Happy New Year's Eve & Sadness : (

I hope everyone has a wonderful night tonight with your friends & family! I always love the thought of a new year and all the hope it brings!
This year has been one of the worst for my family, and to top it off this morning my 18 year old cat Joey passed away : (.... The last few days he wasn't eatting so I was trying to prepair myself for the end but that cat has been with us since my son was three years old, He has see the birth of Kelly, all the moves we've made, evacuations for hurricanes & fire ect. We sure are going to miss that fellow he was one like one of my children.... Rest in peace Joe!

Happy Holidays!!!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday!
Here are a few pictures Kelly took of the fire at our house two weeks ago. This was about 4 hours after it started. Most of our two acres are burnt. It was a terrible ordeal to say the least! Needless to say it really drained any holiday spirt we might have had from us. Especially since on Black Friday we had gone and used a Walmart credit card to buy Kelly a laptop (We HATE credit cards, We always get in trouble using them but we had no money this year to buy any gift for her any other way so we went ahead and did it). We had given it to her early before the holiday because we knew that the internet would most likely be shut off by Christmas and wanted to give her some time to use it. Well during the evacuation for the fire the charger for the laptop got ran over! We were all heart broken, But the internet was shut off soon after anyway. I am just glad to see 2010 go! I think I said the same about 2009, but the years HAVE to start getting better....

Fire!!!!!

Kelly & I were on our way back from the getting hay for our horses when we saw black smoke. I gunned the car and sure enough it was at my neighbors, I flew into our driveway and jumped out and yelled to my husband. I called 911, they wanted to know my neighbors exact address so I had to run down to his house. On fire was not his main mobile home it was one that I think he used as storage (he has 3 mobile homes and a motor home on his property), I could hear popping coming from the burning home. 911 asked me so many questions it was unreal!

Right before my eyes the fire started to move and it was going right towards my house! My husband ran down to where I was and yelled hurry we have to get the animals out right now! I ran into the house and got the dog crates and started loading them, my husband took them down to a neighbors. My mind was racing but yet I was in slow motion I could not even think straight. I looked out the window and the fire was right next to my goat fence, Kelly & I ran out to let the goats out. We could not get the boards to open so I busted them (It is amazing how strong you can be when you are under stress). A police officer was at our house yelling that we needed to leave NOW! We couldn't get Kelly's cats, they scratched her and ran from her so we just opened her bedroon windows and had to leave them there in hopes they would jump out. We then ran to open the horse pen and had to watch our horses just run... It was gut wrenching. The officer was getting very upset with us by now and the fire was so close. I sent Kelly down to the neighbors where the dogs were and went back to the house, by now the fire trucks were all over the place. I ran back into the house, I can not tell you how I felt looking around the house thinking that in a few minutes everything would be burned up. I ran to get the picture book my father worked on his entire life that is all I have left of both my parents, my husband was yelling hell with the pictures we had to go but I tore open the closet and with all my strength I pulled the picture books out and took them outside to the street. A wonderful neightbor was there with a golf cart and put them in to take them to a safe place. I ran in one more time and saw I had forgotten our 20 year old cat! He has been in bad shape and was out of sight, I got him in a crate, before I left the house I prayed to God and asked him to spare the house.

The fire trucks were in my driveway, tractors where making fire lines around my house and a helicopter was dropping water over the fire. It was unreal! Kelly said she turned her back towards the house because she didn't want to see the black smoke which would mean our house was getting burned : (

To make a very long afternoon/evening short, the wonderful firefighters saved my house!!!!! A number of wonderful neighbors helped in so many ways, our horses were running loose and this lady got them and took them to her house and feed & watered them and let them run in her pen, another fellow watched the dogs for us as we were back and forth, another lady I had never seen before helped transport the dogs for us in her truck.... the list goes on and on. The one I have to thank the most tho is God! The fire was on a bee line straight for our house and out of know where a wind came and the fire blew just inches past our house & goat house and spared us!

Praise God!

Freezing Cold in Florida : (

What the heck is this weather, We are having freezing temps. in Florida! That's just not right!! I put the heat on last night for the first time this year : (
I sure hope it warms up soon, I am really useless in the cold weather..

I wanted to ask you all, Do you have a website that you use for vocabulary words?
I am finding Kelly really is lacking in that area ex. I was talking about how I rode in a real stage-coach and she didn't know what that was.. also I mentioned something about a comedian and she didn't know what that was either. We have been working on spelling words which I guess in simular but she learns the word (she writes the words in a sentence, word search ect.) but by the next week they are just gone from her memory. I would like to maybe move away from that and get her to become more aware of more words and their meanings than learning to spell them.

Pearl Harbor Day... Kelly & I are going work on that today. I miss my dad's stories about that day. I wish he was here to tell Kelly the war stories... Soon most of those folks who remember that time will not be with us : (

Stay Warm!!!!

Hello there Blogger Buddies! Hope everyone is doing well.

Kelly was sick there for awhile with what the doctor called a virus (not the flu), the poor thing couldn't keep anything down and was so dizzy. They gave her medicine and it helped right away, other wize they wanted to send her to the hospital for fluids. She blames getting the illness from going out to the race track and being in line for 2 hours with all those other people breathing on her. She took this picture of me at the gift shop that day.

My son came over and put our tree up, It looks lovely again this year. He also put the lights up on the outside of the house. This is my son's & daughter-in-laws first Christmas together and they are all jazzed up about it. I on the other hand would let it go by with out any fan fair.

School has been very hit or miss, We have been working on her drivers manual alot. Still not sure when she will take the written test yet. She still has to take a drug course that Florida requires before they can do the written test. We also have been trying to get "Hitty" our Above & Beyond Five In A Row book down. It has really helped to have everything planned out for me since my mind is in a million places lately.

It is official my husband has been laid off for a whole year! Can you imagine - Yikes! Things are still bad in our area, unemployment rate is still up in the 11% range. We have one more week of unemployment and then he is out. I pray that the govt. extends it again, not sure what will happen if they don't. I have to just leave it in Gods hands.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Sunday!!

Daytona International Speedway

Haven't posted in awhile : (

But we have been busy....

We went down to Daytona International Speedway, they had a preview of their new 60 minute tour they are doing. It was free for Sat. & Sunday so my son & his wife, Kelly and I went over. We waited on line for 2 1/2 hours - Yikes! Kelly & my daughter-in-law were wilting, they had to sit down on benches I didn't think they were going to make it. Once we got on the tour tram it was great! We got to see the drivers meeting room, go up in the skybox where the press sit during the race - What a view from there! We also checked out the "room of doom" the inspection area for the cars. We drove near turn four - you would not belive how much banking is there, you would not be able to walk up it with out ALOT of trouble, It is hard to belive that race cars go three wide there. We also got to go to victory lane, you could get pictures taken but we didn't. All in all we had a nice time at the speedway & my son's place - It is sooooo good to get away!!!!!!!!

Woo Hoo It's Friday!!!

I just LOVE Fridays!!!!
Being a Nascar nut, It starts the race weeked off which is always a good thing : )
My day is going GREAT so far : )
My favorite race driver Kasey Kahne looks really fast - Woo Hoo! I love this weeks race at Talladega, It has such great racing there.
Then I also got a call from the library and they found the three books that were missing! Another Woo Hoo!
I took Jennifer's advice from Toad Haven and packed in school for this week, I was just to flabbergasted with everything and I am really happy I did it really helped shake out the cobwebs I was having....
Kelly took the time off and went down to Daytona Beach to spend a few days with my son & daughter-in-law, She always comes back from there refreshed.
My husband has been out of the house today which has left me to enjoy the day by myself which I am loving... : ) It really is good to be alone sometimes.
Hope everyone is enjoying their Friday!!!!

Library Problems - What Would You Do?

I have a question for you all....
To top off my crappy week already (It's only tues..) my library is telling me that they do not have three of the books that I took out & returned!
What would you do if you know that you returned them? Have any ideas for me?
I have asked if they have cameras in the library to see if we can check that (haven't heard back from them yet) because I know roughly when we finished that unit study (back on Sept. 17th.).
I have doubled checked my house and car just to make sure but I really can see myself dropping off the books. The problem is that I had these books transfered from the main library and there is only one librarian at my library do to budget cuts and she has to handle everything that goes on. I'm not sure what happened to the books, they got misplaced or taken by someone by mistake when they checked theirs out since check-in & take-out is in the same area.... All I know is that I can't afford to have to pay for those books. It really would be a mess if I can no longer take books out : (

I wanted to give a big Hugs & Thanks to all who have responded to my past post - It really helps : )

Monday Blues...

I can't belive a week has passed since I last posted...
Things have not gone as I had planned (Do they ever...), We have been side tracked with a number of things that have been happening around our house this past week. First my drunk neighbor was screaming she was going to call the animal control office again on us (She was sitting out on her porch at 8:30pm and my dog was barking because a rabbit was in our driveway) My husband went out as soon as he could and got him but that set her off, So we had to deal with that stress of not knowing if she had called and were we going to have another visit from the animal control people : (
Then one of the homes in our area caught on fire and burned down, everyone got out okay. Pretty much where we live by the time the fire dept. gets out here the mobile homes are too far gone for them to save anything. I wrote down our watching the fire dept. tackle the fire as as school related outing since we just visited the fire house and saw all the tools & equipment they used for fighting the fire and we got to see them in use...
Just really having the blues lately not sure why but just can't seem to focus on anything any more... It might be because come Nov. my husband has been unemployed for a whole year! Yikes! Or maybe because the holidays are coming again... they sure do seem to roll around fast : (
I just hope I shake this feeling soon, I am sick of myself so I know everyone else must be sick of me too!

Jury Duty

Jury Duty went well yesterday. We all did alot of sitting around doing nothing for a few hours then the gal came in and said that the two cases were resolved without a jury and we all could go home - Yea! I was kinda looking forward to getting on a case since the judge said that both cases were only going to be two days long.
When I got home I could feel a migraine coming on which is never a good thing for me... I threw in a frozen pizza, walked the dogs, feed the horses/goats and then took a couple of Advils and layed down for a few hours. I woke up still not right but you know how it is a mothers job is never done, I still needed to feed the dogs, do dishes ect. ect. ect.....
Today I had to run down to town, which I hate doing during the school week! I got home and Kelly & I took a walk to try and get us motivated and energised - It didn't really help we watched a dvd which had mostly nothing to do with our schooling,
"Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief". It was a good movie we enjoyed it.
Tomorrow I am determined to get some schooling done and NOT leave this house! : )

Half Way Thru October Already!

We have been having just perfect weather here, but no rain which could cause big problems down the road....

Anyway, School has been going slow but okay I guess. We did get a ton of books from the library about career choices. Kelly has been trying to rack her brain for some ideas on what she could do for a living in the future. She does not want to go to college but does want to make enough money so she can live on her own. This has really opened up a great line of learning/teaching for the both of us. Kelly turns 16 in Feb. and she wants to get her drivers license and a part time job - The sad part is that there just is no jobs available, adults are taking the jobs kids used to grab : (
Time will tell how that goes.... I just enjoy seeing how she is really looking into all areas needed to be out on her own and how much it really is going to cost out in the real world as they say. It doesn't hurt that she see her brother and his wife even with two salaries having a hard time staying afloat.

I wanted to mention how upset I am with myself.... I was doing so good with staying away from cookies & ice cream - I hadn't had any in months then all of a sudden I went beserk! I have been getting nasty headaches but still am eating them : (
I think it might be because I am nervous about going to jury duty on Monday but what ever the reason I am really sad I am back to my old ways!

Emergency Services Tour

Our homeschooling group went on a tour of our Emergency Services building. The "control" room is amazing! Kelly was in heaven in there, you can see from the picture above how many laptop computers they have there (since hers died she has been in withdrawls). It sure looks like they have everything under control in there - Hopefully we won't need it......

We also had a great demonstration by our fire dept., they had a fireman dress up in his gear with the 80lb. air tanks on and all. Fireman really need to be in shape to be able to wear all that heavy gear plus any equipment they need and not to mention having to drag out any people from the fire. Most all of our fireman are also EMTs which is wonderful to know. Since this was one of the first homeschooling tours that our group was made up of different age brackets - Ours was 9yrs. old thru teens, I found it worked out better for us. I asked questions on what requirements are need to become a fireman (Kelly had tossed that idea around for awhile).

This was one of the few homeschool outings we went on and we meet a couple of new girls that are Kelly's age. They seemed really nice (for 15 year olds), Kelly barely gave them eye contact : ( Here I was talking shoes and driving with the girls and Kelly is next to me playing with her camera. It is not so much that she is shy (which she is), but she really just doesn't want to make any friends - Isn't that kinda weird? She says she has no interest in these girls what so ever so why talk to them : ( I really hope to go on some more outings - I unlike Kelly enjoy talking to new people young and old alike.

Wings Over Waves

We went to an air show down at Daytona Beach called Wings over Waves on Sat. it was great! The sky was just perfectly clear to be able to see everything : ) I was amazed at the "Raptor", it is soooo loud & fast. It really is something to see the planes our country uses in war these days - Just amazing & very patriotic! We all got sunburns standing out there for hours by the ocean but it was a really nice day. I also enjoyed watching all the the different people - I could not belive how many people had tattoos... tons of people, both women & men.

Peek-A-Boo Opossum & Scarry Scorpions

It has just been like a animal nature study every day around here.... First the scorpions & spiders and now we have a young opossum running around our front yard last night, He is just the cutest!

Kelly put the light on and saw he moving about, he is pretty small so I think he may be just going out on his own. I was worried because he was venturing towards the horse pen and he isn't the fastest animal on the planet.... but he then moved to under the house so he is still safe. Of course no learning opportunity goes un-noticed here, hehehe I got a opossum book from the library for further research on our new guest : )

As far as the scorpion, Jennifer from Toad Haven posted: "Do you know that scorpions glow under UV light? If you have a ultraviolet light of some sort you can search for him tonight". Unfortunatly we don't have any UV lights but we did see a little bit smaller scorpion which came out of the same area as the larger one. Not sure if this was a baby or possible the male but I flipped out thinking my kitchen sink area is now a scorpion homestead. I smushed the smaller one but the large one is still on the lame : (

What Beautiful Weather!!!!!!

Today here in Florida is one of those days my grandma would say "It's good to be alive" days! Crisp and cool in the morning, warm but not to hot in the afternoon - Love it! I feel so much more alive during this weather : ) Now if I only had the energy to back that up, hehehehe.
We took the horses out for a stroll which is always fun and an adventure. Kelly & her horse Chance work well together, Roper my horse tells me what we are going to do - Not good when you are riding an animal over a 1,200 lbs.. Kelly get's so mad at me for not having the proper control over my horse : (
We did some school work today after we had taken a walk - That made the work seem easier, might try that more often.
I was doing the dishes and saw a large scorpion crawling by the sink (the biggest one I have seems since we have been down here). Being the animal nut that I am I tried to use a spatula to flip it out the kitchen window but it got away and is now running behind my sink - Nightmares here we come tonight!!!!!

Happy October 1st.!!!!!!!

Here are a few example pictures I found on the computer of the birds we are taking care of, All three are so beautiful! The bird baby-sitting is going well : )

We had our hands full yesterday.... My horse Roper had issues again. He kept laying down which is never a good sign for a horse. We think his stomach was turning again, we had to walk him and walk him for hours. I just hate it when he gives me those sad eyes when he isn't feeling well. He is better today and doing just fine, not sure why he keeps having this issue.

Okay are you sitting down.... Kelly took a Saxon Math book into her room on her own and did some math work from it! I was shocked when she showed me : )

School work has been going very slow, Mostly because of me - I layed down for a nap today and slept for almost 3 hours! Yikes!

I can't belive it is October 1st. already! I got a letter in the mail telling me I have juror duty. I go on October 18th., I am looking forward to it - I have never been on a jury before. They pay you $15.00 for the day, It is going to cost me about $10.00 in gas a day to get down there. They also stated that you should have nice clothes on... Yikes! I only own one pair of pants and that is a pair of faded jeans & sneakers (maybe they won't pick me because of my clothes and I can go home...)

Hope everyone is enjoying the start of October!

Love Bugs / Marmaduke

These pests are called "Love Bugs", I had never seen such a bug before moving down here to the lovely bug state of Florida. They are every where... they don't bite or sting so thats good, but they sure do make a mess out of your car's paint job when you hit them while driving. We did some research on them today as part of our school work because they are hard to over look here right now.

We also watched the "Marmaduke" dvd (I know it's not really school related). It was funny in places and a little dry in others but an okay movie.

I requested a few of the books Jennifer suggested of the "Choose History Adventures Books", Our library has 7 different titles of these books (unfortunatly the library has some of the titles missing).

We didn't do much else in the way of school work : (

Another Tough Day : (

Gosh, I have been having such a tough time with schooling this year.... I don't know if it is my poor planning for the school day or if it is just Kelly & I butting heads every day!
Today we had a fight over what I had planned for the next topic, it really is getting on my last nerve! She HATES to go over anything twice, she doesn't want to do anything that she has already learned about even if it has been a few years since we covered it. For an example she feels since we did ancient history once already in I think her 5th grade why the heck are we going back there.... I have told her we will look into things a bit deeper but she doesn't care. It is driving me crazy!
I was so mad today I told her I want to send her back to regular school.... I kinda wish she could go back a few days and see how hard kids her age are working in class compared to her day. : (

Volcano Eruption

We made our volcano today (We took pictures but we can't upload any on this computer). It came out okay, I thought it looked more like Mt. St. Helen with her bulge : )

The lava flow sure was a dud - We were hoping for an eruption but we basically got a white fizzy flow. We thought of using the mentos eruption but I can't see wasting a full 2 litter soda for the experiment.

We then did a little work on Peru, I find that country so interesting with the Incas civilization. I really think we are moving to quickly thru the countries but Kelly has very little interest in most of them, so I am trying to flow with her interests.....

I had forgot to renew our library books - Yikes! I checked and I owed $3.00 : (

I just hate when I do that! I e-mailed them and they forgave my fine this time... I really am starting to hate to take books out.

Where Did The Week Go?

This week went by so fast I really don't remember what happened during it : (
All I know is we pretty much chalked this week off as a vacation week....
Kelly had the opportunity to go spend three days down at my son's apartment with my son & daughter-in-law so she jumped on it. Going there is pretty much the only "vacation" she gets, so I figure let her go so she can enjoy some away time.
I had all kinds of high hopes on what I was going to do but I have been feeling really yucky lately - not sure if it is pre-menopause, menopause, yeast infection or what. I slept most of the time she was away : (
Anyway, I have been really trying to put together a plan of action to get our school day rolling better for Kelly.... Poor Phyllis must just be so sick of me asking sooooo many questions but her learning day is just what I want for Kelly. I hope to have a better handle on it for next week.
Kelly & I are babysitting three birds for a month, I wish I could post pictures of them they are beautiful - I am not a bird person but it is something different to do.
Have great Friday evening!

Horses Gone Wild....

Last night was not our usual Friday night for sure....
We are still using our airconditioner which usually blocks out most of the sounds outside but we could hear a strange noise from the street area.
Kelly & I went out to look and we could hear a horse galloping - Now most people do ride their horse here in the streets but I have never heard anyone at a gallop. We went to check and there standing at our driveway was a big beautiful paint horse with no rider. He turned and ran away but then turned around again and galloped right towards us. I love horses but they sure are a big & powerful animal and seeing one come at you at a full gallop is a bit scarry! This fellow headed down our driveway to meet our horses - I was afraid that between my horses & this guy they would take down my fencing and then I would really be up a river. The vistor just kinda put his nose to Chance and they didn't get to upetty with each other (Roper, my horse barely noticed he had a visitor). I walked to the end of my driveway to see if the owner was in the area and saw three more horses - two full size paint horses and a mini. Being a horse lover I was in heaven, If I won the lottery I would have a ton of horses. We recognized where these escapees belong and I drove over to their house and got the owner - She was so thankful. I know how it is to have loose horses, It is gut wrenching. Kelly & I walked them all home with the lady. The lady said they have been having money problems and couldn't buy hay for the horses so they were letting the horses graze on grass in a field by their house and they must of roamed away from that area. She has been trying to sell at least two of the horses but nobody is buying horses in our area right now, that she will probably have to give them away : (

Sat. Frame Of Mind....

Feels like a Sat. to me today....
I woke up and shot right out to buy the hay & pellets for the horses trying to see if that would help with still getting schooling done.
We watched a dvd about Mysteries Monuments of Peru to go with our Peru study. I thought it was kinda of interesting. Kelly hates to watch two or more dvds on one subject but sometimes you can find a couple of goodies on alittle bit different material.
We read two chapters from History of Us book 10
Then for our cooking class today we cheated and bought Betty Crocker Supreme Bars - Cookie/Brownie to make. Ours didn't end up looking anything like the picture on the box at all, we followed the directions so not sure what happened. They tasted okay but not great - I will not buy it again : (
For Kelly physical education class she worked out with the horses.
That was our school day....
I am hoping to get better school plans together for next week (at least getting some math in to the day).
Thank you for the posted comments - I really appreciate all your help & ideas!

Dropped The Ball Today

Wow, Did I really blow it today....
I had a roll going with school work - I was really seeing some interest from Kelly these past few days and today I dropped the ball and blew it!
I had to go down town to the library and pay our car insurance, I don't know what is wrong with me but I am unable to go out and still homeschool that day. I came back and was all scattered brained but got our work out and was ready to plunge ahead. I knew the minute Kelly sat down that this was not going to be a good day : (
I read another chapter from "Hitty" and we went through the motions of doing school work but I could just tell it was a waste - so we packed it in

A Better School Day Today : )

Okay, I think my lesson plans for each day of schooling needs to include some kind of either a science experiment, cooking something or craft. What a difference it makes for Kelly, It really keeps her interested.
Today we worked on:
Geography: Venezuela.
History: Women's equality.
Reading Unit study: Northeast United States, Greek Mythology, Motion Sickness, Sea Jargon.
Cooking: Homemade Gingerbread (Back in the 19th. century ginger bread was more like a cake then a cookie). It came out okay, I sure wouldn't want it every day. They suggested serving it with whipped cream & cider, both of which I did not have so I am thinking maybe just getting some vanilla ice cream.
Then we watched a "fantastic" dvd on volcanoes called "Volcano Above the Clouds" it is about the volcano on Mount Killimanjaro.
All & all a better schooling day today - Did you notice still no math - Yikes! I am thinking of just getting a math workbook from Walmart just to get her brain back to at least thinking about math work.
Planning is everything to the school day : )

Monday Already.....

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Monday....
We went and picked Kelly up yesterday down at my son's place, We also headed over to the Daytona Speedway to see the re-paving they are doing to the track. It sure is a lot of work they are doing but it will be great once they finish it.
While at my sons we played some tennis (which I haven't done in years), Swam in the pool, watched some football, ate and came home.
I didn't get much marked off my to do list that I had planned on doing while Kelly was on "vacation" : ( The days just go by so fast.
Schooling today consisted of:
Watching a dvd on Venezuela - "The lost world" it was very beautiful & interesting.
Then we did start back on our Above & Beyond Five in a Row book "Hitty", reading chapter 3 and covering: whaling & ships.
Talking about the sea gave me a great idea to make the "Beach Memories Keepers" posted over on "All Things Beautiful". I wish I could post pictures of our masterpieces but we are still using this old computer and can't : ( Doing a craft really adds some zip to the day for Kelly.
Of course no math was done AGAIN today.... and I wonder why she struggles so with it!

All Alone.......

Here I am childless for the whole weekend... Kelly went over to my son & daughter-in-laws. My husband & I are going over Sunday to watch football on my son's large flat screen tv and then bring her home. It is sooo good for her to get out and away from me for awhile, We are together 24/7 and it wears on you know matter how well we get along. My mission while she is gone is to get our school work organized! I also have to get the paper work together for last years schooling and pay for this year and get it over to the homeschool gal in my area who handles all of that. I have been going over my e-mails & blogs, I am trying to down size it all. I tell you if you missed any of the posts by Phyllis over at "All Things Beautiful" you have missed some GREAT craft/schooling ideas! I just can't say enough about how Phyllis goes about teaching her kids, I want to take Kelly and go live there for awhile : )
Last night Kelly & I watched "Furry Vengeance", We laughed a few times but it really wasn't worth the watch : (
Tonight the nationwide Nascar race is on - Yea! I will be watching it all by myself....

Rattle Snakes - Oh My!

My neighbor stopped by last night to let us know that he saw a rattle snake by our mailbox - Yikes! I think that may be what killed our outside cat, he stumbled around and went under the house, We thought he was just sick with what our inside cat had but we are pretty sure he died under the house.... My husband doesn't want to go under to find him : (
Kelly & I were feeling sick yesterday so we took the day off from school already.
I was bidding on ebay for Christian Cottage unit studys but was out bid : ( If anyone has "Christian Cottage-In the Beginning God" for sale please e-mail me justme32110@yahoo.com - thanks!
Have a great day!

School Planning On Sat. - Oh My!

Hope everyone is having a great Sat.! It is hot here again... We had a few great weather days there in a row of a bit cooler days.
My husband and I were talking to a man about a program they have for getting help with our electric bill, I mentioned Kelly. The guy said "She is 15 and she is still into horses"! He said it in such a way it sent up my fur... It was like at 15 she should be into sex or drugs - and her not being into either of those things made something wrong with her : (
I am really trying to get things together for next weeks schooling! I was wayyyyy to unorganized these past two weeks. Did I mention that our laptop is broken : ( So we are back to using the old windows 98 computer. We have no printer either so that makes for tougher school planning.
We are going to use a lot of unit studies & dvds from Netflix this year - Our volcanoe study is going very well. Kelly really loves weather related topics : )

Week 2 - Vacation Time Yet.....

Back to the grind stone... It sure is hard this year getting back to school work!
I wanted to ask all of you, What have you used to teach the States?
Last year we covered a number of countries using "Galloping the Globe" (which I enjoyed) and this year I would like to go over the United States.
Also, Anyone find a "free" curriculum that covers current history? I am using History of Us book 10 & Story of the World but am open to some ideas.
We are moving along very slowly - Math being the biggest hurdle AGAIN this year. Kelly & I had talked a lot about how important the basic math is and how any type of job she gets will need math so I thought it would go a bit better this year but she still whines ever time I mention math : (

First Day Back...

Our first day back to school went well : )
I was very disorganized and not prepaired but we still moved along. We started at 12:00 and went to 2:15, not very long but we got everything covered.
We were up and down all night thou, Our cat who is about 18yrs. old was so sick last night. I thought it might be it for him, but this morning he is still with us and has had a bit of food & water so who knows.

The School Bell Will Be Ringing Tomorrow : )

Even though I am soooo not ready for school we will be starting tomorrow.
Here I am sitting here blogging I could be getting our day ready for tomorrow, but no - blowing that off.... They say the education is only as good as the teacher - Yikes!
Anyway, Great Nascar race last night! I would love to go and see a race at Bristol. Kasey Kahne finished 5th.! I can not belive how into racing I am this year... I even follow it on twitter & facebook - Yikes!
It has been sooooooo crazy hot here in Florida, and the knats are all over the place! You really can't be outside for very long at all. We can't even use the pool because the water is just so hot it isn't refreshing at all.
Well I am going to try and get my butt moving on getting a plan worked out for tomorrow.... I did find this great looking science or health curriculum: http://www.guesthollow.com/homeschool/science/big_otters_science/big_otters_human_body.html
Kelly nixed the idea of using it but it looks interesting to me....
I really should have talked more with Kelly before I got all excited over the direction I wanted to go in this year.... It would have saved me a chunk of money!
You would think with this being our almost 5th year homeschooling I would have it down by now : (
I guess we will just use the typical course study for 9th grade from the World Book curriculum
Have a great day!

4 More Days Till School Starts - Yikes!

We are starting school in 4 days and I am soooo not ready!
I started planning for this year awhile ago and had a plan in my mind, I bought a few of the books I needed along the way since I knew we would be pressed for cash. Now that we are facing the new school year I am staring at this stuff and questioning the direction I wanted to head... We were going to start back at the begining for Kelly's 9th grade history but when I spoke to her about this she was all upset she would rather stick with the more current history and move ahead (we covered up to World War II this year). In thinking back to my school days I can hardly remember ever covering the more current history each year we always ran out of the school year before we finished it. Soooo I am now thinking of starting off from where we left off and work from there - We will be off of the regurlar 9th grade schedule of history but I think it may be more of what Kelly will interested in at this point.
I still also struggle with getting this kid just up to speed on a number of basic subjects so I need to just step back and get her going on the basics and then head into other more demanding subjects....
Can you tell I'm not ready for this school year? Yikes!

Any Nascar Fans Out there?

Back in July we had gone over to Daytona Raceway to see the Nascar practice. I tell you, I have gone Nascar nuts this year! Any of you into Nascar? My favorite driver is Kasey Kahne.

Hello : )

Hello there fellow blogging buddies,
I have missed you all!
I have been spedning some time today looking over your blogs - I have missed so much! It seems like we just took off for our summer break and here we are back to business again...
We will be starting back on Aug. 23rd. (that's when our public school starts back also). I know it is hard to belive but Kelly has been actually hounding me to get us back to school work! I on the other hand am not ready to even think of school ; ( I am still in that lala land type mode.
Well I'm off to read some more of your past blog posts, Have a great day!

Happy July 4th!!!!!!!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful July 4th weekend!
I have been away from blogging for awhile and have missed reading about all of your adventures.
My son turned 21 years old on July 1st.! It is scarry when I look at him and think 21 years have gone by - 21! I wanted to spend a special day with him so Kelly, my son & his wife went over to Daytona International Speedway to watch the Nascar cars practice for the race. It was $15.00 to just get into the track - Practice used to be free : ( Then we went to get some sodas - $4.00 for a 12oz. plastic bottle, We only got two and had to share them. Alot of the show cars and such where not even set up yet which was disappointing. I did get to see Kyle Petty, We were watching them shoot the Speed show. I didn't get to see my driver Kasey Kahne up close but maybe next time. It was just nice spending the day with my son. Kelly & I slept over at their apartment which was like a vacation for me, I have not been away from my house for a night in over 7 years.... (expect when my Dad passed away but that doesn't count). It was GREAT to just get away from all of our troubles!
We still need to wrap up some losse ends for our school year. It has just been sooooo hot and humid here that I have no energy at all to tackle anything. I hope to get on it this up coming week.
Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!!!!!!

Hot, Hot, Hot!

It has been roasting here in Florida!
The humidity must be near a 100% every day : (
We only run a small window airconditioner in the livingroom, the other rooms in the house roast. Kelly's room gets so hot I don't know how she stands it in there.
I had thought since it so hot school work would be a welcome change to the day - Boy was I wrong! Kelly can't sleep much with it being so hot so she is very cranky most days so trying to get her to settle down and work has been an issue.
We are trying to finish up A History of Us book #10 (1945-2001), I love that series of books! We read about integration, Kelly can't understand how people could have been so mean to those first african-american children going to that white school in Arkansas. It is amazing how adults could be so mean and nasty to those children! We are flying through the years, only 4 pages with pictures for the assasination of President Kennedy. I wish it would just cool down a bit so we could get more done though!

La La Land

I can't belive I have been away for so long...
Since my son's wedding I have been in La La Land! I am not sure if it is a sort of depression or what but It sure has been strange. Prepairing for the wedding I was feeling like my old self (I haven't felt like that in literally years), I was happy, laughing. I was working on my apprearence, losing a little bit of weight, watching what I ate, doing my nails, doing my hair, wearing makeup, trying to wear presentable clothes. After the wedding we slammed back into reality, my husband has run out of unemployment, the guy he used to work for that he was hoping to go back to work with has lost his house and is moving back up north. My husband has been running an ad in the paper trying to get work but nothing, We have to pray that they will be extending the unemployment again otherwize not sure what will go on.
On the school front during my La La time it was very hard to concentrate on school. We will be working on school material much later then we had anticipated. I have only had a chance to read other blogs here and there but I hope to catch up soon. I enjoy reading your wrap ups for the school year, I can honestly say I think this year has been our worst year yet. When I try and think back on what we did, all I can remember is World War II - So obviously not a very memorable year : ( I try and remind myself that we have had to deal with a lot of things this year that would have done most families in but we are still standing....
Hope everyone has a wonderful Sunday

My Son's Wedding

Here are some pictures of my son's wedding, He got married on Sat. May 15th. It was a very nice ceremony and they both looked so happy. You would be proud of me, I only started crying when the pastor started... I regrouped myself and was good for the rest of the wedding. I have had so many emotions before and after the wedding, It really is one of those moments when you know things will never be the same again. As you can see in one of the pictures Kelly wore a dress! She says that's it for dresses : ( I guess I am not a good example for her, this is the first time I had a dress on in over 10 years....

Selling Homeschooling Books ect.

I have been having a tough time selling my A Beka books, I have them listed on the A Beka for sale yahoo group, Homeschool used books site, thinking about listing them on Ebay, Do you have any suggestions? In the past when I have used the Apologia series I would just either trade them or sell them in a day.

As you know my son is getting married in 11 days, I thought it was going to be just her family and ours, a small simple thing. I now hear that his girlfriend has invited 150 people. They don't expect that many people but she never put an RSVP on the invitation so they can't be sure.... they are just having findger foods & cake for the reception but still not knowing how many you are having - Yikes! I still have to get dresses & shoes for Kelly & I to wear. We get an unemployment check this week so I hope to get out there and find something. I am going to hit the salvation army store and any consignment shops in the area, I am sure we will find something (I hope!).

It has been so hard to focus on school work! It was soooo hot again yesterday. Kelly's room was like a hot box. I put the window air conditioner on in the living room so we could watch a dvd on President Truman, It was just speaches he made but Kelly was glad to hear what his voice sounded like. We also watched another dvd in the "Earth" series it happend to cover oceans.... every time it mentioned the animals and how we so need our oceans to be healthy for all living things to survive we kept thinking of the oil spill : (

Have a Great Day!

Roasting Already....

Wow, Did it get hot here in Florida yesterday!
We were in the pool a lot just trying to stay cool, the house was like a sauna. When I checked the temp. had gotten to over 90 degrees in the house - Yikes. I put the air conditioner on (which I hate to do!) because the animals were just too hot. It never really cooled off, our air conditioner doesn't really work it needs to be replaced but who has money for that : ( Today with the heat index it is supposta get into the triple digits. I had a feeling this summer was going to be nasty, I just didn't think so quickly.

Our local paper says we will be seeing the oil spill on our beaches - That is soooo sad. I can't imagine what all those poor animals are going through. Then to top it off our gas is already going up - We are at $2.95 a gallon.

Hope everyone has a great Sunday!

I Don't Know What I Was Thinking!

Sometimes I really have to step back and think before I jump head long into something.....
I read about A Beka books and it interested me, I went on ebay and bought a copy of the 9th grade science - I loved it. I got so excited about it and how we were going to have a great year using it. I got crazy, I shopped around for the teachers guide & the lab book that goes with it. I was all set for Kelly's 9th grade science, I felt so relived and happy! At night I would look over the books and read and get more excited. I even went nuts and bought the 8th grade science book to use the last few weeks of this year to get her rolling on the use of the A Beka books. That is when it all hit the fan!! These types of books don't work for Kelly's style of learning. These types of books are MY way of learning.... I love reading over a topic and absorbing it. That doesn't work for Kelly and I KNOW that, that is what makes me so mad at myself. Phyllis over at "All Things Beautiful" even advised me against using them but I still jumped head long into it : (
So now I have A Beka 9th grade student book, teachers book & Lab guide for sale...

Yikes!

Our baby birds are under attack! Kelly & I were out checking the nest and we saw a yellow rat snake slithering around the area under the nest! The babies are only 6 days old, they need to be at least 12 days old before they can leave the nest. We are so worried about them...

Two Things Are On MY Mind....

I have two issues on my mind this morning:

1st.) Why is my house always dirty?
I have taken great pains to dispose of all the extra junk we had & everything has a place it belongs in so why then is it always a mess? I know I have a ton of dogs in the house which yes causes a lot of the problem on the floors but why is there junk on the table? Junk on the kitchen counter, junk in the bathroom..... the list goes on and on. It is always a mess : (

2nd.) Is it more important to understand information then for it to be indepth? I have been reviewing Kelly's A Beka 9th grade science book, and I have to wonder if it is not more important to actually "understand" a topic then to go into such detail about it which will loose most children unless they have a great interest in the topic.

Can you tell our electric was out for about 5 hours last night? Since we had no fans it got hot in the house so sleep was hard to come by....

Sunday Wrap Up

I can't belive it is Sunday already, I had to check twice to make sure.

We have been keeping a close eye on the baby birds, We actually saw one being born! It cracked the shell and worked it's tiny body out using up a ton of energy, It was amazing to watch. They are so pink and skinny, they sure don't look like birds. I just checked this morning on the nest and the mom was looking out at me, for a moment I thought the babies had turned color already and were looking at me, that is how small she is.... We are really going to look into ways of making our back yard more bird friendly. We have two acres but hardly any trees at all but I will see what we can do - Any ideas?

Last night we had the biggest spider I have ever seen in our house! It was HUGE & fast! Kelly took a picture of it - I will post if it came out. Instead of being a big girl and just smack it with my shoe, I was acting like a big baby. I grabbed my husbands golf club and wacked at it but missed. Kelly went running into her room so I was left with this huge beast myself. I swang at him again and tore down my world map. Then he ran under my dog crates - So needless to say this huge beast is still in the house! YIKES!

Our scheduled last day of school (we use the same schedule as the public school to make it easier for me) is June 9th. I am hoping to finish up everything by then. We just got through with World War II, now we are going to move on to more current history ex. korean war, civil rights, the 60's, ect. the BiblioPlan has us covering all of this and up to the 90's in 10 weeks - Whooo that will be a lot to digest. This week we are studying Antartica - I have books from the library & netflix is sending a dvd.. Can't wait to find out more out that icy area.

21 more days until my son gets married! You know how I was whinning about being fat and how I HAD to loose weight before the wedding.... Well God fixed my boat, I got a major toothache! A piece of my old silver filling is wiggly and ready to fall out. I am fine drinking a beverage but when I go to eat food - Wow, I get a shooting pain. I guess you really have to watch what you pray for : )

Have a wonderful day today!

Feeling Kinda Depressed Today : (

I woke up in a depressed funk today... I hate it when that happens! It just ruins the day : (
I think it stems from my son getting married on May 15th., they had talked to the paster last night and I was kinda hoping he would have advised them to slow down and wait awhile, but he didn't. Besides all the emotions I feel about that, I just hate that I am soooo overweight for his wedding. I am going to be so embarrased walking down the isle. I keep asking myself if I am so embarrased why don't I do something about it, but I am a nervous eater and anything that stresses me or makes me nervous I eat over. You have always been able to tell how things are going with my life by how I look : ( This year has been one of the worst, with living on unemployment & food stamps for months with no end in sight for a job. I don't drink, do drugs, smoke or even drink coffee so I have no way of easing my stress. One time I used walking/jogging/biking as a way to get away from it all but you wouldn't want to do that where I live now - to scarry. I had hoped I had more time before they got married to shape up but I am going to try and loss some pounds in the three weeks I have. I have about 50 lbs. to loose to get into okay shape... I pray I can get moving on this weight loss for many reason!

We Have Baby Birds!!!!

I just checked and the four eggs in the nest we had found in our pool filter have hatched! The babies are sooooo tiny, they are about the size of a small pinky finger nail. I was going to take a picture but they are really hard to make out in the nest so I posted ones from the internet that look a lot like mom & babies. Kelly & I went into the pool for a swim but got out quickly because we didn't want the mom bird to stay away to long because of us.... Even though the filter is not right on the pool I am very worried for these babies, a snake could climb up the fence and get them. I wish I could just put the mom & babies in a bird cage and keep them safe until they are ready to fly away. We are pretty sure the mom is a Carolina wren.

A Football Player Roll Model For Kids: Mardy Gilyard

I wanted to share a story with you about a young man who my son had the pleasure of playing high school football with: Mardy Gilyard
If you get a chance read the stories below about him, If you have sons who are thinking of playing football let them research this fellow.
In short this young man went to college on a full ride scholarship and blew it big time. He tried to come back home after getting kicked out of school but his mom said to him "Pray and pray hard. Son, I don't breed losers, I breed champions".
He then lived out of his car, worked a number of jobs to re-pay the $10,000 scholarship money. He got a second chance from the college and here he is -getting ready to make millions from an NFL football contract.
Here are just a few stories about him:
"Gilyard giving back to where he grew up"
"Area football star helps direct lives"

Whoo Hoo, We Won!

No, Not money from the Florida power ball ticket I had..... but a book over at The Shades of Pink blog! Whooo Hooo : )

UnSchooling

Did you get a chance to watch the Good Morning America segment on unschooling? I didn't see it but watched this clip of it. My gut feeling right off the bat was that after this type of coverage homeschooling will be hit with a lot stronger restrictions and requirements. The way the show host kept saying "How is this legal?" made me very nervous that there will be an uproar on homeschooling practices. I sure hope not.....

Interesting Article & Civics Quiz

I was reading a interesting post on this blog .... http://www.patfarenga.com/
Here is a tidbit of it:

2) The legal rationale for compulsory education is that school will produce good citizens. The results for producing good citizens who went through the K-12 level of school have been poor, as evidence from low voter turnout, public disgust with politics, and civic and social disengagement among graduates continue to show. The Intercollegiate Studies Institute has studied what happens when these students continue into college, and the results aren’t pretty. According to AOLNews:
“Half of the 14,000 incoming freshmen tested failed the 60-question multiple-choice test, getting just half the questions right. Worse, they barely know any more when they graduate, with seniors scoring 54 percent correct. No school, not even Harvard or Yale, got above a 69 percent average among seniors. Worse still, in some schools, students did worse coming out than going in.”
Can homeschooling, unschooling, alternative schooling, or just a do-it-yourself attitude produce more involved and knowledgeable citizens than schools do? Test your own civic knowledge by taking the test.

I took the test and got 25 out of 33 questions right - A score of 75.76% Whoo Hooo! I guess I have been learning something these past 3 years of homeschooling : )
If you take the test, let me know how you did....

BiblioPlan / Earth: Biography

Well I went ahead and bought my history plan for next school year....
I really am jumping the gun this year.
We are using BiblioPlan 1850-2000 this year, we really enjoyed it so I figured we should just stick with it again for next year. The best part is that BiblioPlan is now including their highschool supplement in their main plan which soooo works for me, this way we can vary our grade level readings when needed.
We are using the four year history cycle so we will be working on Ancients. Not one of my favorite time periods, but hopefully I can keep Kelly interested in it.
I will also be buying the parent companion supplement that goes along with the Ancient plan when it comes out. It is only in e-book form which I hate, I have tried those many times and seem to spend so much more on ink & paper : (

We have been watching another fantastic series on dvd called "Earth: The Biography" as a matter a fact it covered the volcanoe that just erupted on Iceland. Today we watched about the atmosphere, It really is so very interesting!

Wrapping Up Frame Of Mind

I am so ready to wrap up this school year!
Since Above & Beyond Five In A Row doesn't have any more book titles, I have decided to shelve "Hitty" and use that for next years reading.
We are going to finish up BiblioPlan 1850 - 2000 & Galloping the Globe which should keep up busy. We will also be watching a number of dvds from Netflix.
I know I have said it before but what a difference adding the dvds to our studies have made! Math has still been a huge problem for us... I wish Kelly would just stop fighting it so much.
I have our a study plans pretty well mapped out already for next year, that is something new for me. Since I know what I want to try, I have been keeping an eye out for the best price on each item. !

L@@k What We Found

We found this birds nest with 4 eggs in it!

The mommy bird built this nest inside our pool filter, Not the best of spots!

We can not belive how small the eggs are. They are a greyish color and have spots on them. When we went out to take this picture the mommy bird was sitting on the nest. You can not imagine how small she is, she can fit into the filter.... I am not sure what type of bird she is, she is brown in color but flew off so quickly I didn't get more details.

I hope all goes well and we have baby birds... They sure will be small : )

Driving Permit - Yikes

Well I went and did it now! I stopped off at the DMV and picked up the paper work for Kelly to get her driving permit.... I know I was the one who kept saying she is too young. I really just wanted to get the booklet so she can see how many things she will need to study before she can hit the road. The lady there was very nice and filled me in on the requirements and to tell you the truth I was shocked. To get her permit Kelly only has to take a four hour drug course either at a location or on-line, then take a written test either at the DMV or on-line and she pays something like $53.00 and she is ready to get behind the wheel - Yikes! Soooo we have left it pretty much up in the air when all this will take place, of course she wants to get moving on it but I am thinking I will just keep testing her on the booklet material for awhile.

Have You Made A Volcanoe ?

I was wondering if any of you have made an erupting volcanoe?

If you did, Could you share the plans you used with me.

Kelly & I are starting this Geology Unit Study, When we get to the volcanoe section I would like to make one. I have never in all of my schooling days made one nor has my husband. I did find these volcanoe instructions on the computer. Has anyone used this one before? I have plaster of paris on hand so I want to use that to build the mountain.

I'd love to see any pictures you took of your volcanoes also : )

Thanks for your help!

Turning "47" YIKES!

I can't belive it, but I am 47 years old today! This year I am really feeling my age : (
For my birthday I bought myself a pair of sneakers & Chinese food.
My husband is going golfing with my son, So it is just Kelly and I today. For my birthday present from Kelly I asked her to do schooling all day - I don't think that is going to happen.

We did make this bird feeder in the picture out of a water jug, the cardinals are loving it. We have had two males and one female stop by for some food! So far that is the only kind of bird who has visited us. We are using black oil sunflower seeds in the feeder and they love it. I am going to make another feeder and maybe use a different kind of seed to see if we can get another type of bird also. Directions for this feeder are posted here.

Sad news, My son's girlfriend miscarried the baby -Everything happen for a reason.

Is It Tuesday Already....

It's been tough getting back to school work....
I am all over the place with it so that is never a good thing!

It's funny I have been reading a number of posts about people getting ready for next year which of course got me thinking. That's the thing I LOVE about homeschooling, there are just soooo many options and things to learn. Every year that we homeschool is so different, I settle my mind in one area but then another area worries me. I have a plan for next year (Kelly starts 9th grade), I will post my curriculum ideas in another post.

I did want to ask if any of you have ever worked on just one subject a day? I was talking to Kelly about how we are starting a unit type study this week and we are going to start reading "Brighty of the Grand Canyon" she said "Mom, you are just going to mix me up - We are still reading "Hitty". We are reading Hitty for our Above and Beyond Five In A Row title - "Brighty" will be for our science class work. I'm trying to figure out if I just put one class a day and really work with it instead of the short lesson spans that we have doing if maybe that would sit better with her grasping more of the info..

It's 10:45am and Kelly is still sleeping, She sure wouldn't be able to do that if she was in public school : )

Happy Easter!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter today!!!
We sure have had a roller coaster ride here to say the least....
Even though I started cleaning yesterday I still had to run around like a wild women today trying to clean & cook at the same time. My husband had said he would help but he went outside blew off the helping part : (
Then my son and his girlfriend came over early, I didn't have the food ready... I had to scrabble around to get it all together but I did and the ham was okay.
Here comes the roller coaster ride..... My son and his girlfriend told us they are getting married NEXT MONTH, And they think they are HAVING A BABY! She has taken two home pregnancy test and both have come back as pregnant. She is hoping to get in to see the doctor this week to make sure. I can't picture my son at 20 years of age handling a baby but time will tell. I have mixed feelings about it all, it sure will be a strain on them both money wize and on their relationship. On the other hand I would LOVE to be taking care of a baby again.... God works in mysterious ways - We will just have to sit back and see how this all plays out.

April Fool's Day

My dad's birthday was today, He would have been 85 today... He always joked about how much ribbing he used to get because he was born on April Fool's Day.
Sure do miss that guy, He has been gone now 7 years but I think of him often. Okay let me get off that I'm starting to tear up.....

We have been on a semi spring break here, I had hoped to keep doing school work this week but we have just gotten in a couple of dvds. We watched one called "Globe Trekker: Amsterdam", OH MY GOSH! I thought it would give us a nice peek into what the county looked like ect. since we are working on Holland this past week. WELL, It had naked people, same sex kissing, tons of drug use, the list goes on and on. This dvd is NOT for children's viewing!

Then we watched a biography on "Amelia Earhart", it was great. I find her to be so interesting how she bucked the "norm" for that time and did what she wanted. I really want to get our timeline back up and running because I think seeing when people like Amelia lived not that long ago and the issues she had to deal with would be so helpful...

We watched a few others but I kind of forget now their titles, I am finding that I have been VERY lax with writting down what we watch and what we have been reading. The watching part is no problem because Netflix keep track for you but the reading part is a shame because I have to fill that info. in for our end of year transcript.
Since we had gone out a few days in a row and did some fun things, It sure is hard to want to go back to just the same old schedule again!

It was sad yesterday, Every year my kids colored eggs - two dozen, one for each kid. They would have me judge on who did the coolest looking eggs... Well this year my son doesn't live here anymore so it just left Kelly. She started the eggs (while she was texting at the same time), she left the eggs in the dye and went into her room and was on the computer. From time to time she would come out and check the eggs but no interest at all in it. I was going to take a picture of the poor eggs just sitting there to represent this years mood but I didn't. By late evening she finally came out and took the eggs out and cleaned up. I found the whole thing so sad - My babies are all grown up and these days of silly fun traditions are over : (...

Wings Over Flagler

Kelly & I went to a fly in airshow at our local airport yesterday.

The weather was just perfect for the event. We went early and saw all the different type planes that were there, even a C-47 "Tico Belle" which is 65 years old (I have included the webpage for the plane - So interesting!). We are studying World War II & wrapping up our "Famous Women" month with Amelia Earhart so this all tied in wonderfully : ) The best part was stepping back and listening to the old timers tell their war stories, you could tell from their eyes it brought back good & bad memories. I was saddend by how few young people were there, very few Kelly's age. It cost $5.oo for adults and $3.00 for teens - the man at the gate charged Kelly $5.00, she was shocked she came over to me and said "Mom, Do I look like an adult"? Kelly is tall and skinny and wears no make-up so I'm not sure why the fellow thought she was older but I was glad that Kelly didn't like the idea of being older.... We had a fantastic time and spent a good part of the day there just looking at the planes. New planes came in from time to time and others did some flying tricks with the smoke coming out the tail - just so cool!

I tell you though when we first got there and these older planes were flying over head swooping and swaying this way and that looking like real combat it kinda got me in the gut....

We also participated in Earth Day by shutting off all of the electricity last night from 8:30 to 9:30pm - We played Uno by candle light : )

All in all a great day!