I'm Back..... For Now.

Good Morning All, Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!
As you can see we were able to pay part of the internet/cable/phone bill to get us back in business so now any way - I have to hope we can get enough together for the electric bill.

I have been trying to pry the computer away from Kelly long enough to be able to read all of your past posts. I know I have been on my soap box about the computer and Kelly, but I have really seen how it affects her. The first few days without the computer she was nasty, then once that passed she was helpful around the house, found things to do like puzzles & games, took care of the horses ect. once the internet was back on she is back to being snippy with everyone, trying to get the computer away from her is like pulling a tooth. It seems to me that it really is just like an addiction. For Christmas she wants a computer of her own (we were thinking of fixing our old one for her), now I am wondering if that is a good thing or not. I keep trying to tell her she needs to enjoy the computer but also needs to do other things through out the day. Her side of the story is she has no other outside contact with kids and this is her way of talking to her friends...

On another note my son bought his first car! A silver mustang, and would you belive he has only driven it three times the rest of the time it has been back to the dealership where we bought it because of problems with the car. I feel so bad for him! I think the repair guys are jerking us around now but they have us over a barrel. Once the care left the lot it is our car as is so they don't HAVE to fix it but they said they would since we bought the problem up to them the day we picked it up. The poor kid has his first car payment due on Monday and no car.....

Our neighbor is up to her old tricks again! She was tailing my son (she drives very fast), he turned one way she another they meet up right in front of our house and she stayed in the middle of the street making my son go off the road almost into the ditch. He pulled in to our driveway and went out to the road and confronted her which of course you just don't do these people are NUTS. She was swearing at HIM (I can not post the words she was calling him - they were terrible, I had opened the door by now and heard her). He came back in to our house and then my husband came home and they looked at the marks in the road and saw where my son had to go to avoid hitting her car. Well wouldn't you know it she called the POLICE! The cop came over and talked to my son and told him to stay away from HER and that road rage can get out of hand so quickly since people now a days have guns, knives ect on them and they don't have any fear of using them. He was very nice and listened to my son's story and they talked about my son going to the police academy and he told him about tazers ect. he was very informative but I was still steaming about my neighbor....

Can you tell I haven't been able to post in awhile I am talking all of your ears off!!! I'll let you go for now and post the rest later.

Have a wonderful day!

Now What....

Just when I get the computer back up and running, Now the internet has been turned off because we couldn't pay the bill.... Gosh something must be wanting me to stay off the computer!

I want to wish all my blogging buddies the very best Thanksgiving ever!!!!! : )
May you have a wonderful day with your families and enjoy all the great food.
I am cooking dinner this year and we are having over my son's girlfriend, my in-laws never invited us.... they are too busy getting ready for their garage sale on Friday & Sat.

Have a wonderful day!!!!!

I Think I Fixed The Computer!!!!!

I think I may be back up and running again! I have been working on the computer almost every day trying to get it working since we have no money to get it fixed I figured what the heck and pushed a few keys here and a few keys there and I am back in business. The bad thing is I lost everything that was on the computer! All my homeschooling favorites, my files, websites, EVERYTHING! A number of things I paid for and will have to contact each company and see if I can get another copy of each item... I also lost all the files for my dog breeding business and the past puppy photos : (
I do have to say though I really enjoyed having Kelly back during the down time of the computer. She spends way to much time on the computer and really doesn't do much of anything else - While it was down we went for walks, rode the horses, did a puzzle ect. It is amazing how the computer ties up your mind.
It is good to be back and be able to read all of your blogging posts again - I missed you all!

My Computer Has Died : (

My computer has finally bit the big one!!!! : (
Kelly & I will try and get down to the library as often as we can so I can read your blog posts and stay in touch. I am not sure how long it will be until I can get it repaired. I do have to say one thing about being computerless - Kelly has had to start finding other things to keep her busy which has been a good thing! I on the other hand don't miss it at all except for staying in touch with you all!
Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Good Monday Morning : )

Sure is cold here in Florida this morning!!!! I slept with my sweat pants & sweat shirt on.... We haven't thrown on the heat yet but if it was up to me I would have had it on. Too Cold!!!!!

You know how our computer has a virus on it so we have to baby it along to be able to use it. Well I tried to download a coloring book that was sent to me in one of my yahoo groups, it must have had another virus attached to it and it made the computer a hundred times worse : ( I have been working on it trying to get it repaired enough so we can use it.... so far this morning it is working okay.

To top off the weekend my in-laws stopped by on Sat..... I went to greet them and can you imagine my father-in-law walked right past me. My mother-in-law as least spoke to me, telling me how she can't find a used computer for Kelly at the garage sales she goes to... BUT they brought over a coffe maker for my husband, socks for my husband, golf mittens for my husbands golf clubs, and a few other things I can't think of. Can you imagine visiting your grand children and bringing gifts for their father and nothing (not even a piece of candy) for the kids - especially Kelly! They sat for a few minutes and said they are having a garage sale at their house on Thanksgiving weekend. I guess they are doing that so they don't have to have us over like every other year.... The whole time they were here they spoke of how many doctors appointments they have (my mother-in-law has swelling in her feet among many other problems which the doctors tested her for and can't find any thing wrong with her so she keeps going to one doctor after another). I mentioned my son bought a car, my father-in-law wanted to know how much he paid for it - my husband told him. Then he started in on our son about why he doesn't work 40 hours (Win Dixie doesn't let anyone work 40 hours). This man is just the crankiest person I have ever meet. They didn't even ask Kelly one question while they were here. Last night while I was sleeping I was wondering to myself do I e-mail my mother-in-law and tell her how wonderful it was to have them visit or do I just not e-mail and leave it at that? I am leaning towards not e-mailing them. As I have said before I can't figure these people out - I can not imagine having a garage sale instead of having your family over for Thanksgiving dinner! I forgot, When they were getting ready to leave my husband says to them that he may stop by on Sunday (they said they have work for him to do there), His mother goes I'll cook a pork up and we can have that for dinner not once inviting the kids to come also. I guess I carry on about them so much because my parents would have never treated family like that when they were alive...... As a side note: My husbad didn't work Sat. (He knew a guy who had work for him o do) or Sunday at my mother-in-laws...

On the school front, I went to the library on Sat. morning and got a ton of more books. I still do most of the reading during the day but I make sure Kelly is reading something - she just finished "Thanksgiving on Thursday". I have a number of easy reader books about the things we are covering about Florida - I am hoping one of these days she will catch the reading bug : ) Awhile back I had talked to one of my son's 12th grade teachers about her having the class "color pictures" during the day and she has said that she has found it to relax the class and that they take in the information she is teaching. I have been doing that with Kelly, at first I was worried she would not be paying attention to what I was reading but it really seems to help her focus in.

I hope everyone has a productive Monday - Enjoy!

Thurs., It sure has been a fast week!

Good Thursday morning to you all!
My husband had no work yesterday so that always throws are school schedule off but we got a nice days worth of work done. We started that States Study and it isn't going as smoothly as I had invisoned : ( I will have to tweek it and see why it is so jumbled. We also are reading a number of Thanksgiving books - I was going to do a full unit on them but I am now thinking just reading some of the books we got from the library you get a really good background of what things were like for them ect. We also got a few state post cards in the mail yesterday which has been turning into alot of fun. I think we are finally on the home streach of the Civil War.... by the end of next week we should have that wrapped up (I hope). I bought a few pieces of the huge poster board paper at the dollar store for .40 cents each - I was thinking of writting Civil War in the middle of it and have her print out pictures of people and events from the war and hang it in the school room as a wrap up.

We went yesterday to look at that car my son has his heart set on. When we got there would you belive someone had put a pretty big dent & scratch into it since my husband and son had looked at it last. To say my son was disappointed was an understatement! We went and looked at a few other places (I was really surprized at how many other people were also car shopping). Well he has found two possiblities - one is a silver mustang and the other is a dark burgandy jeep. The mustand is a newer better conditon car but he will have payments of $50.00 a week for 2 years - the jeep the payments are the same but only for a year (of course car insurance is a factor also because he has to carry collison while he is paying it off). He is mulling it over, this is one of his first big decision he will have to be making in his life time. I worry because of the way the economy is but he does need a good working car to get back and forth down to Daytona Beach where the police academy is. My husband and son are going this evening to test drive both cars to see if that helps him make a decision. He is now thining he may need to stay working at Winn Dixie and do the police academy nights and on Sat. - they have a evening class that starts in March. He has alot to think about, I pray that he will be guided in the right direction for all of this.

I just wanted to mention this conversation my husband had with Kelly yesterday. We had gotten our work done in about two hours yesterday, He says to her "Is that all your doing today"? She said, "Yes, I worked very well today and got everything Mom wanted to cover done". She was proud of herself (you know from my posts how we have struggled in the past and are now just actually hitting our stride with homeschooling). My husband says to her "I sure hope you marry a rich guy".... I felt sooooo sad for Kelly : ( Can you imagine her own father is saying to her basically she is not going to make much of herself in life that she will need a "rich" guy to have her succeed. I was floored he said that and just quickly brushed it off to another topic. Later late in the evening before we went to bed Kelly asked me as we were throwing hay to the horses "Mom, I am doing pretty good with the school work, aren't I". I told her she was going just great. I tell you it brought a lump up in my throat though that here my baby must of been thinking over what her father said to her all night and she was feeling very uneasy with it : ( I have to do more to pump Kelly's self esteem up, I don't want her thinking she isn't a treasured important person that has many opportunites in life!!!!!

Happy Veterans Day!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Veterans Day today! Of course we are off of school again today.... that deal I made with Kelly about going by the public school calender for days off is really coming back to bite me.

I am having one of those days already today where you can feel a cry is looming. I think it is because I read an article in our local newspaper that stated in a few months they anticipate alot more building/painter/plumbing contractors to go out of business. That a huge amount of the unemployed in our area are from these fields of work and alot more workers will be added to that unemployed list. One other thing it mentioned that the highest amount you can get when you make a claim for unemployment is I think it said $265.00 and you have to jump through hurdles here in Florida to get that little bit... It is scary not knowing week to week if my husband will have a job or not. It always seems so much worse for me around the holidays : ( Last year Kelly qualified for the Toys for Tots program (those were the only gifts she got plus a special gift from one of my blogging buddies and her grandparents), my son got nothing. This year she is to old for that program so I hope to at least be able to get our old computer fixed (my mother-in-law I geuss hasn't be able to find one at the garage sales she goes to) for her as at least one gift.

My son asked me this morning to call the car insurance company to see what our policy amount will be taking my husbands van off and adding the car he wants to get on - I mentioned to him that we haven't been able to pay the insurance bill as of yet, that we have a cancellation notice for that on the 22nd.. I felt so low. He said "Gosh Mom, you are sucking all the fun out of getting this car". He went over to the calender and saw that all three of our bills for the month electric ($253.02), phone/cable/internet ($297.98 - We owe two months but if we pay them $150.00 they will keep our service on) & the insurance ($75.75) have not been paid yet! He shook his head and left for work, I never thought in my life time things would be so bad for so long money wize.

Oh well, It's sunny and really pretty outside already this morning maybe a good walk or outdoor project will do me good... I also want to say I really appreciate having all you blogging buddies to share our ups and downs with : )

It's Monday Already - Yikes!

Monday sure rolls around quick doesn't it? I am not ready for it : (
The weekend had it's ups and downs - I am getting a nice handle on cleaning the house. I worked my tail off in the livingroom and kitchen (It's all one big room). My husband walked in and said "It looks like "crap" (not the word he used), the table looks stupid against the wall" (I put it there because the floor is so stained I wanted to hide it). That kind of comment from him usually makes me stop what I am doing but this time I took in stride and tried to keep going with my cleaning. He was in and out of that type of mood, yelling at me about how much I spent on food AGAIN.... He doesn't keep track of what he spends but yells at me even though I can accout for every penny I spend (I thought if I could show him where the money goes he would stop yelling but it really makes no difference to him). Anyway, that's my life and I need to stop letting this negative person bring me down every day of my life!

On the school front, I have a nice week planned. We are starting our state study - We are starting with Florida : ) It is funny but when ever you even mention the name Florida in this house everyone has a comment.... We all hate it here. Kelly says as soon as she is old enough she is moving back to PA., My son says as soon as he finishes his police school he will try and look for a job some where else other then Florida. It makes me sad to hear them talk like that just because your childhood home should be a place where you can find refuge in not want to run from it.

Two more weeks and my son will have enough to put the down payment on the car he wants. I pray this all works out for him, He is soooo looking forward to it. I was just reading were Curcuit City has gone bankrupt, You have to wonder how many more stores after this holiday season is over may also go bankrupt... the economy is just so scary right now.

I do have one positive thing to talk about.... Our new homeschool schedule is really working out great! Our day starts at 1pm. and goes to 3pm. this way if Kelly wants to sleep till noon she can or I can do my computer work in the morning and then take a nap and we can both be fresh to start the school day at 1pm. I would have never figured how well this works but it does : )

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Understanding In-Laws.....

Sometimes I just can't figure out my in-laws....
They used to treat me like I was a loved daughter, better then they treated their own sons. Now they are cold to me which if fine with me but when they are also cold to my children I just can't understand that! No matter what my children do in the future I always want to have a bond with my future grandchildren. What is life without the love of your family.... They called our house on Friday night and talked to my husband his mother told him "It's been six weeks since YOU have been over to see us", She never mentioned Kris or Kelly. They don't invite us over for dinner, not even Thanksgiving. I tried to stay in contact with them by sending up-date e-mails to my mother-in-law but the last one I sent I had to about beg her to let me know she had been reciving the e-mails because I hadn't heard back from her. You would think when a grandmother read that her grand-daughter was having to take advil every day to ward off the toothaches she has been having you would step in and get this girls teeth fixed. These people are VERY well off, money is not an issue for them so I am not sure why they would let their grandaughter suffer needlessly. They are the most self-centered people I have ever meet, they want to tell you their problems but not hear about yours, they want you to bend over backwards for them but they don't care to help us ect. I am sure you know the type but what get's me is these people are now into their middle 70's wouldn't you want to love your grandchildren in the twilight of your years? I guess I will keep sending her the up-date e-mails and try and stay a possitive person even though these people sure try my patients.

Wonderful Sat. Morning : )

I hope all of you are having a wonderful Saturday!

I just have to tell you about a book that was suggested by one of my blogging buddies: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Haflingerhorses/ "The House That Cleans Itself" by Mindy Clark (I had to use our interlibrary loan system to get it). What a great book! It speaks right to me. Last night I started on my living room, as I have mentioned before not many people who are dog breeders have them all living in the house like we do so I have always used that as an excuse for why my house is always messy but not any more! Right now it looks like a hurricane went through but I am hoping with using her tips I may be able to get my house back into shape again and not be like a crazy women if there is mention of someone stopping by.....

As I mentioned in a previous post I have my homeschooling blog buddies listed in the order that they up-date which is saving me a ton of time and now I have also removed myself from a number of the yahoo e-mail groups that I used to belong to limit the number of e-mails I get, this way it frees me up a bit more to concentrate on other things. It is really working out alot better for me.

It is funny when I was going through my MANY favorites I have saved to delet some of them I found a goodie I didn't even know I had.... If you are working on the states like we are this is a great little site which gives you some really fun things to do for each state: http://www.gale.cengage.com/DiscoverAmerica/guides/ Our State Postcard trading is going well, I think that will be alot of fun to add to our state book, If you would like to join that group it is called Postcardkids http://groups.yahoo.com/group/postcardkids/ (Sorry I can't link the pages for you - My computer is still in bad shape we haven't been able to afford to get it fixed yet so the virus pretty much runs the computer).

I will let you go and hope you have a wonderful day today!!!!!

Here We Are At Friday Already : )

This week moved really quickly for me.... Usually I am praying for Friday to get here....

The end of the week brought not very good news on my husbands job front - The painting compnay he works for had no work for him yesterday and today. What is happening the boss is keeping the guys busy for two to three days a week just enough so the guy can't collect unemployment. I can't express how stressful it is not knowing week to week if he will get two days, three days or any days at all of work time in.... At least with the weather change we haven't been using the airconditioner so that should make our electric bills a little more managable.

My son got all his paper work in for the Police Academy, He will hear back from them next week or so if he is getting in. If he does he will start classes in Jan., He is saving up all his work money for a car to get him back and forth to school. The problem is school is full time and he will have to make weekly payments on the car - I don't know how this will all work out. My husband keeps telling him we will help him out but that doesn't look possible with the way the work thing is paning out. I am going to have to leave all this in God's hands and see how this all works out....

Now don't fall down when I tell you this but Kelly actually said to me yesterday "I was actually looking forward to school today Mom". WOW! It made my heart sing a little bit. I think just maybe after two years of homeschooling (we started 11/13/06) we may be just now getting to the point where she is actually enjoying homeschooling & learning something : )

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Middle Of The Week Up-Date.....

Another great day here in Florida, It has warmed up just a bit and it is overcast! I love these types of days....

The public school had off Monday & Tuesday so of course we had them days off too. Monday we went out shopping for sneakers for Kelly - This child get's sick every time we go out. I am not sure if it is a nervous stomach or she is getting car sick, but it happens every time now when we go out : ( I had had something similar when I was about her age and so did my son, so I guess it is somthing in our genes. So needless to say the day was not fun, It was a race at every store to get in and out.

We have signed up for a post card exchange that I found on the 50 state lapbook webpage. It seems like it will be fun to receive some state cards in the mail to go with our state study. Also with this study we will be finding the state quarters - I put a post on the freecycle list for one of those state quarter maps but so far no luck. If we don't find a cheap one we may just tape the quarter on to the card stock.
I think this state study is going to be fun, I am really trying not to go overboard like I alway do and add to much and then it takes the fun out of it for Kelly....

We sure are enjoying Across Five Aprils - It started out a bit hard for Kelly to keep all the characters straight but now we are rolling and enjoying it. I am doing all the reading of it but she sure is spell bound by some chapters : ) Between you and me, I can't wait till this Civil War study is over... I have had enough of it. We have been moving at a snails pace that is why it is taking us so long.

Well I hope everyone has a wonderful day today!!!!