Eat, Fart and Bark

Prayers for a friend

2012-01-30T09:23:00.000-06:00

A friend from church took a nasty fall last week. He is having facial surgery this morning. If you could say a prayer for him and his family today, this week, we'd appreciate it.

We are praying for you, John.

back up again...

2012-01-27T10:07:00.000-06:00

Computer that is. Anyone else hit by a trojan horse and who knows what other kind of computer virus lately? Our awesome computer tech is getting a lot of business from us.
Commander asked me last night why I hadn't posted anything lately. O-kay.
I actually hooked my laptop up to wifi and was off and and running with doing recruiting letters to athletes when a page jumped up saying it was from "Dell" and needed to do a backup. We have a Dell computer, so I let it. Wrong. That computer is now out of commission. People who create computer virus should be taken out in t-shirts and shorts, and shot by boys with 450mph airsoft rifles AND AT CLOSE RANGE.

Today is our first track meet. I get the job of driving the 15 passenger van to and from the meet. Stay off the Kansas City loop this afternoon and late evening. I don't want to run you over. A prayer for our safety would be nice.

Our pastor is leading our Wednesday night Bible study. He touched on the 3 sins: of the flesh(anything that makes you feel good - chocolate, drugs, sex, alcohol), of the eyes, of the boisterous of life(the see what I can do syndrome). He hit home. I've been a "see what I can do person all my life". Athletics was a big part of it, and then ~~being creative~~ trying to be creative and show it off - as others say. Hmmm. Not feeling to good about me right now. "Wash me clean, Lord, take away this sin. Help me do only for you and not for the rewards of earth."

Have a blessed weekend.

Coaching / Athlete training clinic

2012-01-18T17:53:00.000-06:00

If you know any Jr. High through Community College athletes or coaches in the Kansas City area that might be interested in learning dynamics, plyometrics and track events, please send them this link.

http://universitysaintmarytrack.eventbrite.com/

THanks for helping to get the word out there.

Sunday will be a day to remember - better write it down

2012-01-14T23:29:00.000-06:00

I just realized that I can't recall the other 2 dates that were this important to our family. I'll have to ask Commander. He has every date and event in a mind cabinet. T12 - nicknamed Northley Davis, Gluten by the boy scout troops is getting baptized after service. Commander will be doing the honors after he rushes off in the morning to collect Herogian at the boy scout camp site, to get him home for a shower and then to Church hopefully not too late in service. After Sunday School classes, which we both are involved with teaching this quarter, we will file into the old building with church family to celebrate Gluten becoming a member of God's family. As I said before I am so thrilled. I fill like my job is done. if God called me home, I wouldn't say wait, well, probably would - I want to see them graduate college, marry and have a family of their own, but then okay. No, wait, we might have grandkids somewheres down that line of thought and I'd want to help disciple the kiddos, maybe even ~~homeschool them, NOT~~. Write them stories - that's the ticket, stories that can be published.
Oh what a glorious Morning, Oh what a beautiful day, I've got this wonderful feeling......

May God Your Day.

Biology at home

2012-01-12T12:08:00.000-06:00

Herogian brought in this duck egg the other day.

When we broke it open we found another egg inside of the first, but it was still soft shell. Inside that (I don't know who took my camera away so I don't have the picture) we found a blog of shell material along side the yolk.

The picture is blurry - it's not your eyes. THis is Casey receiving a haircut around his face. Just like his human counterpart, I like it when someone is combing through my hair. As a preteen running cross-country for AAU, I kept my hair in a short pixie, I loved having the hairstylist use the straight edge razor on the under neath locks. Nuts? Okay.

THis is the throwing board for the USM track shot putters. All we need to do is move it out of the garage and to the school. Practice starts Monday and it started snowing last night. It has 3 layers of 2x12 as the stopboard, carpet squares glued underneath to protect the floor from the bolts heads, and handles at the four corners for carrying.

Today three of us woke with congestion and sinus headaches. I'm so glad we homeschool. At 10:00 I sent the zombies back to bed.

Have a great weekend.

Can I be baptized?

2012-01-09T21:54:00.000-06:00

I just got hit with that question by the third child - T12. Hal-le -lu- iah. Hal-le-lu-iah, , halleluiah, halleluiah, Halllll-le-luuu-iah!

Are you ready?

2012-01-09T13:21:00.000-06:00

Are you ready for early morning workouts? I'm serious about us working out by 6:30 am. We've got to have the gym and the room to throw the weight around. Jumpers, we will have one HJ pit for you to use as a landing pad, along with HJ'ers getting in some curve work. 2 months of indoor training then we can go back outside during the afternoons. We can do this, just get your attitudes and alarm clocks ready.

I doubt that any other track team in our division will show this kind of dedication to qualifying for conference and nationals.

Let's go Spires Track!

a blessing in companionship

2012-01-06T10:50:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, I received a treat, a double treat, you might say. Our pastor's wife (Mrs. Shannon) is great with coloring and cutting hair. We were finally able to get our schedules to meet. When I arrived at her house yesterday for a coloring, the added bonus to the visit was that our youth pastor's wife (Mrs. Cindy or "Tinny" as church little one calls her) was visiting. Two of the sweetest ladies I know, and I was able to enjoy an hour of their company while having the color line in my hair erased. Awesome. Mrs. Shannon also did the job within an hours time. Have you ever been in and out of a beauty palor with a color job done in right at an hour. I haven't until now.

Have a great day.

Cooking for the church family

2012-01-05T08:26:00.000-06:00

THis was our third meal to cook for the church over the last 2 years. It is getting easier. The food was actually ready and we were waiting for people to show up this time. THe first time - the dinner wasn't cooking fast enough and we had a line of people waiting, waiting, waiting. Last night was fun compared to that first try. We served spiral cut ham, mashed potatoes, and black-eyed peas (for New Years Luck), actually, they were on sale. The only left overs were peas. Commander was happily cutting slices off and handing out two at a time. Then he looked up at the line of people, down at the ham, and gasped, "I don't know if we are going to have enough." The portions dropped in size and the last person to ask for ham ended up with the chunks that had dropped to the bottom of the pan off the bone. You might say it was another feeding miracle that so many people ate off one ham bone.

We will cook again Feb. 29th LEAP YEAR. We are trying to come up with some different - off the wall kind of menu. Any ideas?

1 year I wasn't ready for has gone by

2011-12-31T19:41:00.001-06:00

I recently looked back at a post (Jan 11) that I never posted. It reminded me that this year started with a portent, ominous feeling. I wasn't ready for 2011 to start. But you can't stop the clock or tell the calendar to slow down. I might have been dragging my heels into the year, but I'd say things turned around and I've been leaning forward looking toward 2012.

2012 will be twenty years for the Commander and I. March 12 will be anniv. for 1st date, Sept. 12th engagement, and Dec. 12 wedding. We are hoping to do something special (Garmin, Germany) for our anniversary. We will see.

This year had us looking for another house for some unknown reason. The year is finishing with us planning two egress windows downstairs and building out an area of the room into a new bedroom, then there will be painting and someday redoing the kitchen. Once again, we feel like God is telling us to stay put and quit looking to move.

This year had us training for the Bataan Death March Memorial Marathon. That has ended with Morton's Neuroma in both feet, Commander pulling his back out of whack, and my coaching position being in full swing at the time of the march. The coaching was a plus to the year that I never expected. I am so looking forward to watching the kids perform, learning how to recruit, and hopefully bringing in some jumpers and throwers for the 2012-2013 team. Recruiting definitely causes you to look to the future.

I have learned to butcher duck this year, I have put the writing a novel aside, I have started doing puzzles again and love the relaxation it brings - slows life down for me. I've enjoyed reading the Old Testament again, gaining new insight into the kings of Israel and Judah and the prophets. I still enjoy homeschooling and spending the days with our boys. This new year will add driver's ed to our schedule at some point. UGH!

I've enjoyed having friends here on the computer. Thanks goes to all of you who stop by to see what's up at the EFandB.

OKGRANNY - Commander likes your church rubber band.

Have a Happy New Year, may it be blessed.

Not New Years Eve New Years Eve Party

2011-12-30T17:57:00.000-06:00

The boys are having a couple of friends over tonight for an all nighter Not New Years Eve Celebration of New Years Eve. Why would they be doing it tonight, you ask?
They know they have to get up Sunday morning for church. Plus, Mom and Dad are real good about poking fingers into ribs if eyes start to close in church, or don't open soon enough after prayers. I thought it was a good idea for them to party tonight. Let's just hope I can say that in the morning.

Hurdles

2011-12-29T11:34:00.000-06:00

Here are the new PCV practice hurdles for

the track team. Hawk is by the 36" hurdle, the one in

front is twenty inches.

Week before Christmas

2011-12-24T15:43:00.000-06:00

Life is always hecktick around this time of year. It's a good hecktick, trying to bake extra, get Christmas cards out, finish schooling for the semester. This week included water in the basement AGAIN. This time through a crack in the foundation wall. UGH. We will turn this mess into a good thing though. Since the foundation will have to be dug out with a backhoe to find the length of the crack, Commander liked the idea of putting in an egress, and turning this corner of the room into another bedroom. He is trying really hard to get a room for his own - computer, man cave.

Wednesday was interesting with trying to make angel food cakes for us and cookies for the church non-Christmas Eve Christmas Eve service. The first cake came out great with no sugar. Didn't plan it that way. The second cake, well, it ended up in the garbage disposal. I forgot the flour, tried to pull the fluffy egg whites back out of the oven, they wouldn't whip up again once the flour was added. They had fluffed up so pretty, too. Commander came home and put the rush on getting to church early. So the cookies, they were still cooling on the table as we rushed out the door. Didn't think about them until the third song was being played.

The mail lady arrived a while ago. The Christmas cards were still sitting on the kitchen table. So I'll just shout it from the roof top
"MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY"
Thanks for stopping by the EFandB.

Twelve Days of Homeschool

2011-12-15T08:09:00.001-06:00

Twelve Days of Homeschool Here's one for the holidays.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday break homeschoolers.

Yeah! Commander is home

2011-12-14T22:08:00.000-06:00

I'm a bit late posting this great news. The Commander was able to come home Tuesday afternoon. He will recoop at home for the rest of the week before returning to work and having some back therapy. Since he has to lay low for a while, he is able to finish a Christmas gift calendar we make every year for his mother and ourselves - collage pictures for every month from the previous years. It's a great way to catalog pictures without having to stay up with photo albums. When I'm old and gray I'll just flip through the years having great memories - hopfully I'll remember.

Thank you for your prayers for Commander and the family.

In the hospital now

2011-12-12T11:56:00.000-06:00

Hey, Commander could use prayers. We had to use the ambulance service to help get him to the hospital for his back. He probably felt like he was going through labor with the amount of back spasms he was having. It was rough on him. Haven't been able to talk to him today, yet. Hopefully the meds are working and they are finding out if disc are involved. Thanks for the prayers.

doing better

2011-12-10T00:41:00.000-06:00

Thanks for your prayers. Commander was able to go to work for part of the day and then to the chiropractor. He is actually sitting up tonight. Yeah!

Have a great weekend.

Flat on his back - & T shirts for sale

2011-12-08T23:11:00.000-06:00

My po'r whittle Commander is flat on his back. There, that should do it. Once he sees that comment he'll be up in arms.

The guy pulled, yanked, or slipped his back Tuesday night right before he was scheduled to take over kid duty with boy scouts and soccer. He was hurting so bad his eyes were bugged out. He scared me. He did this 12 years ago right after T12 was born. I remember us placing the baby in the crook of Commander's arm while he lie on the floor. He couldn't hold the baby for a few days.

He had been down since Tuesday. This morning we did the early morning call to get a same day appointment with his therapist on post. Monday? They want to give him an appointment on Monday?. Now if that doesn't sound like our government stepping in and taking over the health system of our soldiers, I don't know what does.
I think it is chiropractor time. We have a good one in town that we've seen for 10 + years. It's time for him to work a little adjustment.
So if you don't mind, keep praying for the Commander. We could sure use him back on his feet. I don't want him getting to comfortable with me waiting hand and foot on him.

****
The track team is selling this t-shirt to raise money. If you feel like having a navy long sleeve shirt and want to support the team. Let me know. We have s-xl for $20.00 I'll throw in shipping. The proceeds will help us purchase uniforms, travel bags, and pay for travel expenses this first year.

Thanks for stopping by.

Life lessons are hard

2011-12-03T22:52:00.000-06:00

T12 had a hard day which kind of spilled over. He went camping with the Boy Scout crew last night. It started raining and rained all night and most of today. Commander had to pick him up in time for a soccer game at 6:00 tonight. He had left all his soccer gear in the van Thursday night, thinking this was a good idea. Wrong. This is not where his gear is supposed to be kept. He hurried into the house grabbed his shirt and shorts and ran to the van thinking he was doing good. Four miles down the road we pulled over to search the van for a missing soccer sock. To end the turmoil of the moment, we decided to stop at W**mart and buy him a pair of socks - which he needs anyway. This was almost a mistake. There were three lanes open at each end of the store and 4 to 5 people in each line. I think the maniac look in my eyes as I stared at the closed express lanes informed the woman in front of me that I really needed to cut in line. She was a real sweetie, and understood when I explained that we were trying to get to the game with this detour. Ugh.
At the fieldhouse, we end up waiting (thank goodness) because games are running late. T12 joins his team before the game and takes off his sweats. That's when we realize he is wearing his white shirt and one white sock. His full soccer team is green and white, but when they split the team for Futsal, his team is considered the white team, but they are suppose to carry both shirts with them to all games. T12 didn't have his green top with him since he changed so fast at home and didn't bring his soccer bag. So, of course with the way things were going today, he would need his green shirt. The coach found a LARGE shirt for him to wear. Now, this worked out okay because the coach decided to put T12 into goalie and the other goalie needed a green jersey to play on the field. Are you getting all this?
We survived the game. 14-0 loss. It was pathetic. T12 joined us in the snack area to leave, he was carrying a green sock. The coach had found it at practice. The missing sock from the van.
Let's pray for him tomorrow. He has to help the Boy Scouts unpack at the church and then go to another game with Commander. If he forgets anything - he might be walking home.

one chest hair

2011-12-01T22:21:00.000-06:00

Okay, I'm not sure I'm ready for too many years of teenagers. Tonight one of the boys wanted to show me that he had one chest hair. Then he asked if I wanted to feel his "army-pit" (it's been called that since toddlerhood) to prove he has arm pit hair. Lord, help us through these teenage years.

Happenings

2011-11-30T22:51:00.000-06:00

Red Tail Hawk - chicken thief - killed one of our banties today. The predator couldn't get enough lift to clear the back fence and dropped "Camo". The boys just happened to be at the back door (not at the table doing schoolwork) and saw it all transpire. One ran out screaming at the hawk, another grabbed the airsoft gun, and the third stood with his mouth open in the back yard. I happen to be on the phone in the bedroom and heard enough commotion to look out the window just as the hawk cleared the neighbor's trees.

Camo is now buried at the site she was dropped. T12 took care of burying her between tears. He went out in muck boots, pajama pants, and no shirt. I didn't know this until he was coming back to the house and I was going out to find the rest of the birds. One of the black layers was squeezed between the black leaf bags we have piled up around the north side of the coop. She scared the daylights out of me when she ran out. The birds stayed in the coop the rest of the day. Even the ducks didn't want to come outside.

****
We had our first official track meeting with kids from the fall sports. Coach was giving them the spill about being late, just don't come if you can't be on time. Anything else? .... I jumped in with NO SWEATS, NO PRACTICE. We're not here to train like high schoolers, we will train to run in conference, nationals and Olympics if anyone has that desire. We don't need to mess around with pulled hamstrings, because someone doesn't want to wear sweats.

The kids told me today, that some one whispered, "Coach Deskis must be a H.A. (clue: donkey).
The ones working out with me started laughing as I handed them each a pair of $1 gloves. Yeah, coach - your a real H.A. giving us gloves, making us cookies. We told them you make us run 2 minute 800's for warm up.

A long time ago, Commander said we would compromise - I wanted three kids, he wanted six, so we would have nine. The last few weeks have filled those numbers with the college teenagers I'm coaching. A great group of kids to work with, and it was actually hard yesterday, when we split into groups, to see four of "my" athletes follow Coach Williams down the hall to meet with her - sprint coach. But they were all back out at the track today ready to run, jump and throw.

Please pray that I make an impact on these kids with God's light shining through me. It's a private Catholic school, but that doesn't mean the kids have faith in God. I want them to see their potential being put to use by God - how great it is when He is in charge of the body. I want to be the light that shines.

Celiac Stats - FYI

2011-11-28T10:03:00.000-06:00

--- On Sun, 11/27/11, * Angie - GlutenFreeClub.com * wrote:

I've been doing research again and found some interesting statistic about celiac disease and gluten intolerance. I thought you'd be interested in learning some of them.

I usually stay away from numbers, but I realized that the numbers can be a great way to prove to you how NOT alone you are in dealing with a gluten free lifestyle.

Keep in mind these are not just numbers but each single digit represents a living breathing person like you and me. By the way, all numbers are for the USA.

•It's estimated 1 out of every 133 people have celiac disease

•Out of every 100 people, 97 remain undiagnosed (horrors!)

•Over 3 million people have celiac disease

•It takes an average of 8 to 11 years for a US celiac to be properly diagnosed (oh horrors again!)

•Up to 10% of people with celiac disease also have type 1 diabetes (another autoimmune disease)

•Women have a celiac disease at a ratio of 3 to 1 when compared to men

•There are over 250 possible symptoms related to gluten intolerance

Well, that's enough stats for me. I've got to start thinking about what's for dinner tonight!

If you're thinking the same thing here's an idea for tonight's dinner.

http://www.glutenfreeclub.com/g/StuffedHerb/Chicken

Enjoy,

Angie.

Messed up mentally due to holiday

2011-11-26T18:32:00.001-06:00

Does having a holiday break in the middle of the week mess up your mental calendar? I don't know what happened to Friday, it's been a repeat Saturday - Commander watching football on tv (yuk), boys playing with Cam., and I've been writing lesson plans for three boys and workouts for 4 groups of athletes for next week, and putting together puzzles.

I'm so messed up that I just looked over at the Commander watching TV and asked him why he was watching it muted. He isn't - I've got headphones on. I'm listening to Pachabelle.

We have one more week of workouts with the track team before we have to turn the kids loose to study for semester exams. The break from going to workouts (for me) will be filled with writing workouts for the winter break, putting together a Track clinic which will include Dynamics, Active Drills, Plyometrics for upper and lower body, weight training without a weight room, individual event training sessions of what to do before you get on the track,( winter training), how to make some training equipment. We will have groups for sprinters/ hurdlers, throwers, jumpers, and distance. So if you know any high school athletes or coaches, have them contact me. The clinic will probably be late February.

These are our obnoxious practice javelins the boys helped me make. Then they broke the pink handled one and didn't tell me until Thanksgiving Day when I wanted to try it out. The nerds.

This year I've made hurdles to hops out of fencing from T.S.C. and lattice strips for our plyometric hops. The hurdles have a five inch spike and stake into the ground. Cool. I still need to make hurdles out of PVC piping for indoor practice. In the past, I've made plyoboxes, and plyoballs out of basketballs and water/sand. Just gets messy if they bust inside the gym. Oops.

Anybody else not ready for Christmas - cards, shopping, putting up a tree, baking, kids out of school. Right now it feels like a 400 meter hurdle race coming up next and I'm out of breath already. Oh well, one hurdle at a time.

I think I'll go put together another puzzle.
Anyone else like 1000+ puzzles?

A time for Thanksgiving and prayer

2011-11-23T23:17:00.000-06:00

A free nation UNDER GOD. How THANKFUL we should be for the freedoms granted to us by our constitution. One freedom that was never put into the constitution - because our Founding Fathers never thought there would be such a need, is the freedom to keep our parental rights.

Did you know that our parental rights are not locked into the constitution? The post at The Homeschool Apologist will make your heart flutter. The rights of the child that the U.N. is backing and wanting the United States to accept will take away your rights as a parent. It will give the schools the right to determine what education is appropriate for your child and at what age - to include acceptance of homosexuality in kindergarten. It will allow a thirteen year old to determine how many time a week his family can take him to church. It would allow a child of any age to decide for themselves what is their entertainment for the day - to include the internet.

Please check out the video at The Homeschool Apologist, or go straight to http://www.parentalrights.org/ . We need to make as many Americans as we can aware of what the government is trying to do to our God given rights. Our children and grandchildren need parental rights solidified into the Constitution of these United States.

I give thanks to God the Father for being our Father in Heaven, for loving us first, for giving us families, parents, and children. I also give thanks for this nation which we live. Please, God, protect our country. I pray that no man will be allowed to destroy the parental rights that hold our families together, and in turn hold our nation together.

Happy Thanksgiving America. May God Bless You.

More Vacation fun

2011-11-15T21:51:00.002-06:00

Or maybe I should say - Field Trip, yeah, it was a field trip.

Can you find the face? Kinda hard from this angle, it's winking.

Can you see the Garnet? We panned in the stream at Sabino Canyon with a couple of convervation specialist. Let's just say they didn't want any of the garnets leaving the canyon. You do it the same way as panning for gold. Something I could spend my day doing. It is a lot of fun. They also had a magnet for you to sweep through your find to get the magnetite out - think of those bald headed board games where you move a magnet over the metal shavings and give the guy a beard, or hair. It was cool.

If you are sitting this high at a football game, shouldn't you just go home and watch it on the TV? They were ten rows from the tippy-top. Hawk held onto the seat behind him when the wind blew. T12 just laughed. Thank goodness I was already back home.

Super Mom, not..... One big plane, though.

THis one had me steaming. A restaurant in Tucson advertised free gluten - I was hoping for a clearer picture. I really wanted to call the main company office and let them know that two boys and I weren't happy with their making fun of our auto-immune disease that we have to live with daily. Other than the last one we had a good time.
*** I found the restaurant and emailed the main office. I was nice, sorta, let them know that a menu of pizza topping on a plate with a salad would be better than hacking off celiac sprue customers.

Field Trip, Vacation, Homeschooling

2011-11-13T00:08:00.001-06:00

Nothing better for homeschooling than a field trip. This one just happened to be in Arizona. Where you come across signs like this one while hiking.....

One thing the boys learned about the Desert around Tucson, is that everything can bite you back - including the plants.

There is also a lot of beauty in the desert.

The cactus in the area are called Saguaro and they are indigenous to the area. You won't find them anywhere else.

This one is a young one. Only about 50-60 years old - the little arm starting on the side gives the age away.
Have you hugged your Saguaro yet, today?

The Sonora Desert Museum has a hummingbird pavilion and a larger bird pavilion that you walk into and spend time with the little buggers buzzing your heads. They are so cute. Hard to take a picture of, yet they don't seem camera shy. THis little one gave me a nice profile shot.

Just be careful about being friendly with the wild critters. Don't panic, there is a plate of glass between Herogian and the Rattlesnake.

Nineteen years ago, I snagged on to this 'fine' find in the desert. He's a keeper. This is Sabino Canyon behind us at the top of the tram ride.

More field trip pictures later.

Have a great weekend.

Random

2011-11-12T00:04:00.000-06:00

Monday was hunting, track practice, and picking the guys up at the airport in a scary rainstorm. Herogian and his hunting partner, Mr. J. had a great time cleaning up at the hunting preserve. They came home with 10 -12 birds. They hunted with two of Mr. J's dogs and Penny for four hours. The rain started as soon as we arrived home. I had time for a quick shower (well, it ended up being longer than it should have been) and dashing out the door for track practice.

Track practice - interesting, when it rains where do we get to practice. We are the low sport on the totem pole - being our first year. We ran circles around the Cheer leading/dance quad on a basketball court. They are the other new team at the bottom of the totem pole. We managed to wear the athletes out for a good practice. Spontaneity, flexibility, making it up on the spot, -- three skills of coaching.

That evening the Kansas City area had a horrendous thunderstorm. Or, that's how it felt while trying to drive to the airport to pick up Commander and the other two boys. I realized as I drove into the airport that their flight might have been cancelled in Texas due to the size of the storm. I was ready to sleep in the van instead of driving back home. It took thirty minutes (flight delayed) for my heart to calm down and head to clear. Praying without ceasing.

Archery tonight was a bust. I needed to adjust my sight just a hair. You might say it adjusted itself when it slipped out of the groove and bounced to the floor - I had loosened the wrong screw. It is like trying to look in a mirror and unscrew something behind your back - that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it. The screw on the part you want to move is not the screw to undo. I lost to Herogian again.

Today is Veteran's Day. Thank God for all our heroes who have fought for freedom in the world. I love you, Commander. I love you Dad.

A hunting we will go.

2011-11-06T18:54:00.000-06:00

Herogian had a great day at the Youth Pheasant and Quail hunt. He hit three pheasant and three quail. One of the pheasants sailed into an adjoining property and we never found it. Herogian had a 17 inch tail on one of his pheasants. The last group of the day had an 18" tail.
We are going back in the morning with our hunting buddy Mr. J to do clean up. We get to hunt for anything still in the fields, and give our dogs training. Praying the skies will stay clear.

Time, time, time

2011-11-05T20:50:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I was on Arizona time - 2 hours difference. Today, Central Standard Time. Tomorrow - daylight savings time ends. I think that will put us closer to Arizona time again. Does that mean we get the sun in our eyes when driving west at 6:00pm? I think so.

We came home yesterday to find a young raccoon curled up on our front porch trying to sleep in the corner out of the breeze. We put a dog crate out there for the little one (planning to catch it and let animal control take care of it) and some bread. He used the cage for at least a while - left a present. We will try again tonight. If we don't catch him, the coyotes might. We are getting quite a few of them in the area. We can hear them hollering and partying after dark. It's kind of a freaky sound. The city is trying to decide if land owners can shoot the intruders on their property....... I had my bow adjusted at Cabela's today. Ooops, off topic.

Tomorrow, Herogian has the Youth Quail and Pheasant Hunt with the post rod and gun club. Only problem is that it isn't on post this year due to all the heavy flooding along the Missouri River. We have an hour drive northwest of here to a hunting organization. Herogian is bouncing with excitement.

T12 in a police car?

2011-10-29T22:22:00.001-05:00

He, actually, was on the right side of the law, thank goodness.
Commander was taking T12 to Cam's house to play this afternoon. When they turned the corner in the expensive neighborhood, there was smoke rolling out of the gulley. Commander and T12 stopped to investigate. After intering the gulley T12 could see two boys building a fire. The boys took off when they saw T12. Commander drove to Cam's house and called for the police, and a fire truck (small one) came out, too, when he returned with T12 and Cam to the gulley. The owner of the property also showed up about that time to find out where the smoke was coming from.
T12 and Cam were able to ride with the police officer and show him which neighborhood the boys ran. Unfortunately, they didn't find the boys. Commander said they had a fire going in a culvert and were trying to ignite a large log. The police and the owner were really glad that T12 and Commander called.

T12 said the police ride was really cool.

OU beat K-State 59-17. YES. Maybe that will teach that boy (Hawk) to not like purple cats. AAAAGHGH!

Pay up, Mom!

2011-10-29T00:11:00.000-05:00

All right, my shooting was pathetic tonight. Herogian beat me arrow tips down. 371-362. I bought him a candybar this time. The competitor in me hates not improving. I dropped thirty-five points from last week, thirty-nine from the previous week. UGH! Something though was throwing a few arrows. Herogian got a few laughs when we found more than one arrow completely off my target page. I'll have to check a few things before we shoot again. Having a soft carry bag isn't the best for arrows, it might be bending the fletching too much. Herogian wants to try and make a better carrying case for my arrows. What a sweetheart.

Track practice was awesome today. A big stroke to the ego from the kids. When I told them we were doing 2 x 6 x 100. One of the guys, J.C., asked, "IS that all, Coach?"
"I can change them to 200's if you want?"
"No, that's okay. But is that ALL, Coach?"
"Well, we'll do some work over the hurdles."
"WOW." He turned to the others. "This is going to be easy!"

During the workout, I looked up to see the six athletes walking back after run #9. They all had their hands on their hips. You could tell they were breathing deep. They were lined up in front of the green hill with orange and yellow trees behind them and each of them was wearing something black - picture perfect. I'd love to have a picture of that scene with DEDICATION underneath it. It reminded me of the poster for COURAGEOUS.

J.C. also commented during practice, "I really want us to make it to nationals. They'd have to make a movie about us, out here in the park training cause we don't have a track, with a coach that builds us hurdles."

When we moved on to the hurdles, we did a few hop overs, then I wanted them to work on what is called "A MARCHING" this is working on the down drive of the leg to get it back to the ground as quickly as possible. S.M. was the first one to go and he kind of got hung up on the second hurdle. OUCH! He pulled his shorts up as far as he could possible pull them - into his arm pits, then went again. This time with no problem. The other guys decided to follow him by pulling up their shorts. If I only had a camera. Here were five guys with their waist bands pulled up to their chest. Geeky! Funny! "Hawk", L.R., our female athlete, and I couldn't stop laughing."

They also made me feel really good when J.B. said he heard the newest coach added this week would be working with hurdlers and sprinters and I would be with the throwers and jumpers. Two of the sprinters asked if they could be long jumpers. Stroke, stroke, to the ego.

Can you tell I'm loving it?

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by.

Found an answer to prayer

2011-10-26T22:07:00.000-05:00

I've been praying for an adjustment to our homeschooling schedule that would in some way lighten the load, but still allow us to cover all our subjects. Doing them all daily was wearing us down. I can see it in the decline in grades and memory retention.
I bounced over to Eagle Eye Academy where I found some Tasty Tuesday recipes. While glancing through her list of blogs she follows I thought I'd check out My4sweetums. She had the solution to my prayers right there in her blog. She was discussing their "Themed Weeks". We will give it a try after our trip to Tucson. We will concentrate on Science one week then Geography the next. THis will allow us more time to cover the information and work on memory of the important stuff to pass the test! Reading,Writing,and Arithmatic will stay on our daily schedules. Already it just sounds a lot easier to deal with on a weekly basics.

Feeling the Burn

2011-10-26T21:30:00.000-05:00

Today was cool, windy, and perfect for track practice. Five guys showed up for circuit training, bleachers, and bounding. If it wasn't so much fun being active and doing this stuff with them, it would probably be smart of me to remember how old I am compared to them.
BLEACHERS.
At OU we would run up the east side of Owens Field. I think it was 23 steps then, and they grew in height as you went upward. We would actually run eight to ten repeats. The sprinters would fly to the top. It was amazing to watch them. They would take one quick step to the left and be around the passage opening halfway up without slowing down.

Our little field has eight rows of seats that we did 2x8 == Squat hopped up the 8 rows of seats 16 times. We then finished off with a CORE EXERCISE Circuit and a PLYOBALL Circuit of 45 seconds on and 30 seconds off.

The joy has been the attitudes, they are willing and ready to do what is asked of them.

I had to giggle when one of them started talking about food. He couldn't wait to get to the cafeteria. Another one said he wasn't going to the cafeteria, he was going home to lie on the couch and moan. He would see if his mother and father would feed him while he convalesced, if not, he'd get breakfast tomorrow. I think I need to give his parents a heads up.

Homeschooling hit a fat wall yesterday. One of those days where you wonder why you are doing this, and I had just ordered the next math book for T12. Today made up for it. The boys were done in time to help our Youth Pastor in a small community service job this afternoon while I was coaching. Thanks for taking them, C.C. We have to work on their self esteem though. One of them said he was a 'B' student and that was good enough for him. I can't see settling for that. That's not giving God 100%. T12 just walked by and I asked him about that last statement. HMMMM made an impact.

Have a great weekend.

T12 Northley 3rd place pumpking

2011-10-22T21:02:00.000-05:00

At the church cookout tonight with the pumpkin contest 'Northley' won third prize. The judges really didn't know who had carved what until they called the winner out and asked the kid to come forward. So it was comical when the judge made the comment that "this pumpkin must be a Deskis pumkin and it wins 3rd place. Who owns this pumpkin?" Northley stepped forward to claim his prize of Sizzlers.

Hawk didn't get his pumpkin done in time for the contest. We will try to get it done for next weekend.

I did get to talk to a doctor tonight that deals with diabetes and hypoglycemia. She gave me some suggestions to help us start figuring out what is going on with blood sugar or blood pressure. Thanks Dr. M.R.

T12 Northley's Pumpkin and Hawk's birthday

2011-10-22T09:23:00.000-05:00

He spent a lot of time yesterday adding to this, then he had to start adding tape to hold it all together.

THis past Monday was Hawk's birthday. He is now 14. Ice cream cake consisted of Chocolate Chip and Chocolate, Butterscotch and Chocolate syrup, whip cream and candy toppings.

He is using the 'force' to put the candle out. He's playing with the smoke trail. We set out candles in small votices for birthday blow outs. A show once convinced me not to put candles on the cake and have kids blowing their spitty germs all over it. The boys like the harder challenge of blowing the candles out when they have to get over the top of each one.

This was his big gift this year. 1200+ lego pieces. He has started it this weekend while watching the Green Lantern we borrowed from the library. If you know what day a new movie is released on DVD, call the library and ask to be put on hold for it. Hawk has been the first to get the movie from them about three times now.

Here's the boys, Casey in Hawk's arms, Herogian and T12 Northley.

sugar drop, caffeine high, 397 and 9 x 200

2011-10-21T23:26:00.000-05:00

What does that all mean you ask? Oh, you didn't ask. Well, I'll tell you anyway because the caffeine must still be in my system.

Track practice included 2x4x200's in the park, half uphill, half downhill. It would have been half downhill if the kids hadn't got me talking on training technique changes in the last 10 years (see yesterday's post) and we walked all the way back down the hill when we should have been running. Therefore, we did an extra uphill run. I warned them for future reference not to get me yakking between repetitions. One of the guys pointed out that on a previous day it caused them to run 6 instead of 5 x 75's. So how did it end up being 9? One of the athletes was a little late getting there, so, I ran her last 200 with her, that made 9 for me. I actually thought the other kids would jump in and run the last one with her also. THat's what I get for thinking.
"Hawk" did go to practice with me today and he ran the 2 x 4 x 200's with the college students. I was proud of him.

THe sugar drop came afterwards. Hawk and I stopped at _Mart to buy purple paint for his pumkin and he picked up a 'Mountain Dew'. For some reason the kid has become a Kansas State Wildcat fan. Purple, uggggh. Anyway, we pull out of the parking lot and my blood sugar must have dived. I could feel the blood leaving my hands, my head starting to swim as we passed through the corner light. I told Hawk to grab my purse and find some candy, then I remembered that I'm only carrying sugarfree stuff. I pulled into the first neighborhood and grabbed his DEW. after a few sips, I realized Hawk was just starring at me in horror. I had drank his soda! "You can just keep it, Mom. Can we stop at the dollar store so I can get another one?"
We sat in the neighborhood for a while, then at the dollar store, and finally I felt well enough to make it home. (I'll be researching exercise induced hypoglycemia in a few minutes).

An hour later after dinner, Herogian and I headed off for archery. Yes, I was praying the whole way for a clear head.
Tonight was a blast. Herogian had his draw length lengthened twice. During these changes he had to keep changing his sights. His score tonight was 117, 117 and 117. With all the changes, it was a surprise to see him shoot so consistantly.
My shooting went like this center of target = X 99 8 my three shots, next round 8 99 X. They were right in line with the X The last round was even more of a kicker 999 X with the three shots all being in the 9 ring. If an arrow breaks the line at all between rings, you can take the higher score. Nooo. They were touching each other, not the 10 ring. I shot a 397, 4 down from last week. Herogian and I are having a blast and I've been drinking DEW all evening long.

Will post some pumpkin carving pictures later. They have a pumpkin carving contest with the church family next weekend and the boys are hoping to win something this year.

Have a great weekend. We plan too. Herogian is taking Penny hunting. T12 Northley has one last fall soccer game. Hawk has a thousand plus lego set to put together, Commander has TKD, and wait a minute, my schedule says do grade cards, lesson plans, chop wood, and work on Sunday. Oh bother.

Teaching an old coach a new technique

2011-10-20T22:33:00.000-05:00

Thursday, October 20, 2011 A good read about Dynamics

Tonight I read Dynamic Stretching by Mark Kovacs, Ph.D., CSCS. Since being hired to coach track and field, I've been refreshing my mind over the different stretching techniques trying to make sure I use the correct terms (most frequently heard), so our athletes will be familiar with what I'm asking them to do. So the "Doggie" exercise we did Monday is actually called "Fire Hydrant", like that really makes a big difference; both words put the same picture in your mind.

One thing the book clearified for me, is why static stretching before workouts and competition is being frowned upon in speed and power events such as track and field. The scientific research over the last 10-15 years has proved that static stretching actually "have shown decreases in immediate performances by as much as 30%.... and last approximately 60 minutes after the stretching routine." That's a big impact on jumping, sprinting, and throwing events. So the athletes "should limit or avoid slow static stretching within about an hour of training or competition."

Think back to the time we were in school and all the static stretching we did every day before every workout, or every event. It amazes me to think how far training techniques have changed. It's like computer technology - changing in leaps and bounds. Oh, I'm just too funny. NOT.

If you have an athlete at home, ask them if they are still static stretching before a game. If so, you might want to drop this blogspot in the coaches email. Together we'll direct them to a whole new improved method of training, or as the book cover says, " The Revolutionary New Warm-up Method to Improve Power, Performance and Range of Motion".

Have a great weekend.

DRESS WARMLY IN LAYERS FOR PRACTICE FROM NOW ON. NO MORE BARE LEGS.

WHich one is Dad??

2011-10-16T16:53:00.000-05:00

Good question. I believe he is on the left side of the picture, back row. First, look to the young man in the wheelchair on the left with the dark blue sweater with rainbow suspenders, go straight up from his right shoulder and behind the two guys in full view. Between them you get 3/4th of a face with a dark blue collar. His glasses are rimless so it blurs the face a bit, but the silver hair gives him away. Besides, he is 6'1" and always stand on the back row. Now, watch him tell me I'm wrong :-). THanks for asking Claudia.

I love this picture at the Unknown Soldiers grave. It looks like the second soldier (unknown's ghost) is just a split second out of step. An escort in charge of two Honor Veterans, one being Dad, took this photo and allowed me to take if from his facebook page. He unfortunately didn't get any single shots of Dad.

401, track, making up questions on a quiz

2011-10-14T23:23:00.000-05:00

Archery was relaxing tonight. There were a lot of people missing from the line ups. I shot against a family friend. He and I were neck and neck until the third to last shot. Something happened and his shot went wild. It hit the center of the paper, but outside of the three targets on the page. He still finished with a 406 and I with a 401. My first 400. Cool.

Someone made the comment that I needed to get the cord on my nose as an anchor point when I line up the arrow. Well, I tried. I just couldn't seem to do it. So I asked our resident pro. He had me line up after class and show him how I was doing it. I get a knuckle into my right ear as an anchor point. He had to laugh. My bow has the longest draw it can possibly have, yet, the knocking point doesn't even reach my face. I couldn't even lean forward and get my nose to the cord. I need a bigger bow. I need a light weight bow, with light poundage, therefore I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. I think I'll plan to get one when I shoot a 450 - a perfect round. That will at least give me something to work toward.

Track practice is fun. Today I had five young men running repeat build ups through the park for 100 yards +. Next week two or three girls should be joining us. The learning curve is steep right now. There is a lot about sprinting the "Modern" way as it is called, for me to re-learn. Also the throws and horizontal jumps again, and hurdles, blocks, you name it, I need a refresher course in it. But I love it. I'll be reading and watching videos for the next month or two. Cramming to get it all down before indoor season starts in January.

Herogian pulled a funny today. He had a science quiz. Question number 4 needed to answers. The test had two line for those two answers - 4. _______________ and 5.__________________ with the five line being underneath the 4 line and question.On the number 4 line he had squeezed in the two answers seperated by a (/).
Herogian took the empty 5 space a wrote his own question in there - "Should Herogian be given a new gun?" On the space at number 5 he wrote "YES". If I could find the camera, I'd take a picture.
I don't think a teacher in public school would enjoy the humor in his paper as much as I do. His question would have him sent to the prinicipal's office.

Wow Wednesday

2011-10-12T21:47:00.000-05:00

As you know from previous post, we had so much on the plate today to get done. It actually turned out to be a fun day.
The orthodontist appointment gave Herogian the words he has been waiting for - braces off before Thanksgiving.

T12 - Northly, helped me take all the food to church. He stayed with our youth pastor to set up the tables, stir the meat, and just hang out in good company - well, that was after his long division problems were finally done. He had a hard time with the fact that the worksheet doesn't always have enough room to complete a long division problem.

Track practice was a riot( in a fun way). The park is right across the street from the campus. These kids are so engrossed in school, life, and who knows what else, that they never really noticed that there was a park at the end of campus drive. They had to call from their cars to ask directions. When they arrived, they stood there shaking their heads in disbelief that they had missed the park. I wanted to welcome them to the feelings of ~~CHEMO BRAIN, menopause,~~ old age.

The park was perfect for running loooooonnnnnnngggggg inclined hills. The hard work of running to the top of the hill was worth the smiles when they found out the last two runs would take them back down the hill. And they forgave me when I goofed and had them run two 300's instead of a 300, 200. What a good group. They make me excited about what they will be able to do next spring. One athlete hasn't ran since his sophmore year in high school. He was leading the pack.

Dinner at church went off without a hitch this time. What a miracle. Commander was able to get there before me and the ladies were already setting things out. I ended up driving back to the park to find a weighted jumprope we had left at the circuit training area. Ugh. Doesn't it always happen that way when you are trying to get somewhere in a hurry? At least I wasn't pulled over by a police officer this time.

Thanks for the fund raising idea. Please keep them coming.

Happening around here

2011-10-12T00:51:00.000-05:00

The bird count took a dive this past weekend. Five roosters went Boy Scout Camping. Instead of ending up in the dutch oven, they came home on ice. Herogian cleaned them for Saturday's dinner, but a hike took longer than expected and they didn't have time to cook the chickens. Herogian and Commander both cooked a meal Monday with some of the birds. I'm just loving the fact that the boys are learning to cook meat, and cook it well.

First workout with the team was Monday afternoon. (six attended) I'll meet with them again on Wednesdays and Fridays. The Veteran's Administration Center has an empty park just across the road from the campus main entrance. It has a long sloping hill from north to south. The wind usually blows from the north or south around here. The kids will soon find that I love windy hill work in autumn. Can you say Repetition?

Coach has handed over the fund raising department to me. Yeah great. I'm thrilled. Can't you tell excitement is just oozing from my pores. Just knocked me out of my comfort zone with one blow. He wants me to come up with fund raising ideas that will bring in great profit so we can buy equipment, traveling supplies, and everything else we will need to outfit a team. Any ideas you want to throw my way would be greatly appreciated. Please keep throwing the ideas.

The marathon training has gone out the window. The right foot just isn't responding to treatment. At the three mile mark it starts screaming. Commander has started taking Taekwondo again, and with me coaching, we don't foresee a trip to White Sands next March. So nix that idea. It was fun while it lasted.

~~Tomorrow~~ Today will be crazy. Get the boys up to start homeschooling, throw them in the car for orthodontist appointments for the three of us. Rush home to pack all the fixings for a church meal into the car. Rush that to the church, unload, get the meat, cheese, lettuce, tortillas and topping all set up. Rush out of there for track practice and then back to church for prepping the rest of dinner and having it all ready to serve at 6:00. If you are hungry, come join us at Wyandotte County Christian Church for a gluten free meal. It's a 2-3 dollar donation.

Well folks, it is after midnight. I need to crash on the couch and read Judges for a while before I'll be able to sleep.
Finding God's word waiting for me in the quiet of the night is like having him wrap his arms around me as I cuddle on his lap of comfort and protection.

I'm finally official

2011-10-05T10:38:00.000-05:00

Here's one of the perks. A T-SHIRT.
Now I can get out there and start recruiting athletes. We meet this Thursday to see which kids from campus are interested in joining the team (besides those in other sports right now). Once they have their physicals done, I can start working them out and setting up their weight lifting programs.
I come from a background where track and field training starts - well - it never ends. You back off a bit in August but by September you are into an eight week cycle of heavy conditioning. Please pray I don't scare these kids off. I usually do the workouts with the kids that way I can monitor my own weakness and know if I'm pushing too hard.
I'm excited.
We will have two indoor meets and a conference. Then we go into outdoor season. We will do most of our meets here in the Kansas City area since we don't have the budget or the numbers of athletes. Thank goodness for little starts.
If you know of any high school seniors with the grades that would like to still run track, let me know. If they have a 3.5 or better they get a lot of the tuition taken care of through scholarships.

Have a great week.

Archery League, underwear, and when I'm old and can't remember anything

2011-09-30T23:49:00.001-05:00

I love this sport. Archery. It can make me feel so good. Then with the very next shot it can humble me down to my knees.
450 league started tonight. Herogian and I were competing against each other for a candy bar. My two practice rounds were promising, my sights were lined up, I was ready to take him on.

First round, I shot three arrows at three targets on the page. I didn't want to look at the results until I had put the bow away. Herogian was standing there with his binoculars.
"How did I do?"
"Well, the first and the third shots are tens, but where is your second shot?"
"What?"
"Oh, there it is? Nice one, Mom. You shot Dennis's target and hit a ten. But, you know, that's a zero for the score card."
Then we heard Dennis exclaim about his target. "Why are there two arrows on my number 2 target?"
This was going to be an exciting evening.
Herogian 375, Mom 386. Dennis 403, and Dave 424. That was our score card.

T12-Northly Davis is pestering me while I blog. He wants me to smell his underwear that he found left in a string backpack in the back of his friend's dad's truck. That is such a boy thing! Really, he wants me to smell his underwear because "he says it smells like a "Minty Hotel Room". YUK!
He has been shoving it in my nose, not realizing I'm so plugged up there is no way I 'll ever smell it. I'll die first or snaught on his underwear.

"Okay Mom, I'll do it if you do it."
""NO. The last time I ever did anything when someone said,"I'll do it after you." I ended up going off a retaining wall on a bike with no brakes, hippy bar on back and wide handle bars that spun around and knocked my jaw out of line after the hippybar hit me in the back of the head. The neighborhood kids had to pull me out of the chainlink fence and rosebushes. The teenager who loaned me the bike, popped my jaw from the other side to get it back in place. The gang all ran off laughing at me, while the teenager told me not to cry or my mom would ban them from jumping their bikes off the retaining wall in our backyard. SO.... NO I won't do it before you!"
THat is such a boy thing. Groce.
"Okay Mom, we are not in Back to the Future! We are not in your childhood. You don't have a bike! The retaining wall is gone, conquer your fears," he whispers in my ear while trying to shove the AWSOME UNDERWEAR (his doing) in my face. Guess I'll just blow my nose on it and send him to bed with it. WHat a hoot that child is. Favorit underwear. Never heard of that catagorie for boys.

Coming home from Archery, Herogian was talking about his future as a vet, then when he retires he wants to live in a small community close to Cabela's so he can work there. I told him that when he retired from being a vet - especially if he is one for the Armed Services, that he won't want to go from a high end paying job to a minimal paying job.
"Yes, I will when I'm so old that I can't remember what I'm doing.

I started laughing, "The store won't want you when you can't remember what you are doing."
"Oh I could work in the fly fishing department and make flies."
"Yeah, I could see you checking someone out. "How much change do I need to give you? One hundred. Didn't you pay with a credit card." Hand to ear. "What's that you say? Two hundred. Okay."
Good thing it is the weekend. I don't think I could do a day of schooling with these two boys this wound up with the giggles.

Herogian had a chance at a deer the other night and might get another chance next Tuesday. Pray for the hunter's safety,please.

Have a great one.

Happenings

2011-09-24T21:02:00.000-05:00

Time out for a cold this week for everyone in the family. Ugh. I'm saying it all came from the Commander getting the flu shot and then getting sick. I'm not sold on getting flu shots.

I did get the coaching job and start Monday if the school has all the paperwork in order for me to sign. They did up the pay a bit, thanks to the assistant cross-country coach and coach convincing the administration to do so. Those guys are already spoiling me. We will start with around six kids to coach this fall, and grow to around 20 for outdoor season after football and basketball are finished.

Commander started a Taekwondo class. It is a slightly different style then what he did in the past (3rd degree black belt) that he has to be a white belt again in with the younger kids. He was stiff this afternoon when we went to T12's soccer game. We are still trying to walk together, but the foot is still giving me fits.

Archery starts this coming Friday for Herogian and I. We shot a few rounds in the back yard. I hit a 29 out of 30. Herogian wants to team up with me this year. Do you remember last year when he didn't want to team up with me? Tri-County's Rod and Gun Club Archery page on Facebook has Herogian and his shooting buddies as its image. Cool.

Cute an onery

2011-09-20T13:19:00.000-05:00

What a look of devotion.

What a look of oneriness. Attacking at the top of the stairs again.

Coach D.

2011-09-20T09:43:00.000-05:00

I've been told I have the assistant coaching job for our local college. It is crazy how excited I get over coaching track and field. I thought I could walk away from it. I've tried not to get excited about the possibility of coaching again. I even told myself that the administration would hire one of their teachers just to give them the stipent and keep it 'inhouse'. I guess the desire is still buried deep within my heart. I wanted to dance a jig last night when the assistant cross-country coach walked over to let me know.
I'll find out more by the end of the week. I'm praying about the finances. They could up the stipent a little which would be a big help.

Thanks for stopping by this week. Hope you have a great one.

Done with the jungle - garden

2011-09-14T21:11:00.001-05:00

A year ago we decided to put in a garden. Commander bought a rototiller. A big thing that could run away with him hanging on behind and eat fence at the same time. We put in about 100 feet of fencing to keep the chickens and dogs out of the selected area. The back corner was alloted for drying branches that would eventually end up as firewood, the extra dirt was piled back there and a composter was added to the area.
After two years, the only things left in the garden area are two blueberry bushes, two rows of asparagus on their second year, and every kind of weed known to the Kansas plains.

Today, it just hit me that enough was enough. I'm getting rid of the weeds, the fence, and taking over the land again as easy-to-cut-not-fenced-in- backyard. I worked with the hoe, I worked with the riding lawn mower, I pulled with my hands. When T12 came outside, I asked if he would want to use the machette.
His eyes bugged out, he jumped up and down, then ran to the house to get the blade. ( disclaimer here) He has been taught by the Commander on proper use of a machette.

I pointed him to the back corner and asked him to cut down a buttercup -something -or -other kind of weed.
"Mom, look!" He was standing on the willow stump. He withdrew the blade and thrust it skyward. "All for the Willow!"
What a character.

I bent over to pull crabgrass and heard him chopping. The only problem was that it sounded too close. I turned around and hollered. "T12 - that's the sunflower!"
He looked up over his head at all the yellow flowers, back at me, shrugged. "Oops! Can I cut it down anyway?"
After about 5 minutes he was done with the sunflower and the back corner. He wanted more. I pointed to the same kind of weed growing on the other side of the aspargus rows. I went back to work and he did a number on the weeds AND the asparagus.
"T12, that ASPARAGUS!"
"Oops! Will Dad get mad?"
"Just let me tell him."

Herogian had joined us by this time and wanted to use the machette. T12 asked to practice driving the mower, without blades. I showed him the mower, told him to drive a path around a large tree and I went to open the gate.
He didn't follow the path I gave him, he cut it short and ran right over a small sapling of an oak tree. Thank goodness the blades weren't engaged. The little tree at least sprang back and wobbled like a drunkerd.

It was time to call it quits when I grabbed something that slit the finger. OW! But the garden is almost yard again.
THis weekend should do the trick. Three of the four gone for boy scouts, Hawk and I should be able to get a lot of yard work done. Anyone else praying for rain over the weekend?

9/11 memory from a soccer dad

2011-09-11T22:34:00.000-05:00

I sat next to a father this morning at a soccer game. It was 7:50 in the morning when he mentioned that there was six minutes left while looking at his watch. He said he would have been in the Pentagon sitting in an office with a friend at the time the building was struck if he hadn't had to change his schedule and gone to another building first. He and his friend, at the pentagon, would have been sitting in the office catching up on old times when the plane would have struck his office wall.
Since he wasn't there sitting with his old friend catching up on old times, his friend wasn't in the office either. His friend was down around a corner or two of the building getting breakfast. Their lives were spared. The father was taking pictures of his young twelve year old son playing soccer on a wet field as the sun rose in the east over the trees to illuminate the players. It was a blessed morning.

How about another job?

2011-09-08T23:06:00.000-05:00

It doesn't pay worth a hoot ( I will get a polo shirt and a t-shirt to wear). I'd probably spend more on gas traveling back and forth . The boys will have to be more diligent about getting their work done earlier in the afternoon. I can't quit the cashier job at Price Chopper - I need to make some money. But to coach - to coach track and field - to coach track and field at a small university - too cool. The job hasn't been posted yet, so there's no holding the breath. I met with and liked the head coach and assistant cross-country coach, and they seemed to like my back ground.
Prayers that this works out for the good of the family and school and doesn't become a thorn in our side.
I LIKE TO COACH.
You can also pray that the school gets equipment and a track someday. For now we will be using local high school tracks and the one on post.

Prayer Warrior for our boys - What are we aiming for?

2011-09-07T12:19:00.000-05:00

If you are joining me for praying for your boys, this is from the Warrior Prayers ebook.
This one hit home. As I was reading this page, one of the boys walked in holding his shoulder where a brother had just whacked him. The brother was shouting that it was an accident, he didn't mean to hit him hard. Yet, he must have meant to hit him, because he made contact 'hard' with his brother's shoulder.
The third child at this time was doing an adverb page in English for the third time. UGHH! BOYS!
We definitely have to keep praying for them. I highlighted a few points for myself.

What Are We Aiming For?

___________________________________________________________________________________________

“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove

the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my

Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

~Ezekiel 36:26-27

I swear--young boys are a whole different breed of human. Mothers of girls often glare at me as if to say,

“Do they act that way all the time?” I often want to glare right back and say, “Yes! They do!”

Parenting my sons is my greatest joy and my greatest challenge. I love them to the ends of the earth and

back, but honestly, sometimes they suck the life out of me. I get so discouraged when it seems that even

my best efforts to reach their hearts miss the mark. I have all the right books (and I’ve actually read

them--some several times!). Each day I target the hearts of my boys, aiming high and taking my best

shot. But so many days I fall short, or my aim is off, or I’m just too weary to pull the bow back far

enough for the arrow to have the strength to pierce the heart. I go to bed those nights exhausted physically

and emotionally. But in my weakness, He is strong.

Perhaps the best place for a weary mom to be is physically and emotionally exhausted and on her knees.

With each day that passes, I’m more convinced that I have absolutely no power to change the hearts of

my boys. Oh, I can change their behavior if I try hard enough. Anyone can do that. But I know that

what’s in the heart eventually comes out. I know that if their knees are ever to bend to Jesus as Savior,

their hearts must bend first. And that’s God’s business.

I’m praying that you’ll grasp this concept so clearly that it will bring you strength and peace in the midst

of your wildest storms. You cannot change the hearts of your boys. You can’t. Period. It’s not your job.

It’s so important that you get this, friends, because you’re going to want to be able to change their hearts

more than anything in the world. Days, months, maybe even years of endless toil and labor for the sake

of your sons will go by with no apparent fruit. Night after night you will cry out to the Lord for change.

Day after day you will parent intentionally seeking the heart of your son. But until the King of kings and

Lord of lords turns his heart of stone to a heart of flesh, your son’s actions will be motivated by what is

pleasing to himself rather than by what is pleasing to the Lord.

As we journey into this process of praying for our sons, let’s remember this foundational concept: the first

and most important thing we must do is pray that God will change their hearts of stone to hearts of flesh.

These verses from Ezekiel thirty-six have become the theme of my parenting. I pray them for my sons

most every day. Because I know that until their hearts are softened by the Lord, to the Lord, nothing else

matters all that much.

www. warriorprayers.com

Casey, arrow, sprinkles, table

2011-09-03T22:41:00.000-05:00

Happy Labor Day weekend. Sprinkles can smile too! (Sorry it is so blurry). I was adjusting the lens then 'Hawk' decided to move his hand.

This is what happens to you when you are short, hairy, four legged and come into the house dirty.

Can you see the arrow pointing down toward the left corner? 'Hawk' did this with a PVC pipe and darts from about 10 feet out.

This is the table I built last year using the legs from a previous school room table. The only problem was that the legs were about a foot in from the corners. the two chairs couldn't slide under. I sit back left and had to straddle the table leg. Bought the wood this morning, screwed it together painted it, and then switched the table top to the new legs. I always have fun doing wood projects.

Thanks for stopping by.

Big foot

2011-09-02T22:59:00.000-05:00

No we didn't have a sighting in the area. Commander took me to Cabela's to try on hiking boots. You should have seen the look on the clerks face in the men's department when I asked for a size 10. He glanced at the Commander, started to point to the women's department....
Commander spoke up and told him, "Yeah, she has a big foot and needs a man's boot."
"I just wanted to make sure." He sheepishly sunk away to get the shoes.

I got a nice pair of Merrell Mid-high Kangaroo/Boa hikers. Just like a kid, I've been wearing them around the house.

After our walk today, I used an old recovery technique from the training days. ICE BATH. I pulled the metal tank, that we had used as a brooder for the chicks, out of the garage, cleaned it out, filled it half with water and emptied the ice container into it. It wasn't as cold as they use to keep them in the training rooms, but it sure felt good. Dipped in all the way to the chest so I could get the arm and shoulder into it. I actually had goosebumps by the time I crawled back out.
When I was training, the ice would be floating on the water. We would switch after five minutes from a cold whirlpool to a hot whirlpool and then back again for a twenty minute cycle. Can you tell I'm enjoying the training again?

Now, if I could just find a way to write on my stories while I'm walking. I'm open for your ideas.

3 hours of walking

2011-09-02T17:56:00.000-05:00

Commander and I complete 10.5 miles this afternoon through the streets of Leavenworth. Only had to make short stops for the feet, and water refill at a park. I'm pooped.

Ready to look for hiking boots for the walk, though. That's how good the walk was today. Will be glad when I can get my rings off my fingers, forgot to wear my lymphadema sleeve. Won't do that again.

Happy Labor Day Weekend.

walking and boys

2011-09-02T00:18:00.000-05:00

Tonight was my first night back at the track with Commander. We did 24 laps in just over 2 hours. I walked with ten extra pounds strapped around my waist and then the camelbac on top. Only a few twinges in the right foot, but adjusting some cushioning in the shoe seemed to help. If I can make a LSD trip (yeah, man) tomorrow (LONG SLOW DISTANCE is all it means) then I'll start shopping for a pair of desert hiking boots. I'm excited. The distance came out to 6 1/2 miles because we were in the 6th lane of the track.

Boys arent' very good about keeping time when they are suppose to be in bed. T12, though, is great at knowing what day it is, especially, the first day of the month, which he claims is for buying sprinkles for his ice cream and one bag of chips each. The only problem T12 has with the first of the month is that the sprinkles don't last more than the first week with the three of them decorating their ice cream. He cringes on the night they sprinkle the last few drops - "it's so terrible for the rest of the month. Woe is me!" Can't you just hear him. Another item they only get at the first of the month is a fridge pack of soda. Twelve soda's between three boys one allowed every other day, doesn't last long. Wait until next month boys.

THree weeks of schooling done, and I have to make an adjustment to my schedule, not the boys. I need more individual time with each of the boys, so we will try to do it by blocking hours. That really means I have to roll out of bed earlier, since Hawk starts when Dad leaves for work. And here I am at midnight blogging.

Have started another writing project to go along with everything else. I'm not sure what to title it, so I'll just say it is about enjoying the fruit around the pit - with the pit being cancer. I'm writing it like a Dairy and focusing on the funny stuff in life that got us through along with the Biblical passages that spoke to my heart and soul.

I feel like my brain needs to be defragged while trying to remember things in order. Commander says as long as I don't have a blue screen of brain death, I'm okay. Thanks Commander. I love you too.

Warrior Prayer Challenge

2011-08-30T09:14:00.000-05:00

I just bought the ebook. I'll be joining a friend from church to be a Warrior Prayer for our boys. I hope you can join us in this challenge.

life makes me smile

2011-08-26T23:43:00.000-05:00

T12 had to read the original short story "Lassie, Come Home". He wanted to know where the guy that fell in the well was in the story, and where was Timmy. Why did they live in a cottage and sale the dog to the Duke? Wasn't this suppose to be a cowboy story?
Shows how far the TV shows have come from the original story.

Found a prosthetic devise called "Been a Boob" this week. Ordered a pair. Boys were so excited when a package came in the mail today, they couldn't wait to open it. You would have thought there were snakes in that there box.

Walked three miles yesterday before the pain kicked in. Received cortisone shots in the feet today. Also had x-rays of feet and lumbar spine. Just incase an old high jump injury is part of the nerve problem. Praying these shots work so I can continue with the Commander in our training.

Our pastor's family might be blessed with a newer house, with room to grow. Praying this goes through. Please, please, please.

Two boys are now involved in Boy Scouts and are camping this weekend. We will have a busy day tomorrow traveling to where they are camping south west of Lawrence, driving T12 to Overland Park for a soccer game, and then taking him back to finish the campout. Commander will then have to go back to camp Sunday morning to bring a group of campers back home. Can you say "OUCH" to the gas bill? OOOOOUUUCH! T12 is just bummed that he has to see his parents every day this weekend. HA HA HA.

Read a book by one of my favorite young adult writers -Donita K. Paul. "The Dragons of Chiril". Probably read about three pages before I realized I had already read the book. Finished the book before ever noticing on the front cover (in real small letters) that is said it was previously released under another name. No wonder, I had already read it. It was just as good the second time. I highly recommend her Dragon Keeper series.

Remembering to shake my boots out on the back patio before putting my feet in them. A friend, Pac Leo, found a black snake in his boots at the back door. Can you believe he didn't kill it??? If it had been in my boot - biology on the driveway, Babe!

Boys are doing a super job at getting back into the swing of schooling. Herogian is working to be a day a head by next Thursday to go dove hunting with Mr. Joe. He gets to take Penny with him for her first hunt.

The Commander can burp "I love you" in a handful of languages. I luv u two -Oklahomian, and I love you, too. English. That's as far as I get.

Have a great weekend.

Unplug it to make it work

2011-08-23T12:14:00.000-05:00

Okay, that makes sense doesn't it? You probably already guessed I was talking about the computer. This time it wasn't the modem but the wi-fi router. So, we've been without internet since last Saturday because the modem and router couldn't communicate. Isn't communication a big problem in this world?

Thanks to the nice reps at Road Runner, I can now get back into a love/hate relationship with my computer.

Last night a miracle occurred at our place. Three boys sat down before bedtime to do some school work. Herogian danced down the hall to the bathroom chanting "I like Algebra! I like Algebra!" T12 did his literature and Hawk completed a couple of his subjects. All this while I was at work. No one standing over them making them do any of it. Cool.

After I work a late shift, it is really nice to sleep in until 8:00. The boys then get up knowing they are not behind on schedule. Yeah.

It is nice being back on the homeschool roller coaster. I like the familiarity of it.

We survived the first week

2011-08-19T23:52:00.000-05:00

Schooling the boys is something I really enjoy doing. This summer, for some reason, I wasn't ready to start. I even put our start day off by a week to unwind from VBS and prep a bit more. Not like I don't prep enough from February to July.

The week started off rough with a bad teenager attitude (Herogian). That, thankfully, has turned around and he is now reading ahead during the evenings. Hawk is back to his old ways - getting a couple of subjects knocked off the night before. Then there is Terminator 12. He started off earning what he called 'Responsibility points' ( Commander must have given him a talking to while I was at work). He would let me know when he felt he had earned one of these by getting something done on time, or correctly the first time. Well, he blew a big hole in that one today. Let's just say he earned a spot at the table doing repeat copy work. I know, old habits die hard. We finished the day early enough to sit down and watch Ninja Warrior Boot Camp together. What a fun way to relax at the end of a school day!

Commander and I have spent the last two nights walking about 5 miles each night. I'm ready to see the podiatrist for injections into the balls of my feet. There are good reviews on alcohol injections for Morton's neuroma. I'll save the cortisone shots for March if needed. I know cortisone deadens everything - I jumped six-four with cortisone, then dropped below 5'10 when the doctor wouldn't shoot it up for the third time- not a good thing during Olympic Trials. I'm hoping to find a taping method that will curtail this painful situation.

As of this week, we now have two Boy Scouts. Herogian of all people. I'm so glad. I think he'll really enjoy the camping and activities. Next week they head off for a place with a lake. He can go fishing all day long. A few weeks later they get to camp out on a train and work for a Railroading merit badge. How cool is that?

Oh, the computer is RAMmed out. Our computer geek (genius) came over at 9:00 last night to install the new drive. What awesome service! I haven't had a blue screen of death at all today. (insert happy dance.)

How we homeschool

2011-08-18T12:37:00.000-05:00

This is a general synopsis of our day, it fluctuates like waves on a beach. I try to be the moon and pull an even tide, but I wane and wax, too.
With just the first week under our belt, we have found that getting up at the same time works best - when I get up, I get them up, somewhere between 8-9. With late nights at the store, then insomnia in some degree or another, I need to ignore Commander's alarm.

The boys start with Bible reading and verse practice while eating breakfast. Next is Daily grams and Easy grams, We do two daily grams on MWF so we have T, TH off, but also will finish the year earlier by about 36 days. We are required 186 days in our private sector.

The boys then follow a daily checkoff schedule meant to keep them from needing the computer or the same book at the same time. They have helped line out this list as to what they want to get out of the way first. For Herogian it is; World Geography, Hawk - Math, T12 - grammar.
THe boys have 11-13 different subjects to cover in the week. some are every other day, to once a week. "Better THinking Skills" only takes five minutes. (You heard about that one yesterday). S.A.T. Prep is one chapter a week for the older boys. They need to know what is coming, so it won't be overwhelming. Typing and Foreign Language are computer lessons, this allows them to get away from the books.

The boys work at their own pace, but have a time schedule to follow. If they finish a subject early, they can get a chore done, or tell me that they are taking a short break. Sometimes they use this time to do a lap on their bike, or Herogian takes Penny for a walk.
Lunch is between 30 minutes to an hour, but if lunch is finished or not- they start back to work at 1:00. If they played around and missed lunch, too bad.

THe workout for me is staying up on the daily check of their work ( 3 against 1) and making sure, right now, that they are doing complete notes from the chapters. During this first quarter, they will be allowed to use notes for test. Then those will drop away, but they still must take the notes.
I look at Jr. High and High school as college prep training. They need to have the study skills ~~engrained, beat into their heads,~~ established by their sophmore year in high school.

The boys know that if they mess around during the day, they will be doing their work when Commander comes home. In the past I've left T12 at the table working with Commander while I leave for work. School isn't over until their work is finished. During this frustrating period for all involved. If they need a break - they can go do a chore and burn off their frustration getting something accomplished, or they might be allowed to take a bike ride, or run a loop around the neighborhood.

Hawk has especially learned to sit down in the evening with his ice cream and start on the next days assignments. Herogian will also do some reading in the evenings. T12 is still fighting this concept.

Yesterday Herogian learned that I won't be so eager to take him places that he wants to go - Ducks Unlimited Banquet, last night, if he hasn't completed his chores. The chickens depend on him. So when he was so eager to go at 4:30 last night, I asked if his jobs for the last three days were done. What a look came over his face when he realized he had three jobs to complete before he'd get to leave.
When we finally left, (remember this is the kid that loves to hunt and hates geography) I told him, he would have to give me directions. A deer in the headlights look blossomed on his face. So I gave him a hint. DeSoto, 10th or 20th street, which one do you want me to take? He chose 10th. We drove about four miles down this road before he decided that we were on the wrong road and asked if we could go to 20th. I turned on Spruce. That's when Commander called and asked him where were we? When Herogian told him Spruce. Commander thought I was lost and gave Herogian the directions. OHHHHH! I asked Herogian how he would have found the place if we had given him the keys to the car and told him to have a great time. His reply: "I would have driven around until I found it." OR RAN OUT OF GAS!
I like dishing out life lessons.

As I'm typing, Hawk asked, "do you want a grape soda, cream soda, or a root beer for lunch?"
"I don't know."
"You sound just like Hawk!"
Takes one to know one. Indecisive parent, Indecisive child.

How to get my dander up

2011-08-17T16:27:00.000-05:00

Son ---
"Oh, I didn't do that subject cause it would only take me five minutes to do it."

Ya know what? He did the subject - got the "Thinker" question wrong and was allowed to do it all over again. Sure took longer than five minutes when he had to write it down twice. ERRRGGGG.

We are starting the year off with one son definitely not in the right frame of mind. His skeet lessons won't go on schedule until there is a big turn around in attitude.
***
The surprise has been T12 - He is getting done with work by three in the afternoon. Last year we were still working at dinner time. THis is even with a late morning start after a night of soccer and boy scouts. T13-Hawk -- he still has half of his assignments done before bedtime the night before. Good thing - because last night he was up three times hugging the toilet. Don't know what brought that on, poor guy.

Have a safe week.

waiting for new ram

2011-08-16T10:33:00.000-05:00

Our computer geek (genius) was over the other day. He will rev-up our computer from 1/2G to 4G this week. I can't wait.
I might actually be about to post on your blog pages without getting the screen of death.

Praying for you on the house situation and schooling, Altic Quiver.

Michelle, have a safe trip and a lot of fun doing the field trips.
As to planning, I start in the spring with writing every lesson out on excel. Then print this out for the boys folders. We can see the whole year. They then get their time schedule as when to do subjects so they aren't fighting over books. Finally, they each have a teacher's planner type of book that I write down one weeks worth of lessons so they can check it off as they go.

Right now it is Herogian giving me the attitude (teenager) about staying on a schedule.
Gotta go grade papers.
Have a great week.

trying to get in the school mode, ready to throw computer out the window

2011-08-11T11:35:00.000-05:00

Ugh! The computer. I can't believe how easy this thing can make preparing for school, yet on the other hand it can really frustrate me. It is ready for Commander to reboot the operating system - blue screen of death keeps popping up. I've moved everything of importance off my main page and onto a portable drive. The slowness of getting around some pages is really putting my multitasking skills to work. I'm taking a frustration break to come see what my blogging friends are up to.

School starts Monday for us. A week later than I originally planned, but oh well. The boys this year will be following a syllabus for each of their subjects. They can see the whole year laid out before them. They can also turn away from that overwhelming view to their weekly check off books and take it one week at a time. I went to the trouble of writing it all out this way so that it will prepare them for college - taking a class syllabus and then breaking it down into doable chunks. We will also add Rossetta Stone Homeschool Spanish to the mix with a Spanish speaking friend from church checking their pronunciation each month. I'm so thrilled that she has agreed to help them. You know this Okie accented person definitely can't.

The boys will also have to follow a daily schedule that I set up for them. Usually, they picked what they wanted to do first and set their own routine for the year. We used their past routine to set up this years schedule but had to tweek it a bit so that the older boys can share books easier - no arguing over who gets literature first.

Okay, back to printing off forms and tweeking lessons.
Have a great weekend and new school year.

Covering for someone else, finally

2011-08-09T23:54:00.000-05:00

I hate it when I have to call in sick at work. I know someone will have to stay to cover my closing shift. Today was the turn around. I finally had a chance to help cover for someone else who was home with a sick child.
It was a good feeling.
We were hopping - mad with customers at times, being short handed would not have been a good thing for business.
As the afternoon moved into evening, I realized how happy I was that "Hawk" and I had walked in the morning hours. Going to the gym after 10 hours on my feet wasn't going to happen.
From now on all my 4-7 hour shifts will feel short.
It helps to do something out of the box now and then. This also includes Saturday at "Pair Day" - my first time to help. This is a Post event to help the incoming military families find out what kind of opportunities are in the community. It's like a street fair with tables and tents set up and the people just roam around gathering information about Doctors, Dentist, churches, grocery stores and what not. There is always free school supplies (pens, pencils, calendars, candy) to pick up as you visit each table. Price Chopper will be doing goodie bags for parents and kids.
Herogian will be at the Rod and Gun Club table helping out and gaining Community Service hours, SHhhhhh - don't tell him that part.
Oh, our walk - was five miles from the gym in town with meandering through some neighborhoods. "Hawk" said the five mile walk wouldn't be bragging material - the walking along the highway is though. I'll just say that the 1 1/2 mile part that's all up a slight grade to the horizon wore him out more than he thought it would. I hope he will keep training with me.

Have a good night.

walking, dining and shopping with my hubby

2011-08-06T17:09:00.000-05:00

What a lot of fun we had today. I started with a prayer before we started. Commander and I walked 7 + miles - no foot pain with padding taped to the bottom of my feet. Cleaned up and went out to a local Mexican restaurant - where I can eat gluten free. Then did a little shopping on post to get a camelback for the training and some moisture wicking socks.

Just spending time with Commander made it special. There are days where he taps me on the nose in the morning to say goodbye, then he stops by the store while I'm working to tap me on the shoulder to ask if he needs to buy anything before he continues home. Five minutes of eye contact tops for the day. Thank you God for my wonderful partner in life.

VBS crafts have been fun

2011-08-04T21:46:00.000-05:00

The week is almost over for VBS. It has been fun. Taking on a whole new position this year, really opened my eyes. It will be a help for when I put another program down on paper (There are two twisting around in the mind).

We started off easy with decorating large brown sacks to store the 'goods' in, and a pencil topper. The second day was a puzzle with an old cassette tape, string and two large beads. The object is to move the beades through the loops from one side to the other. Wednesday was "Faith" bracelets with pony beads and crosses. Today we worked on foam visors and colored on 'color it yourself' beach balls. We also started windchimes with the older group.

We have had the challenge of stretching the windchime supplies out from fifty to eighty, ordering more supplies on Monday to get them here by Wednesday, and cutting out foam visors to have enough for the growing number of kids. Fun challenges - God always takes care of them in neat ways. It's been fun watching it all unfold.

*****

The foot neuroma is still flaring. I did find information on the internet and was able to pad it tonight and walk with the Commander. We had to stop about three times to finish five miles. I'm soaking in ice water as I type. At one point in our walk we were overlooking the Missouri River. It was so quiet. No Cicadas. Two blocks west of there it was so loud under a tree that I put my hands over my ears. Do they like a certain kind of tree?

Looking forward to next week. Besides soccer and work. I shouldn't have to drive ANYWHERE. Commander drives us to church.

Have a great weekend.

VBS week is growing

2011-08-02T16:19:00.000-05:00

We jumped from 99 kids to 113. That's a good amount of growth for our VBS program in only its first 2 days. I prepping for 125 tomorrow in crafts.

Kudos out to Chris for his wonderful job of promoting VBS this year. He handed out flyers at the county fair, asked banks, and restaurants to put the info on their outdoor media signs, and invited day care centers. Our youth director ROCKS.

waiting for school to start so I can get on a different roller coaster

2011-07-30T14:30:00.000-05:00

If life is a roller coaster, as some say, then I'm ready to get off this one and back on the old familiar one of homeschooling.

My work hours will drop, the boys won't have camps to taxi them back and forth from, and VBS will be over and done for another year. I like VBS, don't take that statement wrong. I'm just out of my comfort box (which is a good thing) with being in charge of crafts and watching the number of kids coming, and the number of craft projects available, tipping the scale back and forth. I know we can shoot-from-the-hip and throw in some left over crafts if the numbers don't match, but I'd hate to have to do that. It will be a hard enough week on the staff helping just to keep the kids from rushing through their crafts and then getting antzy and obnoxious.

The week will still include Herogian going north to skeet camp for three days, and T12 going across county line east to another day camp for five days. I only have pick up duty, thank you Commander and Mrs. Hillary.

I haven't worked on the novel since the trip to Oklahoma. That's a thorn in the back of the mind. I can't wait to sit back down and disappear into the book. I need it. One of the characters is Elohim, I need the time spend reflecting on Him with my main character.

Then there's been unwanted comments from a customer at work. Our security guard finally got wind of it. I was just blowing the guys comments off as harmless, until he started coming in closer to closing time and sometimes standing behind Starbucks side counter to stare. I guess they had other problems with him in the past, so it is up to the higher office if he will be banned from coming into the store. He won't be coming through my line anymore, though. I just hope to not meet him in the parking lot. Karate, Taekwondo moves keep floating through my thoughts. I don't want to break another nose, but I know I can.

Commander and I are wanting to train for the Bataan Memorial Death Marathon next March at White Sands, NM. Yesterday we did a 10K. I'm having neuropath pain in both feet, from the metatarsals through the toes. I really want to do this marathon with him. Please pray that I can find out what is going on with my feet. Some possible causes can even be the past chemo therapy drugs.

Okay, I've vented enough.
Is it any cooler in Oklahoma?

Herogian okay

2011-07-25T12:55:00.000-05:00

I'm home for a few minutes and wanted to let you know Herogian is okay. He had watermelon for breakfast and I assume had a sugar drop out their in the hot sun. We will make sure that doesn't happen for the rest of the clinic this week and next. T12, thank goodness, was picked up and deposited at his camp during my trip to post, so now it is off to pick him and his buddy up.
To the church - I promise to get there sometime this week and be prepared for crafts during VBS next week. It just might end up at 1:00 am. Life goes on. Have you seen "In the Middle"? a tv program my sister introduced to the boys. We purchased first season and we are rofl through these episodes.

40 acres and OK GRANNY, thanks for your post. They actually went through.

We be back

2011-07-25T08:57:00.000-05:00

It was an awesome break spending the week with family and friends in Oklahoma. The weather was HOT. Oklahoma is experiencing a drought like we had back in 1980. 50 + days then, and already at 30 now. Please pray for rain. There were two major house fires on the news. The cedars around them went up like torches.

Life@40acres it is so good to see you blogging again. I couldn't leave a message at your site. It has something to do with my account. I wanted to shoot the "bull" with you for a bit.

The reunion was fun. What a mental challenge to try and put faces and names together that I haven't seen in thirty years.

Herogian just passed out at skeet camp. gotta go. He sounds find and wants to continue but Mommie needs to get to post.

Summer is flying by

2011-07-16T22:17:00.000-05:00

Note to OKGRANNY: Garth graduated a year before me. I don't expect to see him.

THe boys and I saw Harry Potter today. It was awesome! They did a great job following the book - well, for what I can remember of it. I kept say, "Oh yeah, now I remember that!" I was really glad that I took a sweater to the theatre with me. It is COLD in those rooms. T12 pulled his arms into his shirt, pulled the hem over his bare knees and tucked his nose in. He looked like a little gray ball beside me. Now and then, he'd lean over to sip his drink and shiver.
It was a great time with the boys. We all had cotton candy and sugared ourselves out.

It feels like there is so much left to do this summer in the yard, getting ready for school, around the house, VBS, and getting ready for school. T12 will be starting soccer practice as soon as we return next week. T12 and Hawk will have a science camp the week we get back, Herogian has skeet camp, the following week is VBS and a second round of skeet camp. I have school scheduled to start the 8th of August since we take vacations in the fall. Somebody stop the clock for a day or two.

Herogian surprised me the other night with his choice of reading. He was grounded from screens, had finished the book series he was reading, and needed something to do. He went to the school shelf and chose "Microbiology: the easy way". He said the first chapter was really interesting. O-kay. Floored me.

Hawk (T13) pulled another back out at the last moment the other day when we went to the post gym for rock climbing. He put the helmet on, tightened it up, took it off, and said he wasn't climbing. The veins popped out of my neck, I gritted my teeth and just want to rattle his. I can't stand that kind of behavior. Commander says the boys are shifting in their pecking order as to who is more athletic and showing leadership. I don't know if he thought T12 would show him up, if he didn't want the soldiers playing basketball to see him fall off the wall or what. He is testing my composure that's for sure.

I just know that once I saw the wall from the side, there was no way any of the boys or any adult, I know, could have made it to the top. The wall slants back over your head ( \ ) like that symbol. The boys would be hanging by their fingernails (which they don't have) for the last 8 feet up the wall. But when you look at the wall from the climbing side, you can't tell that it juts out that far. Deceiving.

Tomorrow after church is packing day. I'm not looking forward to driving to Oklahoma, a Star Trek transporter would be nice. I know I will enjoy seeing family and friends. Please pray for safe travels. For some reason my blood sugar drops (or I notice it the most) when I'm driving.

summer jobs

2011-07-15T10:42:00.000-05:00

Here are a few pictures of the summer project(s).

The right side by the lattis will be turned into a Hosta garden, the steps still need to be fitted and lined up, I just dropped them in there as I was carrying the 50 bricks from the truck. Ugh!

THis is what it looks like from the side. a few stepping stones will start it out at the right of the top step. The walkway will continue through the fence, with the drainpipe on the far left being extended underneath and then the path will turn and end at the bottom of the stairway. Hopefully done by Christmas. Sooner the better. UREKA! That must be where us Okies got the name SOONER - we want everything done SOONER.

This was the pickings the other day, yesterday it was just the one mixing bowl from our garden.

Next week is High School reunion week in Yukon, OK. It will be fun to see some of the ladies I played basketball with, or those from the track team. I'll be meeting my friend 'T' and her husband for the Saturday night dinner. The hotel chef is making a gluten free meal for me, I'm so glad I thought to call ahead.

T12 has to go with me, but T13 gets to decide if he wants to stay here with Herogian to take care of the animals, and play with his friends. I'm expecting a last minute change of plans on his part, no matter which way it goes. He's taking after me with last minute changes to plans. Now, I know how frustrating it can be for others. But I still do it. I like to plan it out - just not impliment the plan when it is time to leave the house. Anyone else do that?

Have a good week.

Are you going to see the last Harry Potter movie?

Time is flying by

2011-07-13T00:30:00.000-05:00

I'm wondering where June went. This morning Commander stepped up to the bed and shouted, Happy Anniversary! Yep, it's the twelfth of July, - we will hit the 19 year mark in December. For those who don't know, we try to beat each other each month on the twelfth to be the first to wish the other a Happy Anniversary. Commander is definitely out doing me this year. I should have thought to do it last night at 2:00 am - I'm turning into a night owl with closing until 11, working out at the gym for 1 hour then coming home to eat ice cream and work on the book. Not exactly the schedule that I'd like to be on, but it works for now. I'm ready for school to start up so I have a ligit reason to drop some hours at work. I hate to say I can't work, when I actually can.

So on to work --- the other day a co worker "C' came through my line when she was done with her shift and tried to get me to stack coupons - use more coupons then the number of items bought. We don't double coupons at our store. We don't stack coupons. She told me I could punch them in manually and no one would know. I looked at her like she was nuts and handed her back the extra coupons.She turned to the other cashier and made a comment - "Uh, "B" she won't do it for me!" The other cashier "B" told me afterwards that she had to tell the girl "C" the other night that she couldn't stack coupons.
I didn't say anything else at the time to her, but I later let my boss know that I wasn't comfortable with her asking me to stack coupons. One of the customer service clerks heard us and popped up with "if you had done it, she would have been right over here telling on you." That threw me. What kind of coworker is this?
Tonight, I waited until she was on break then went up to her. I thought it was about time to stiffen the backbone. I quietly told her that I thought her asking me to stack cards, (yes, I blundered) stack coupons the other night was unethical and disrespectful. I told her I felt she owed the other cashier "B" an apology for trying to drag her into the scheme of stacking coupons. She never fully apologized to "B" she actually tried to blame the situation on "B".We just shook our heads and moved on.
Our City government has hired this girl to work for them. She'll probably get along just fine there.

This past weekend had a project. You know how much I love projects. Friday night I cut the 4x4's. Saturday morning I got up early and started putting the steps togethers leading down to the side gate. It turned into an all day kind of job. Monday morning I finished with the help of Hawk and a playmate of his from down the street. They helped dig up the paving stones at the rental house a friend owns, I loaded them into the truck. Back at home, they pushed the stones toward the end of the truck bed and I carried them around, one at a time, to the walkway. 15x15 paving stones, that had to weigh 25-30 each and we moved 50. Then we hit the local lawn and garden place for 10 bags of dirt. THe boys were a big help and fun company in getting all this material to the side of the house. I still need to fill in around the steps, and prep the garden for Hostas that a friend from church said I could get out of her yard.

The other project that developed this morning was picking about 20 quarts of blackberries and putting them up in the freezer. Thank you Mrs. D. I only got 2 quarts from our yard and our sweet neighbor to the east supplied the rest. She's the one that taught me how to make blackberry jelly last year. I'll have to try it again.
So if I'm not here at the EFandB often. You know I'm just keeping my hands busy .
Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Independence Day

2011-07-04T22:46:00.000-05:00

I have to laugh at the list of things I wanted to get done today with Commander off from work. We did get some of it done, it's just that somehow he was able to throw this large project right into the middle of it. The side gate under the tree needs a better pathway then just gravel. Commander decided it needed some landscaping timbers, gravel and stepping stones. Sounds great, except for the fact that it's clay earth with lots of gravel rock already in the area. No Fear, the Commander is here. He took the rototiller to it. Did a great job of loosing up the rocks so I could haul wheelbarrows of it to the chicken yard, back fence , garden, and anywhere else we could come of with a spot. We did keep three 35 gallon tubs of dirt near the job site for back fill.
The other awesome part that happened with this job - a friend bought a house for her rental company and wants to remove 40 paving stones from the property. We move them and they are free. I like that word - FREE. Well, they won't be free after I pay the boys to dig them out with me, but worth it.

Okay, the family was sitting at the table the other night after T12 made it home from camp. The talk ended up around the subject that I could still swat the boys beeehind if they really needed it. T12 asked why I didn't swat Commander's back side when he called T12 a "Dickiebird". I said I wasn't his mother, therefore I didn't have the authority, too. Commander popped in with "And Mema's arm isn't long enough to swat him from where she lives in Pennsylvania." To that T12 replied, "But her check book can reach that far." He was ready to call Mema and tattletale on the Commander.

Boys.

Have a great week. Thanks for stopping by.

Panda Bear and VBS

2011-07-03T12:01:00.000-05:00

Panda Bear Banty 2007-2011.

We tried to keep him safe. He was determined to leave the safety of the berry garden to fight for his position as dominant rooster with three others. When he couldn't maintain the fight, he somehow left the chicken yard to take on the two dogs. How often do we try to protect our kids, but they keep wanting back into the world to do it on their own. Sometimes the odds against them are overwhelming and they don't figure that out until it is too late. Then they try to escape to only find themselves with a bigger problem.

As you know, I've hunted turkey, butchered chickens and ducks, but having to put Panda Bear down was the saddest one of them all. I miss this fiesty guy already. Two of the banty females miss him, too. They hide out in the coop all day long now to stay away from October. (see second picture for October).

On a better note. Waddles has started laying eggs again. I love duck eggs for cooking our gluten free breads and cakes.

So the changes occur in the barnyard and we keep on quacking.

VBS is in a month. I have offered to take on a new position - crafts. After brainstorming a bit, hitting the craft sites on the internet, I came up with a few ideas that we can do for all the kids. The most intense activity will be two different windchimes. They are both kits, just more work of putting it together for the older kids. I'm hoping to get some old flatware for the kids to hang below the tubes to make theirs more unique. The younger kids will have the kit from Oriental Trading. The other projects include a slap bracelet/ or faith bracelet, foam visor, and puzzle game. (I'm fogetting something). We also have picture frames if something else is needed to keep the kids busy along with pictures to color when they are done.

This will be a fun challenge to do the crafts. I'm hoping some of the ladies with experience at this area will assist me. Hint, Hint.

The boys and I had a busy week. We moved 2 truck loads of mulch - shovel load in to the truck and shovel load out of the truck. I was definitely sore the following day, along with developing a cold. That evening after the issue with Panda - I continued to work moving bucket loads of Kansas River rock from the driveway pile to the flower garden. I'm still not done there - no energy left to do it. The boys, however, demolished the second pile of driveway gravel for me, by spreading most of it out on the driveway. That was cool to come home from work and find that job done.

T12 made it home from Boy Scout Camp. He loved it. Except for the part where we had to tell him to stop selling his Gluten Free food to the other boys. He was selling expensive stuff for a dollar, but what was worse was the fact that he was selling it and not sharing it. He found a drink at the cantene that he liked - ArizonaTea Mucho Mango. There's no telling how many of those he had to drink.
I don't know how many merit badges he finished this week, but it was a good start to his B.S. career.

He was also accepted onto the Leavenworth United Soccer U-13 team. It will be interesting to see what this does to our schedule. He is suppose to practice two nights a week then play games and tournaments on the weekends down south of K.C. Along with this schedule will be Hawk's schedule (he didn't want to play league ball, just rec) and Herogian's schedule of skeet, hunting, and archery starting again. Oh yeah, school will be in there somewhere. Can't forget that, now can we? I'd also like to attend Bible study on Wednesday nights, but will have to see where these other things take us... and writing the book and a vbs program.... life goes on.

Boys and birds

2011-06-28T10:51:00.001-05:00

The color in our backyard comes from the birds. I thought I'd introduce you to some of them.

This is October. He is a male Banty Rooster with lineage from Buff the Mini Fluer and R-Fal a black Japanese Banty.

Herogian wants to show this one at the fair.

This is Tiny Might. The runt that we helped out of its shell this sping. Another Banty crossmix.

This in Panda Bear our first Japanese banty. The one who has protected our birds for the last 3-4 years. Well, his time is up, the other roosters are out to get him. He and R-Fal and Quailee have to be put in the berry garden every morning to protect them from the other roosters. They are out to kill him for his position as leader is over. I'm the sucker that goes out every morning and catches him and the other two before they get attacked off the roost and transport them across the yard, feeds and waters them, and puts them back in the coop after all the others have settled. I know, real sucker here. He's done such a good job for us, I just can't see letting the others beat the tar out of him, or , he flies over the fence and Penny and Casey try to corner him. We will see how this all goes, berry picking will be in full swing by the weekend. He attacks us too many times, raising my bristles and he might become teriyaki chicken. Wouldn't that be fitting?

Here is Waddles and his dame Quackers. She is not laying anymore eggs for me. Poo. I really enjoyed them. They might end up as dinner - freeloaders. But they are sooo cute.

This is Hawk. A seabrite banty. The miracle about this bird is that T13(Hawk) named it and it hasn't died. The poor kid has had every bird or hamster of his naming kill-over or be killed.

Here is Buff at the rock. He is a Mini Fleur and the father of October. Herogian would like to show him at the County Fair, too. Beside him is "Lucky" the only Pekin duck to be with us now. I'm hoping she starts to lay eggs soon. In the foreground is PeeWee. PeeWee is totally stuck on himself as king of the coop. "NUT-JOB" as Herogian has named him. With him is Comet. one of the chickens now laying for us. She has a twin somewhere in the yard. Have you noticed how many of these birds are roosters?

These are the ladies that have about two more months before they start laying eggs. Six total that I'm waiting on. There is also another new rooster - the white one. A Buff cross with Comet. We thought it was female for some time, she/he looked pretty with the white feathers growing on the legs. The cackeling try at crowing occurred yesterday.

THis is what we have enjoyed over the last two weeks. The third duck was for Father's Day.

The boys have deemed summer to be sleep in time. You can see that Casey has other thoughts about that.

Casey has turned out to be a great alarm clock.

Yes, there is a boy under there, somewhere.

Have a great day.

Still here

2011-06-27T09:33:00.000-05:00

It's been over a week since I posted. Where is time going? Out the window with those Kansas winds blowing this morning.

The summer is upon us, so that means we are busy with boys going to camp. T12 started Boy Scout camp yesterday. We guess he is still there, we haven't had any calls about them being blown to the next county, or washed into the Missouri River. We had a good storm going throughout the night.

Then there is VBS on its way into the schedule at the end of July - actually less than a month away. I'm trying to help paint signs and make decorations for it this year. All three boys are supposed to have camp activities going on that week, but want to help with VBS. We'll see how that all pans out. The library might be getting a donation since they won't refund our fee for the class. With VBS in the air, I have the bug again to write another program. I hope to pull the other two programs out and see about submitting them to publishers. Just more on the plate to do.

T13 (Hawk) recieve an early birthday present yesterday. That kid is cool. He needed a bike. His yardsale bike just wasn't hanging together anymore. I told him that I'd help him buy it and he could work off the rest. He really seemed to want to purchase it himself. But if we waited for him to save up the other half, he'd be into the colder weather, and not have one to ride this summer. We were walking through the store with the bike when he stopped. (second thoughts have plagued him lately). He turned around and started to take it back. I couldn't believe we were going through this scenerio for like the fifth time this month. He finally told me that he thought he should save the money up first, then buy the bike, no matter how long it took him. He'd still help me with the extra chores to make the money. My initial thought was "are you kidding me? Then I thought what a cool kid. He's learned the lesson of saving up for something." THen I remembered that T12 and Herogian had both recieved the one large gift to their birthdays early. "Happy Birthday T13 (Hawk), if you want it and will ride it, the bike is your early birthday gift if you are okay with that offer."
The smile that spread across his face, the twinkle in his eyes, the squeezing hug. The hours he spent riding it when we got home. Priceless.
He even got me on a bike for a couple of laps around our neighborhood. I have been very leary about the roads since they did a halfa@@ job of repaving them in our neighborhood. They are now covered with loose gravel. I kept replaying my wipeout on the next road, in my mind, when I thought about riding again. Well, that road over there was repaved correctly - with asphalt, not pebbles. I thanked T13 (Hawk - His name is changing again) for keeping after me until I got on the bike. We had an enjoyable ride. At the back end of our neighborhood a creek runs under a bridge. A blue Heron was standing in the middle of the road. Beautiful.

It is time to get to work. I've got a list of jobs to get to today.
Have a great week.

Father's Day (I know I'm late)

2011-06-20T12:46:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was official Father's Day on the Calendar, we are just stringing it out a bit.
It started Saturday with Commander cooking two ducks on the rotisserie. That was his meal. The role reversal was perfect, I'll slaughter as long as he cooks.

Yesterday, T12 sorta gave him a gift, it just cost Commander some money. T12 let Dad have his DS game for $25. Now I've got to buy Commander another game for it so he'll leave my Bejeweled Twist Game alone - he's about to beat my top score of 851 thousand. Nooooo! can't let that happen.

I worked yesterday so I didn't get his cake made, so I'll do that here in a bit.

It has been wonderful having the Commander home and not traveling. As the boys hit the teenage years I'm realizing I really need his intervention with them. You can lead the horse to water but can't make him drink - you know the saying. Well I've hit THAT point with the boys on some issues. I'm ready to jump on the back of the horse's neck and pull and push until the nose is in the water. UGHHH. So the Commander is going to be the one to keep the boys in line and Mom's stubborn streak in check. I can already tell it is going to be a tough few years.

Thank you Commander for being here. We love you.

How to butcher a duck

2011-06-18T09:38:00.000-05:00

There is not much information out there on the internet super highway, so I thought I'd add my two cents. The last two mornings have had a down right pioneer woman feeling to them. Starting the day off with butchering ducks and a couple of chickens by myself.
*** got to put this in here *** kennel the dogs.
First of all the preparation is the key. I learned a lot from Homestead Neophyte - can't remember where I came across her blog, but it was helpful.
You will need something large to keep hot water in - it needs to be in the 140 degree range. The large ice chest got this job.
Next you need large pots of water on the stove getting the water to 140 + degrees. I even used the tea kettle so that I could quickly put hot water into the ice chest and let it steam inside. Also have a bucket of cold water off to the side - 10 gallon works great.

Next, you need a prepping table. We have an old table outside, so I staple gunned trash bags over it to have a clean surface. The large plastic cutting board, axe, and knives waited here. Also gather up some twine and a rope with a piece of wood tied into the end.
Then get the 'A' frame ladder out and off to the side with a lined trashcan under it. From the woodpile, I was able to find a chopping block which I nailed two nails about 1 inch a part and left 1 1/2"s of the nails sticking up. This is to help trap the birds head.

THe night before, I put the ducks into a large dog kennel and left them in the shed. This way they can empty out their system without drinking water or eating any more food. This helps to keep the gutting process cleaner.

After the hot water has been added to the ice chest, I went into the shed for the rope. Make three loops in it and have it ready (on your arm) to slip over the birds head as you pull it out of the cage and cinch it down over the wings. Keep hold of that head! Reach under and grab the feet and carry the bird to the chopping block.

Lay the neck between the nails and then tug backward until the head catches. Being a lefty, I had to kneel on the bird, keep hold of the head with the right and then chop. If the first strike isn't a good one, don't stop. Get the birds head off as quickly as possible. Grab the bird around the body and wings and hold it over the trashcan with the neck down inside so that it drains out. While trapping the bird, once it quits twitching, between my knees, I used twine to tie the legs together. Then take the rope off the wings, slip the end with the wood between the legs and carry the bird to the chest of hot water. The bird will float. Use a stick, the ax, one of the knives - something to push the bird down and roll it over in the hot water. Believe me, you don't want to touch. Keep the bird in there for a minute. This is a good time to move the trash can back to position under the 'A' frame ladder.
As you move the bird around in the hot water you should see some feathers coming off . Pull the bird out and hang it on the 'A' frame ladder. I hung the bird at a height that was easy for me to pluck feathers. If the temperature of your water was hot, they will come right off. I don't plan to save our feathers, so I just threw them into the trash can.

AFter plucking the bird, take it to the cutting board. Your main object is to cut around the vent and the oil gland on the back end of the tail. There is a lot of fat on a duck, so it makes it rather easy to cut. Don't slice through the intestine. For gutting, nothing works better than working your fingers up and around the rib cage to rip the lining tissue free. Before completely finishing this process, I flipped the bird around and cut the neck off at the shoulders, this frees up the esophagus and trachea so that when you pull the stuffing out the other end it can all come in one connected mass. Make sure you scrape your fingers into the rib cage to get the lungs. Using a sharp knife at the knee joint, cut, then break backwards and cut through the rest. The wings can be pulled to the side then chopped off.

After pulling out the insides and discarding, I dunked the bird back into the hot water for a minute to help clean it. From the hot water it went into the cold water in the 10 gallon bucket. I continued to pluck pin feathers as the body temp quickly cools down. AFter I finished with the plucking, I took the bird into the house, placed it in one of the empty pots and dumped ice onto it with cold water. It sat there while I did clean up outside, so the dogs could be free to run again.

I hope this helps someone.
Commander will be putting the birds onto the grill this afternoon.
I can't wait.

What a day

2011-06-12T22:46:00.000-05:00

The last 24 hours have been up and down. Literally. The boys and Commander spent about 8 hours at Worlds of Fun riding roller coasters. They arrived home after midnight. The boys were wound up. Four boys (Cam was staying the night) were telling me about their night all at once. The excitement in their voices, faces, was refreshing. They headed off to bed with their heads still spending. Literally. (twice) T12 shows up in the bedroom at 3:30 am. 'Mom, my head won't get off the roller coaster, I can't sleep. Can I try sleeping here. He wanted to sleep in our bed. For a moment or two I think I let him. Sleep haze was heavy around us. THen I reaized there was no way I would get any sleep if he stayed where he lay. I sent him to his own bed instead of where they were camping out in the game room. He had forgot he had his own bed to sleep in.
The next morning I got up to take care of the animals and then get ready for church. I planned to leave all the men in the house sleeping. They needed it before they leave for camp. The dogs followed me out the check on the birds. Izzy is really interested with the chickens. She must have jumped against the fence and nocked the hook off, for the gate leaned enough for her to squeeze through (she's so thin - Just ribbing Alyssa) As I lean over to collect eggs, I hear a scream behind me and enough to know that something isn't right in the coop. I turn around to find Izzy has pinned Panda Bear - the mean ole rooster to the floor. I had to twist Izzy's collar enough to get her to let go. I didn't want to grab her mouth. That's words from experience.She let go and Panda went out the door. I got her out of the run. That was enough trouble with the gate. I bought a metal gate this afternoon and installed it. It looks a lot better, locks better, too.
Heck, if we are going to change the gate then we should change the fence, right? Well we decided the birds had too much of the back yard. We moved the fence from west to east at one corner and turned it north to the back fence. They now have the east half of the back yard, THe archery range is in the middle and the garden is still on the west side. The boys were happy. They have been shooting bb's, airsoft, throwing knife practice and sling shot practice in the back. Now they have more space.
We dropped Cam and t12 off at camp. All the way up there and back I worked on writing another VBS program. It was such a fast trip, since I was searching HIS word for the right stories. It will be fun to lay out another program.
This one is called A.S.A.P (2). I'll tell you more later.

Have a great week.

Pictures of stuff

2011-06-11T15:26:00.000-05:00

Here is Izzy and Casey. They are finally getting along. Ony took about 32 hours. Young Family I'm going to fatten up your dog. She is way toooooooo skinny. Just thought I'd let you know. I'm not giving her the raw hides either, they cause urine infections around this house, so we won't take the chance. She is doing great. She sits and stares at the birds (chickens and ducks) until it is too hot to be out side in a fur coat. Then she and Penny go after the lightening bugs after dark. Hilarious.

T12 is taking after his MUM. How Awesome? Killed the snake and chopped its head off, then sliced it open to check out the organs and what it ate for its last meal. Too bad I was at work for this one. That's the snake head in his right hand.

T12 again, this time in Casey's kennel. This is one of the smaller pet taxi's for small dogs and cats. Houdini. Thought about leaving him in there. That way he'd at least stay out of trouble for the day. Twelve year olds are worse than 2 year olds - they know better.

Commander and the boys plus 2 friends are off for World's of Fun this afternoon. With their Homeschool I.D. School Cards we made a few months ago, they should be allowed in at a cheaper price tonight. We will see. This is the first night that W.of.F. is open until Midnight. You know how long the boys want to be there - midnight.
Tomorrow after church we will be taking two of these boys to Mission Lake Church Camp for a week. They are going to start the week off tired. Thank goodness Chris.C. gets to put up with them.

Flat on my back again and Turtle Burgers

2011-06-09T14:06:00.000-05:00

I've got to grow up and quit doing things down on the floor, in the sand, in the dirt, my favorite spots to do stuff. My back can't take it anymore. Monday, I squatted down in the sand at P.E. volleyball class and that was when my hips slid out of alignment. It hurt so bad that I called the chiropractor that day. I usually try to get it back in line myself, not happening. Thank goodness I could get an adjustment that day ( I've been seeing Chiropractors since high school, can't stand without them). So I've spent the last couple of days down in the back, heating, stretching, milking it for all it's worth with the boys, unable to work until Wednesday ( 1 -8 was a long shift). I'm glad to have the next couple of days off to loosen up a bit more.

We have a visitor at our house for the next two weeks. IZZY is back - Penny's sister. The only problem (still the first day) is Casey. He is being a pain in the tooshie( right arm exactly) with his male dominant, this is my house only, I'll bite anything bigger than me, mentality. For now, he stays with me, or on leash. I can also see Penny weaving her way between Herogian and Izzy - this is my boy. Izzy is pretty cool, she's not backing down to the little Napoleon.

This is from a friend at church. I've never seen food made this way. I'd like to try it someday soon. Don't hold your breath on that one, though.
TURLTE BURGERS

She made hamburger patties, wrapped in bacon, hot dogs stuck in for body parts. Split the feet, point the tale. Cover loosely with foil and bake at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

Thanks for stopping by.

Busy fast week

2011-06-02T23:18:00.000-05:00

This week was busy, fun, disappointing, frustrating, eventful, and fast.
The guys returned from dropping Herogian off at camp. I went to work about an hour later. Hi, Bye. A game of flashlight tag that night ended when T12 tried to jump to the top of a retaining wall made of large bricks around the flower garden. He caught the corner in his shin.
I'm told about it Monday night when I get home from work, but it wasn't until Tuesday when I was going to help him clean it out again that I realized just how bad it was. I thought I washed out a sliver of bone. THat's when I started to feel whoozie. Off to the hospital we go after confirming with Commander that I wasn't over reacting. The doctor said that they wouldn't be able to stitch it up since we waited, then he thought about it after looking at the hole, and said he wouldn't be able to stitch it up anyway, a chunk was missing. The bone thank goodness wasn't involved. T12 is working hard to keep it clean so it will heal enough for him to enjoy camps this month. I thought he did good when the nurse and I cleaned the wound out. I can still hear out of both ears.

We participated in picking up the flags at the National Cemetery in our area. Wow! Over 30,000 were placed. We picked up around 22,000 (the cemetery crew did 8 thousand the day before) We had two boy scout troops, and a smattering of parents and homeschoolers. It only took 2 hours. We were expecting 4-5 hours.

I hit the big 4_ today. I didn't expect Commander to remember with him getting ready for work this morning. So I pointed to his watch. He commented that 'he knew it was time for him to leave'. No, that's not it. I traced my finger under the date on his watch. He jumped away from me and shouted "HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!" That's not it! "UH, UH! then it hit him - HAPPY BIRTHDAY! What did I get you?" You let me buy some new clothes and get a five pin sight for my compound bow. What a guy.
The bad part for the day was the choice T12 made. You'd think being grounded from everything for almost a month would make you think twice before you chose that wrong behavior again. NOPE. Not with him. He fell right into it again. Restrictions will go back on until camp time. One day of freedom was all he earned. Very disappointing. He is definitely learning the hard way, like someone I know really well from my past. HMMMM.

first camp of the summer

2011-05-31T09:10:00.000-05:00

Herogian started the summer off with Jr. Vet camp at Bear River Ranch in Rolla, MO. He has adopted a wallaby and a dog for the week. You can type in http://www.myanimalcamp.com/ or http://www.clubsciencecamp.com/. It is an amazing camp with over 100 projects and activities offered to the kids, and the kids get to pick what they want to do. They are connected wth Bunk1 which allows me to send Herogian an email each day. He gets it at lunchtime and can reply from their computer room. They also have a photo gallery that you can search through and pick out pictures of your child to purchase. Then I found a connection to "Sealed with a Kiss" they send camp packages of your choosing. You can see what day it will arrive to make sure it gets there when the camper is at camp. I was able to plan ahead to other camps the boys are attending so they get a little something in the mail. This seems really important to T12. He's been asking me to make sure I send him letters at camp.
I think it is only because his friends mom sends goodies through the mail. She's a hard mom to live up too. You hear that Hillary!
Here is our happy camper with a lama and wearing his I survived the zipline t-shirt. I guess that zipline had a strong pucker factor with it. Herogian loved it and so did T12, the other two weren't so thrilled. T12 loved it so much that he did it a second time. Since he's not very heavy, he lost momentum on one of the ziplines and stopped halfway. He had to flip over, grab the cable and pull himself hand over hand to get to the tower. He said his arms were sore that night.

Have a great day, don't get spit on by a lama.

Presale for the yardsale

2011-05-27T06:44:00.000-05:00

I know when you have a yardsale you must be ready for those early arrivals that get there when you are trying to set things up. They can be rather annoying at times. Yesterday, was the all time early arrival for the sale. The add just came out in our local Chronical shopper. The sale is this Saturday. I was in the garage tagging items last night when this silver pickup slowly turned into the driveway. I saw the woman point at me then look down at a piece of paper in her hands.

I met the grandmotherly figure out on the driveway. She apologized for being so early to a sale. She then explained that her granddaughter had bought a bunny rabbit and it was living in a dog carrying kennel. She wanted to know if she could see the rabbit cage. Then it was my turn to apologize. I didn't have the thing out from under the deck and cleaned up, yet. We went to look at it, pulled it out of the back corner, and proceeded to load it up in her truck.

Before they left, she tucked a Hamilton into my hand and blessed me. I can't think of a better way to start the weekend sale than with a blessing.

The Commander and the boys left before six this morning for their vacation/ drop Herogian at camp trip into ~~Missery~~ Missouri. Later today they will be doing a zip line that is supposed to take around an hour to complete( with tour and rope bridges to cross). It is located in Stanton at the Merremac Caverns. I can't wait to hear about this part of their adventure.
As a worrywort mother, I finally needled Commander into getting hotel rooms for the weekend instead of sleeping out in tents. We've had enough Wizard of Oz 'travel arrangements' in the Midwest this past week. I don't need the boys landing in Munchkin land.

Keep your heads down this weekend and stay safe.

Random

2011-05-24T10:47:00.000-05:00

We are packing for a camping trip for Commander and the boys, and then also packing a bag for Herogian to go to Bear River Ranch for a week of Jr. Vet camp/science camp. Along with all the packing, I have a yard sale this Saturday. I'm trying to go through every room in the house and get rid of the stuff that hasn't been used in a year, tag it all, store it in the shed before setting it all out Friday.

Saturday, the Commander asked if I wanted to go on a bike ride with him. I was nervous about saying yes. In 2008-09 I went over the handlebars when the front tire blew. I haven't ridden since that time. We went east and south of where we live, into the countryside that hasn't been swallowed up by suburbs. Don't believe them when people tell you Kansas is flat. Jogging or biking proves that wrong, wrong, wrong. We were at the farthest distance from home 4 miles, feeling like it was 30 when Commander asked if I was ready to head back. Let me suck in some air for a few minute before I try to answer. The fun part was remembering back to our first weekend together in Tucson. Commander took me on a bike ride then too. Out into the foothills - East Saguaro Park. I was a trained athlete at that time, trained to take 10 steps and jump. He about killed me that time, too. Back to Saturday, the last leg home was the most exciting - a large yellow dog decided he could run as fast as we could bike. Thank God it was flat and then sloped down before it went uphill. The dog finally tired of nipping at our heels. If he had stayed with us for another minute, he would have had ankles for dinner. It was a good hurt. The kind that tells you, you are dropping water weight and gaining muscle tightness. Doesn't that just make you want to jump right on a bike and come over for a ride?

I've had a chance to write on my story again. I'm loving the time - usually 11pm - 1 am if I'm not closing at the store and going to the gym afterwards. I hope to get a lot done on it this weekend after the yard sale.

Prayers for Joplin, MO. Our neighbor has a lot of family down that way.

Thanks for stopping by.

If it was for anyone else....

2011-05-18T21:23:00.000-05:00

I'd say no, never again, not now, not ever. But for our church family, I'll have to think about it. What am I talking about?
Cooking dinner for 60-80 families. You know how a watched pot of water never boils, well, three large aluminum foil (thanksgiving turkey size) pans full of breakfast casserole don't BAKE as long as you are in the kitchen.
The only ones complaining about the late meal (that I could hear from the kitchen) were our own boys. Of course they feel free to complain and hound us. Commander put a stop to it real quick, though.
We had also made a casserole dish (regular size) of teriaki chicken, two bags of broccoli, and two large cookie sheets of tater tots, in case there was someone who wouldn't eat the breakfast casserole, Hint: our brood. We ended up starting the meal with the extras. Then we yanked one of the pans out of the oven and started dishing it into glass dishes that we could microwave to finish cooking the eggs.
What an ordeal. Stress? Yes. Wanting to leave the building? Yes. Never wanting to cook for a crowd again? Yes, but I'll think about it. The Commander is so good at doing these things. It's just his schedule doesn't allow him to do it all. If he had been in charge of the doing instead of just the planning, it would have worked better. Love you, honey.

For our church - you guys are awesome. Thanks for being so patient in waiting for the food. Helping set out tables and chairs, and doing clean up. And Mrs. A. those cinnamon rolls looked ' to die for'. She started at 3:00 am to make 60-80 rolls. I'll definitely try one in Glory. We've got a great extended family at Wyandotte County Christian Church.

Oh, if you want a place to worship on Sunday (after the 21st) we will be there. I won't go any closer to that soapbox here.

Birthday, school, shopping and stuff

2011-05-14T23:42:00.000-05:00

I like planning things out, the diagramming the page, the putting it down on paper, a full year syllabus for each subject.
So now you know why I haven't been writing here. So let's catch up a bit.

One of the boys was sitting on the floor with Casey between his legs. They were playing when a bit of natural gas escaped from the boy. Casey jumped back and sat on his haunches, leaned forward toward the boy, sniffed, backed up and barked twice. Translation: "Pay the jar!"

T11 will now have the moniker of T12 (thanks for the word, Julie, hadn't heard it in a long time). He was surprised to get a couple of gifts from his school teacher - since Mom and Dad said he already had his presents from them.

He's in a state of shock - his teacher gave him #2 pencils with sharpener and mechanical pencils along with the Diary of a Wimpy Kid Do it Yourself Book.

He is really trying to smile through his disbelief that it wasn't a video game.
Below is the major part of T12's birthday. Casey. We found his tickle spot.

I had to laugh after taking this picture of the boys in the family. Let's get color coordinated in camouflage colors. Hoorah!They make doing laundry easy around here.

We are almost done with school for the 2010-2011 year. The boys might have one book to finish reading, and a few work pages. For the summer they will work through the Keys to Math series; Algebra for the older two, Percents, Decimals and Fractions for T12, along with penmanship practice, and reading. T12 and Herogian will complain everyday about penmanship - I'll bet you money on it, I'm so sure I'll win. The three of us are left handed, but somehow they are wired to hook, this drives me crazy. This problem has improved Herogian's typing skills, but hand writing is important.

I must tell you about my sweetie. But first a quick bit of history. When I was taking the chemo drugs after the major treatment, I gained up to 20 pounds, it was a fight to not gain more. The drug side effects were horrible in this area. Now that I'm off all those meds the weight has come back off. I was trying to find something to wear to church that wouldn't feel too frumpy when Commander asked me when it was that I last bought new clothes. "Well, when I gained weight." He told me it was time to revamp my wardrobe. I was telling my mother-in-law how special her son is for doing this for me when she about fell to the floor laughing when she asked what stores we went to for clothes. Well, JCPenneys, Cabela's, and Campmor, of course. Where else would a girl go shopping for a Mossy Oak Mini Skirt.

Remember: He is With Us, today, tomorrow, and forever.

The age of saguaro cactus

2011-05-06T22:05:00.000-05:00

For you, Michelle, and anyone else who wants to do a lesson on saguaro cactus.
I found this website that you might find interesting.

http://www.nps.gov/sagu/planyourvisit/upload/the%20saguaro%20cactus.pdf

Some of the interesting facts are that the cactus only lives in a small area of the world.
It grows 1-1.5 inchesper year in its first 8 years.
It's between 50-70 years before it starts to develop arms.
They are believed to live up to 200 years.

Commander said the cactus he was standing by was about 20 feet tall.

One Happy Boy

2011-05-01T21:34:00.000-05:00

T11 and Commander made it back from a weekend trip to Tuscon. T11 couldn't wait to hold Casey.

Chickens and ducks and rocks, oh my! We will forever know where the septic tank lid is located. The hollow rock marks the spot. The rooster eating corn is a cross between a Japanese Black and a Mille Fleur bantam. Herogian wants to show him at the county fair this summer.

Here is the Commander in his favorite haunting grounds. Sabino Canyon, Tucson, AZ.

Homeschooling task. How old is this Saguaro cactus? I'll get back to you on that one. Can you tell me? Commander basically stands six feet tall, standing about 2 feet in front of the cactus.

Where is my balloon . blogspot . com

2011-04-30T22:45:00.000-05:00

This morning at 8:00 am a group of excited homeschoolers and friends met to release 50 helium balloons. Attached to each balloon was a card asking the person who finds it to let us know.

check out http://www.whereismyballoon.blogspot.com/ to track the progress. We have had one balloon reported in Missouri. If you live north east of Kansas City check through your yards and fields for a card attached to a string. We hope to get word from finders for all fifty cards.

It was a great time for all involved.

*****
Casey, our new puppie is a miniature Schnauzer. He will probably be able 15 pounds. This is a lot smaller than Neelix but larger than our friends miniature Schnauzer, Otis, who is under 10 lbs. He did great today. It was a beautiful day to be outside. Herogian walked Penny around our property - off leash, with just the shock collar and Casey following. They did excellent. Penny is relaxing around the new puppy better today - no drooling. Casey enjoyed going to the balloon launch with us, playing outside, and sleeping on the couch curled up against Penny.

Herogian and Penny had a super day with training. Penny retrieved and brought back the frozen birds that Herogian uses for 'fetch' training. She did this off leash and he didn't have to use the shock collar. She is learning and so is Herogian. They even walked through the neighborhood with the check cord dragging behind, Herogian didn't have to hold onto it. Penny heeled the whole time. The smile on his face was almost as big as it was when he bagged the turkey last week.

Casey D. Deskis

2011-04-30T00:19:00.000-05:00

We did a six hour drive to circle down to the far reaches

of Kansas to return home with this little cutie. The boys named him Casey. I added the D. for middle initial since two of the boys have that initial, and our new family member isin the kennel next to Penny for the night. He finally tinkled outside for the first time at midnight. I was starting to worry a bit. He's had a rough two days. They had a vet fix a small umbilical hernia yesterday. The owner gave him his round of shots today and then we yanked out of his environment and moved him next door to the largest dog he has ever seen in his short 9 weeks. He threw up when we got home, wouldn't eat anything until 10. After our backyard trip, he was playful and nosing Penny. Now I'm hoping they will settle down and go to sleep for a few hours. Me too.

CHECK THIS OUT - AWESOME

2011-04-26T14:38:00.004-05:00

http://bcove.me/c804mu3j

THe video above is awesome, inspiring, and you'll be amazed at the inventor's identity - gives you chills. Herogian almost made a career change when he saw this video.

OKGranny - He wants to be a vet. He could use this type a car for that job too.

If black cows give....

2011-04-25T16:12:00.000-05:00

If black cows give chocolate milk, what do white cows give?
White milk.
What do brown cows give?
Hot chocolate
WHat do black and white cows give?
Milk chocolate milk.
What do reddish brown cows give?
Orange Juice.
What do red and white cows give?
Orange Julius

Oh look there's an eagle in the tree.
That was cool.
Where? What tree?
The one beside the road between the other trees.

Driving with Commander and the boys has always been an experience of goofiness.

***
The urge to move is finally rubbing off. We went house hunting yesterday for 40 acres and a pond. HMMMM. It was just too far away.
***
Check out this math program online. http://www.tabletclass.com/ I was really impressed with the sample lesson. The teacher is really easy to listen to and follow. REALLY! I think the boys will also benefit from doing an online course, before we hit high school/college requirements.

Thanks for stopping by.

Turkey hunting and bear scat

2011-04-22T09:19:00.000-05:00

Mr. S. took Herogian hunting Monday. Don't you just love extra curricular homeschool activities like hunting? anyhoo, They left at 4:00 am and came back at 12:45. Herogian couldn't keep his braces hidden behind that smile.

They walked out toward a corn field hoping to find birds. They immediately did! They had to drop to the ground so not to be seen. Herogian commando crawled over 100 yards, while Mr. S. called the turkeys their way. Herogian said there were some areas where he could get to his feet and crouch run behind downed trees, but he had to belly crawl under a fence wire. He sat the barrel of his gun on a branch, slid up into position behind it and came home with....

A 22 + pound Tom.

They had field dressed the bird, and it topped the scale at 22, I'm sure it beat my 23 pound house record. Time to go hunting again.

This is Mr. S. with Herogian. All smiles. It's so great to see the boy so happy. Mr. S and his family will be joining us Saturday for Turkey dinner and all the fixings.

I made this from a recipe that had I think was called "Fruity chocolate clusters" ewwww. Just to girly of a name for boys in this house. It is now called Bear Scat.
A cup each of dried strawberries, cherries, blueberries, cranberries, and whatever else a bear might eat. Along with sunflower seeds in this one. The braces kept me from putting in harder nuts. Melt chocolate in a bowl slowly in the microwave, then dump the mix of berries in and stir. Spread out on fold or waxed paper on a cookie sheet and refrig for a few hours. You can then crumble it up. It does melt in your hands if you hold it too long.

Randomness

2011-04-16T21:00:00.000-05:00

Archery league is over. Mr. McGee and I placed second. I finally learned how they score the league. Each night we go against another team for the four rounds. Each round is scored a win or loss. Last night we were shooting against Mr. McGee's son's team. We lost one round in the second half and that dropped us from first place. We had a lot of fun. I'll miss shooting with Mr. McGee. I hope to see him and his lovely wife back next year.

Today, Herogian and I shot the 3D meet. We made it through 40 targets along with Cori, his dad, and his younger sister (6) she shot at every target. I was impressed that she made it through the entire hike. There was one point where she found an old shotgun shell and something else. She really wanted to play with it, but couldn't carry it with her bow and arrows, not enough hands. Her dad told her to decide, shoot targets, or they quit right now and sit in the truck with her 'toy'. She almost reached out for the 'toy'. They decided to put the toy in the truck so no one would pick it up and throw it away. She was afraid of it disappearing if she put it down. Too cute.

Here's a few pics for you.

THis is Tiny Might. We helped this chicken out of it's shell, knowing full well it might not survive. We could hear it pecking, but unable to break open the shell. She is a runt, about 1/4 the size of her sisters. She still has white rings around her eyes, where her sisters don't.

THese are the four adopted ducks. They are now white and four times the size. They stay this close to each other all day long running around the yard.

Dehydrated marshmallows. Gluten Free and fun to eat.

Have you seen these on the store shelf? Jumbomallows! I split them open, swiped crunchy peanut butter inside. Later I added chocolate morsels. Made a sweet snack for a work break.

One last thing. Check out http://www.whereismyballoon.blogspot.com/ your homeschooling group might want to join us on April 30th by releasing balloons from your area. Who knows maybe your balloon will end up here in our town and ours in yours. Weird how the wind blows.

Have a great week. I'd love to hear from you.

Migraines, septic pumping and savings

2011-04-14T22:59:00.001-05:00

Wednesday morning I didn't sleep in much. Usually, after pulling a closing shift the night before I let the boys sleep in until 8 or 8:30 because I'm still sleeping. Wednesday I got up to grade papers and make sure we were set for the day. While grading T11's math, I realized half the page had disappeared, it was still there, I just couldn't see it. I was told it is called an "eye migraine". It doesn't necessarily cause a splitting headache, just a dull one, but it wipes me out energy wise. I feel like I have ran a marathon. The boys tried to let me rest on the bed for an hour or so in the morning after they started on their work, but with a few phone calls, math problems, can't find a book problem, napping wasnt' working out very well. I decided that the best thing would be to send the boys to P.E. without me. A few phone calls later and everything was set for the boys to be picked up. Just as the boys were headed out the door the phone rang. The septic tank pumping company was on the way. I knew my nap was in jeopardy.
I walk the guy out to the middle of the back yard where there are telltell signs of the septic tank being there - one being an open pipe looking down into it. YUK.
He steps off four feet and says, " the lid should be 'there'. We need to dig down to it."
I'm really confused at this time. I know the last time the tank was pumped I was dealing with chemotherapy, but I didn't think I'd lost that many brain cells to remember if or not the guy had dug a hole in the yard to pump the tank. He hadn't. The guy tells me again that we have to dig, and it is $100 dollars an hour if he has to dig it up.
No way.
I told him to go get the hose, I had the shovel. I started digging. He checked on my progress, now and then, and I found the lid. It was about 15 inches down and 17 inches across. (I had to measure it later).
An hour and half later 1800 gallons of you know what was cleaned out of our back yard. When we were done, I covered the entry lid with an turned over tub with a ten gallon bucket inside it to give it some inside support. The tub will be covered with one of those molded plastic rocks to keep the entry lid accessable. We surrounded it with dirt and leveled the yard off with the extra.
Losing a nap to save $100 was well worth it. I did rest up a bit later and made it through another closing shift. I definitely slept in this morning.

Oh, I also asked a lawn company, I was dealing with on the phone, if they gave military discounts for the job they would be doing for us. Just asking for it saved us over $100 dollars on the year.

stuff a happen'n

2011-04-11T00:12:00.000-05:00

Archery is still a highlight of the week. Friday night, Mr. McGee and I stuck the whiffle ball to the target at the same time and through the same hole. I ever ~~figure out how~~ find time to do the whole process of downloading from the camera to the computer I'll put the picture up. Mr. McGee shot a 279 and I a 281. We were neck and neck throughout the night. We have 5 wins and 3 losses. Don't ask me how they figure that out. Maybe at the last night pot luck dinner, I'll get someone to explain the team scoring. It is just fun. Mr. McGee told me he had told his wife that he really enjoyed shooting with me, he didn't feel pressured. Me? pressure anyone? I'm in awe of watching him shoot. Do me a favor and keep Mrs. McGee in your prayers, she has a ruptured colon in some manner, that causes a large bulge on her side. They are afraid at age 87, she might have a harder time with the procedure to fix it. I could tell Mr. McGee is worried about his lovely wife.

****
T11 and Commander were out with the Boy Scouts this weekend taking care of a merit badge for shooting rifles. T11 must have shocked Commander by shooting really well, for he told me about it about 4 times. Circle your thumb and index finger together and look at it. T11 put five shots in a circle that size from 10 meters. I think the Commander was proud. HooRAH!

***
Herogian tried to wring the neck of a rooster today to prep it for the grill. I think he saw a show where someone did it by swinging the body in a circle while holding onto the head. NOOOO, not my way of doing it. Give me the ax. We skinned , washed and presented two of the banty roosters to Commander and his grill. Herogian enjoyed eating them. They were a bit tough for my brace-face.
The four buff orpingtons have moved next door to our neighbors coop. That leaves us with two reds, 3 banties, and six hatchlings to intergrate into the run.
The weather has been nice enough to fill the baby pool with water. The ducks will have it brown within minutes but they love floating in the water to sleep. They have lost their yellow downy feathers and are white. They are now starting to quack instead of peep.

****
VBS will be late this summer. We are going to do a program about unnamed heroes. I'm starting with posterboard, paint and markers to start the decoration process. It sounds like a fun program. I'll try to do a lot of prestuff since the boys are scheduled for 2 science camps and skeet camp at that time of the summer.

****
T13 said he would train with me for 5Ks. I'd better get to bed so he doesn't leave me in the dust in the morning.
Oh, the carbohydrate counting has worked nicely so far. I haven't had the fanty sick feeling from blood sugar dropping and I dropped the last five pesky pounds I wanted to lose since before babies. I know I still don't have it right though, I'm hungry too much of the time - ergo - the dropping of weight.

have a great week. Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate hearing from you.

Veteran Archer

2011-04-04T12:22:00.000-05:00

Friday night's archery league was flat out cool. I met my team member for the first time - Mr. McGee. He is a veteran of WWII, the same age as my father, 89, and about a foot shorter than I am. They were calling us the Mutt and Jeff team. Mr. McGee has cataracts in both his eyes and still hunts with his bow. Target shooting can be hard with the lighting, obstacles they set up around the targets to create shadows, and limited target zones. Mr. McGee and I would talk over what part of the target we needed to aim for, but by the time we returned to the shooting line Mr.McGee couldn't see the tell-tell marks anymore. He shot great! One of his shots went left of his intended mark and actually hit a small spot worth 14 points.
He thought he'd be too tired to shoot the entire round of 40, since he had been out hunting during the day. He did great. He and his wife would take turns resting in two chairs we put near the shooting line for them.
He served our country as a platoon leader in Italy during the great war. He said he got the position from being the smallest, youngest, and the loudest mouth.
I can't wait to hear more of his storys this week.
Oh, my shocking hit for the night was pinning a wiffle ball to the target at 35-40 yards. At one of the other targets a ping-pong ball dangled from fishline. Mr. McGee and I trapped the ball between our arrows, but didn't pin it to the target. I am so thankful Herogian introduced me to this sport.

Blue's Clues Advanced

2011-03-31T21:49:00.000-05:00

T13 and I were watching his Algebra video to prep for the next lesson. We were doing equivalent expressions. 2(x+1) =(1+x)2=2x+2 is not equal to 2x+1.

Then there was 5x-x is the same as xxxxx-x=4x. T11 walked by when the screen switched to five apples - 1 apple = 4 apples. An easy example to make the material sink in.

"That looks like Blue's Clue Advanced."

*****

We took Penny to a friend's house yesterday. The two dogs really play together well. They really don't have a fence, but we thought she would stay with their dog and not run through the north side brush or the south creek, or the barbed wire fence at the far end. WRONG. The barbed wire fence at the far end of the yard didn't stop her. Under she went to investigate the horses. Wearing large muck boots, I ran after her with the leash once she disappeared past the yard. Iexpected her to get herself kicked in the head. A fat Shetland ponie was very interesting to her. She followed the horses along the creek (Thank God for the deep creek) then she scared up a gray Crane or Heron. Can you say Birddog? I thought we were doomed to chase her all day. She loved the run, the kids all chasing her, me growling at her. The creek and a second fence finally turned her around. Our friend had returned with large doggie treats. Once Penny ran circles around everyone she got a whiff of the treat. Penny finally was caught - freedom for a treat. T13 and I came huffing from the far end of the field to get the leash on her. What a day. We are now the owners of a Sportdog 400S shock collar.

Homeschool Legal Defense Association - don't homeschool without it

2011-03-29T09:12:00.000-05:00

I wouldn't. HSLDA has a lot to offer to the homeschooling family. I can't possibly describe all the links for information, guidance, tips, curriculum market, and options they have for the new or experienced homeschooler. They are also offering three months free so you can check them out before joining.
We have been members since we started in 2003. Having a membership is like having insurance - it gives you peace at mind.
The membership is worth having, a resource that is reliable and there for you at all times. They also send out a magazine that lets you see what cases they are working on. You can check out your states information and be aware of any changes your state might be making to homeschooling regulations.
Underlying all this - I'm hoping five of you will join them over at the right of my blog so I can get our next year membership free.