walking. They had fun laps, themed laps, racing laps, and I even got credit for the "Crazy Hair" lap. (quite by accident I assure you)
Somewhere along about 3:00 a.m. it got really, REALLY COLD! Seeings how it was nearly 80 when we got there, we were not prepared for the drop into the 50's. Then the wind kicked up. Buurrrrr
Just when it doesn't seem like we were going to make it, it became 5:00 a.m. About then we began slowly packing things up...more of an effort to keep moving and to keep the time passing by quicker. Then, it what seemed like a few seconds the sky started to lighten up. In almost a blink of an eye morning came.
We (my family) made it until 6:45 am. We still had team participants on the track, all vehicals were loaded, kids were climbing into vehicals for warmth. We headed for home. Just as we arrived home we'd been up for right at 24 hours straight. The kids barely made it in the house and into their beds. Dad was leaving for work. We were climbing under the blankets.
David and I estimated the average walking pace to be about 4 miles per hour. Take that down to 3 (just because we're not average) and multiply that by 12 hours and take away times spent doing other things...and we estimate we walked somewhere between 20 to 30 miles last night. No wonder walking to the bathroom seems like such a feat right now!
Bubble baths are on the day's agenda for everyone!
'07 - '08 Year in Review
Is April Over Yet?
We have now finished up fashion.
We have now finished up shooting sports.
The play for acting is next Monday and then we're done with that.
Archery Competition is complete and they will be meeting for practices a few times through the summer.
I have finished my work in English. - Should get either a high B or a low A.
I have finished my work in Programming - Should get a low A.
I have finished my work in Accounting - Getting a high A.
We still have soccer but just for a couple of more week.
This weekend the kids are participating in a Relay for Life, event by the American Cancer Society.
It has been a busy season this Spring. We have pretty much treated Spring like our Summer Break and believe it or not, we are all looking forward to staying home and getting back involved in their homeschooling academics!
I have already begun considering new books & studies to include.
We are planning to get through three books this summer:
Getting Ready for Algebra
Painless Geography
An Introduction to Literature
The first two are small, reader type books. The literature book is actually a college text book but we are going to go through it, classroom style, and I believe the younger girls are capable of grasping it anyway. It is divided in three main areas, fiction, poetry, and drama. After reading the introduction chapter, I let them choose which area they wanted to learn about first. They choose poetry. (my least favorite - but don't tell them that. hehehe)
They will cover all their core subjects on the computer. We might even reload the Spanish software...and actually figure it out this time?
April Update
April is a busy month for us. Let's see, we've completed the clothing and textiles project in 4-H with a trip to Stephen F. Austin Univ. for the district fashion show. Chris also began his Archery Compition. He'll be doing another round later in the month.
Still to go is next weekend's trip to Carthage for the District Shooting Compition. Then the following weekend is two more rounds Archery for Chris.
Meanwhile, during the week we have:
Monday: Acting (their play is on the last Monday of April)
Tuesday: Shooting Practice (their district comp. is next weekend)
Wednesday: Soccer
Thursday: Shooting Practice
Friday: My day to do schoolwork
Weekends: Competitions
Speaking of my schooling, I am deep into finals. The countdown on that is:
Programming:
3 chapters of Question/Answers
1 Final Project
Business English:
1 more exam
Accounting:
3 Chapters, reading, homework, assignments
1 Final Project
All of that is due by the end of the month.
So.....sort of feeling crazy here! But we are definately being productive each day!!!
Update on us...
Finals time is fast approaching. It is time to buckle down and get some real studying here on my end. I took 3 exams last week but in my haste to get them done before LS week, I goofed them up. Now I will pay for it by having more work to do now to make up for them. So if I am not around much, you know where I will be! 
I am SOOOOOOOOOO looking forward to summer!!!!!
Annual Livestock Show
Our week of fun has come to a close.
We had a great time at the show!
Daughter's bunny placed 3rd in the AOB Class & She won the Grand Champion Belt Buckle in the Jr. Showmanship Competition.
I will try to get some pictures put on here soon. But first, we need rest and time to catch up on everything we ignored this past week....LIKE LAUNDRY! 
They're always smiling, aren't they?
Update.....
Life here is chugging along like normal. We have taken a spring break from most outside the home activities this week which has allowed us to reconsider family priorities. We have been working on spring cleaning the house, indoors and out. We have finished painting the front of the house (only three more sides to go!) We have cleaned up the property.
This week we are deep cleaning indoors. We are also adding back in a few of our social and extra-curricular activites. Much excitment is about with the upcoming livestock show next week. Sierra is showing her rabbit, and all are participating in the youth project show.
We have also scheduled a weekly family meeting for every Wednesday night following services. This is the designated time for us to come together, discuss concerns and feedback, and the goals for the next seven day period, as well as address any issues which might arise.
I have also been making plans for three upcoming Women's retreats. The plan is to have the house all done, the schooling all where it should be, and our schedules planned out so that I may be free to attend one or more of those next month.
This weekend we have much planned starting with a group Easter Picnic & Egg Hunt tomorrow, Soccer Sign Ups & Clinic on Saturday, and a wonderful service on Sunday. Dh is off for the weekend and it will be so nice to be doing these activities as a family. :)
Well that's about it around here. Just normal stuff. Hope all is well with all my friends! I enjoy reading your updates and keeping in touch. (((HUGS)))
Pushed to the limits of my friendliness!
This evening our son was enjoying the evening air out on the front porch while whittling some wood. Along comes a beautiful Siberian Husky dog. Even at first glance he could tell this was a sweet dog and it didn't take long for all the girls to get involved with their oohing and awing. (just remember back to the scenes in "Where the Red Fern Grows" when the boy brings the puppies in and his little sisters get all involved admiring their cuteness) As the level of frenzy raises, very quickly us adults figure out that this dog MUST be returned to his home -- LIKE NOW!
You see, when you already have a zoo of pets you learn to deflect that cuteness factor with quick action. As an animal loving family, our first thoughts are always of the animal's care and safety, but at this point our second thought is "get it AWAY from HERE and back HOME...somewhere ELSE" before anyone's emotions can get invested.
Quick thinking father and brother check the tag for information and jump in the car with him heading to find his home. Imagine my disappointment when they returned a short while later with the gorgeous animal still in my car. *eek*
Not to be deterred from our task I jumped in the car...all the while frantically calling the phone number in the tag. Before you can say "here Lassie" I was already on my way because of course I thought I could do a better job of finding the right house.  As a matter of fact, I was dashing off so fast I barely heard some comment from hubby to be careful of cowboys yielding shotguns this late at night.
Within moments I had the right address located as indicated by the numbers on the mailbox at the road. (by the way my several calls to these folks only got me their voicemail) Scanning the houses I noticed most right there with all their lights off and only one still seemed to be awake. I was so proud of my good detective work that I failed to notice the sign at the edge of the driveway ~ BEWARE OF DOG ~
I headed up to the porch with confidence, knocked a couple of times but got no response so I decided to go back to the car to try again to figure out which house to return this sweet dog to. Just as I took the last step off the porch I heard the barks.
Not little bitty "I will bite your leg" barks...but rather huge, deep, "I will bite your face right off!" barks! Coming around the corner to greet me, or rather eat me I should think, was a HUGE guard dog. I kept thinking he was going to reach the end of some chain or leash or something, but NOPE, this mad creature was LOOSE!!!
I screamed "No!" several times but he kept coming. I drew my shoulders as wide as I could and faced right at him hoping to make myself appear as large as I could and hollered (in my best, deep, in charge voice as I could muster at that moment of fear) "GO ON GET!!! GET DOWN!!! YOU GET BACK OUTTA HERE!!!"
Each time I was able to sound big and bad he stopped his forward attacking and would take one little step to the side. Each time I took one step back towards where I had parked the car. The only problem was, just after each big holler my fear would kick in and I was screaming for Chris to call for help w/ my phone I'd left in the car. With each fearful scream he would lunge towards me again and I would gain control of my voice again to do the BIG VOICE trick and he'd back up a tad.
Here's the real kicker....right in the middle of all this chaos someone from in the house looked out the window and was watching the whole thing! Never once did she offer to open the door to call off her attack dog. Ok, so I get that perhaps she was seeing me as an intruder on her land and was likely rooting for the dog at that moment....but honestly, I am a short, patite mother, how much of a threat can I seem like? Was she really going to stand there and watch me get eaten alive? *humph* How neighborly!
I finally made it back to the car one holler and one backwards step at a time. Somewhere in the midst of trembling and driving I decided I had done just about all I could do for this nice dog in my car. After all, I had just almost faced being mawed by a junk-yard dog over him! He couldn't come back home with us because we already have a house full here.
After driving around the block a couple of times to give the mean dog time to settle down, I came back to the right mail box with the matching number to his dog tags. I asked him if he knew where he was, he wagged his tail, I opened my car door and let him out and told him to get on home. He walked towards one of the houses.
Now imagine my surprise when I hear whines and cries from the back seat about how awful it was to leave him like that. I just almost met my end and their freaking out over him??? O.k. Honestly I was feeling fairly bad about it myself, but living in the country, there is no place to drop him off, as in a shelter or anything. He couldn't come in here because our two big dogs would have raised the roof all night at him. And I CERTAINLY wasn't going back to knock on any doors over on that street!!!
A few minutes later the owners called me back. I explained to them what had happened and what I did with their darling. They said that was wonderful, he gets out all the time but knows how to get back in his fence too. When I mentioned the attack dog they told me that he is known for attacking people. He's real bad, they said, and even said their dog has gotten in fights with him to keep him from attacking them when they go outside. They were very nice and caring folks and I assured them that if we saw "Rowdy" again that I would gladly carry him back to their mailbox....but I will not be getting out of the car myself! LOL
Group Stuff and Other Stuff
Yesterday was our homeschool group's monthly meeting. We were excited to welcome a local art instructor in for a group lesson. It was a huge success! Last night I asked the kids to rate the meeting...their answer? "It was AWESOME!" I can say that I was amazed at how great he was with such a large group with the age range that was there. I truly felt blessed walking around the room, seeing the kids learning and painting, hanging on to the instructor's every word. Even the nursery was pack with the activity of several toddlers. God has been so good to our little community!
In the past couple of weeks I have been contacted by 3 or 4 new families taking their children from the PS system and desiring to get involved and homeschool. I am considering hosting a second orientation meeting for this year...to give these new folks a chance to meet with some of our other members, a time to ask questions, check out resources and curriculum, things of that nature. We do have a local Smoothing the Way so this would be the time for them to learn about STW as well as getting plugged in here in our local HS community & group.
Around our ranch we are also getting geared up for our annual livestock show. S' bunny is all happy, pretty, and ready to go meet the rabbit judge. I must admit, after the results in the state show earlier this year, I am excited for Sierra to show him again. :) Following this local show she is planning on him and her friend's bunny "getting married." Yup! If all goes well, sometime in the next two months or so we will have little baby bunnies!!! Just in time for spring. 
We have about another month of practices before the girls' perform in their upcoming play. Soccer season is about to start. Livestock show somewhere in there. Riding lessons are half-way over. And we're actually caught up in school - their's & mine! This has been a busy, but rewarding, season thus far!
Snow Day (Here?)
My school, their school, & a date?
So we're busy around here "summing up" our schooling year. It seems to almost be more work then the normal load. I have been working with the kids, one at a time, finishing up their projects, essays, redo-ing a couple of lessons, etc. for the past few days. Sadly though, this means that my own studies have been being ignored. *sigh* I hope to fix that in the next two days!
We have also been busier then usual lately with our homeschool group and other activities. This week our high schooler will be attending a PSAT/SAT class, the girls still have acting & riding lessons, and our normal stuff all thrown in.
It was oh so nice to be able to take a break from it all this evening. Several of our HS group members met in a neighboring city for a parents' night out and away from the kids. Complete adult conversation! Imagine that! Honestly one the best parts was the travel time there and back. Alone time with just hubby and me, not being interupted, catching up with his work happenings and my home happenings, and just the nice feeling of holding hands and remembering the sweetness of just he and I. Ok...mushing, romance stuff, sorry....but it really was wonderful to enjoy our time together. :) We are blessed to also have such wonderful and caring friends who cared for our kids while we went out to eat. This honestly is such a rarity for us, that is really means a lot to know the kids were being cared for so we could enjoy the night out.
HAPPY FLOWERBEDS!
They are looking SO happy this year!!!
Ok...minus the leaves they would be just about perfect....but with all this wind lately, the leaves are a daily battle right now.
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Our family: We celebrate individuality. We believe in giving of ourselves and our time to others in our community and other communities. We enjoy trying new things and in that, we try many things as we grow and mature and learn more about the people God created us to be.
Dad: Hardworker, provider, supporting us in all things. Loves football and spending time taking us to do things and have new experiences.
Mom: Author of this space, researcher of new things as kids show interests, taxi driver, teacher, mentor, supporter of the dreams of their youth.
Oldest of the Siblings:Grown, self-confident, wonderful friend to the rest of her siblings. She's fun, energetic, and brilliant.
Son (15): Engineering minded. He loves music, his friends, his family, working, cars & trucks, and learning sciences. "What makes things work?" This is his eternal question which seeks answering.
Daughter A (13): Compassionate. She is loving & deeply caring. She enjoys reading anything and everything. She is drawn to anything sweet, soft, cuddly, and nice. She loves everyone but will sit aside to let others shine.
Daughter S (13): Shining Star. She is outgoing, happy, and excited about life! She enjoys helping others, is passionate about bunnies, and enjoys being center stage ready to share her light and love for life with anyone.
Daughter P (12): Artist. The world is her canvas awaiting her brilliant touch. She enjoys painting, drawing, writting stories and poetry...basically anything and any avenue in which she can create. She is a tomboy, loves horses, and creating imaginary worlds in which we are all just charactors playing in her play.
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Some Washington Pictures
Update on the chickens
A LOOOOONG FEW WEEKS!
Home Sweet Home
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