~*1969 Woodstock Music Festival*~ 38 years ago...

Today in History (See story below post):
It's funny how I was only about 6 1/2 years old but I remember this so vividly.... Our summer house was in Masten Lake, NY so we were vacationing up there during the time frame for the concert (If I only saved the newspaper articles from those dates....). People were walking to the concert from miles away, We saw people on our roads asking how far to the concert (Only about 30 or so minutes by car going 55 miles per hour but walking, gosh who knows). The news on the tv made it out to be so scary, that things were out of control. My mother was worried, she told us to stay away from the roads and not to talk to anyone. It was just so crazy! The tv showed pictures of Route 17 (a major highway) closed - It had cars parked on both sides of it. Everyone you spoke to said "Stay away from that area"! A few of my older cousins tried to make there way over to the concert but all the roads were pretty much blocked. Our vacation was over around the same time as the concert (Not sure if it was one or two days after) but we were driving home with these folks. It was "amazing", such an eye opener to what other type of people were out there.... Some folks were riding on the outside of the cars - I guess just catching a ride. People were also taking baths in the ponds along the highway - My mom was like don't look! The roads were pretty jammed and we were moving slowly - People were giving my cousin Kim & I peace signs as they passed us, We started doing it back to them but my parents saw us and yelled.
It really was an amazing time, How so many people could be in one place and be so peaceful with one another! It is just one of those mameories that I will never forget : )
Some pictures I found of the event: http://www.woodstock69.com/woodstock_pics2.htm
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August 17: General Interest1969 : Woodstock Music Festival concludesOn this day in 1969, the grooviest event in music history--theWoodstock Music Festival--draws to a close after three days of peace,love and rock 'n' roll in upstate New York.Conceived as "Three Days of Peace and Music," Woodstock was a productof a partnership between John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, Artie Kornfieldand Michael Lang. Their idea was to make enough money from the eventto build a recording studio near the arty New York town of Woodstock.When they couldn't find an appropriate venue in the town itself, thepromoters decided to hold the festival on a 600-acre dairy farm inBethel, New York--some 50 miles from Woodstock--owned by Max Yasgur.By the time the weekend of the festival arrived, the group had sold atotal of 186,000 tickets and expected no more than 200,000 people toshow up. By Friday night, however, thousands of eager early arrivalswere pushing against the entrance gates. Fearing they could notcontrol the crowds, the promoters made the decision to open theconcert to everyone, free of charge. Close to half a million peopleattended Woodstock, jamming the roads around Bethel with eight milesof traffic.Soaked by rain and wallowing in the muddy mess of Yasgur's fields,young fans best described as "hippies" euphorically took in theperformances of acts like Janis Joplin, Arlo Guthrie, Joe Cocker, JoanBaez, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Grateful Dead, JeffersonAirplane, Sly and the Family Stone and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.The Who performed in the early morning hours of August 17, with RogerDaltrey belting out "See Me, Feel Me," from the now-classic albumTommy just as the sun began to rise. The most memorable moment of theconcert for many fans was the closing performance by Jimi Hendrix, whogave a rambling, rocking solo guitar performance of "The Star SpangledBanner."With not enough bathroom facilities and first-aid tents to accommodatesuch a huge crowd, many described the atmosphere at the festival aschaotic. There were surprisingly few episodes of violence, though oneteenager was accidentally run over and killed by a tractor and anotherdied from a drug overdose. A number of musicians performed songsexpressing their opposition to the Vietnam War, a sentiment that wasenthusiastically shared by the vast majority of the audience. Later,the term "Woodstock Nation" would be used as a general term todescribe the youth counterculture of the 1960s.A 25th anniversary celebration of Woodstock took place in 1994 inSaugerties, New York. Known as Woodstock II, the concert featured BobDylan and Crosby, Stills and Nash as well as newer acts such as NineInch Nails and Green Day. Held over another rainy, muddy weekend, theevent drew an estimated 300,000 people.

Space Happinings.....

One of the perks of living in Florida is that you get a chance to see Space Shuttle Lift Off's! Of course we aren't this close to see it this clearly - Most lift off's we see alittle streak of smoke, Night time lift off's are the best - You see the whole area in the direction of Cape Canaveral light up and then you see it a sreaking ball of fire going higher and higher. We were lucky enough to see one launch where it went up and over our house (Kelly & I had to run to the vet's office so we were on the road when it went over and didn't have our camera but it was truly breath taking to think people were riding in that ball of fire!!!!!
Here is the link for NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/home/index.html

Also, We are almost at the peak time for a meter shower:http://spaceweather.com/ I hope to get out one of these nights to see some of them. It is very good veiwing from here not many lights in their area.

Just when you think you got things rolling....

I have been feeling pretty confident lately about this up coming school year, We are going the Charlotte Mason route. I really feel this will work so much better for Kelly. We are going to mainly follow the Ambleside year three schedule (they aren't scheduled by acutal year, more by the student's reading ability). I am throwing in Vol. 1 of the Story of the World series for history. I had bought Children's History by VM Hilyer but I felt Kelly really seems to flow along when you have either experiments or projects for her to do. I am also throwing in Spelling Power - Kelly (and I) are very poor spellers I would like to get her better rolling with that because alot of understanding what you are reading is the ability to spot & understand the words. Apologia series is what I have planned for Science - We are starting off with Zoology 2. So you can see I am not using Ambleside to the tee but varing it a bit to suit us.
WELL, I have planned to start school this year on August 20th. - That is the date my son stats his senior year of high school at the public scool. I am going to use their schedule as it seems we get nothing done if he is home.... that gives me only about 15 more days till school!!!!!!
I kinda am a worry wort but I really want to be ready for school this year (This will be our first full year homeschooling and I want it to get going from the start).
I am running around trying to get everything lined up so we can just roll along.
I'll keep you posted on how things come together : )

"ForK" in the road.....

I have been reading over on another Homeschool site about a gal who has run up on a "fork" in the road of her life: http://fieldofweeds.blogspot.com/
It has gotten me thinking of how when you are at a younger age you swish through life and then you wake up one morning and you are 44 years old and "Now What"..... I have found myself feeling a bit nervous when those commercials come on about senior citzens and the age braket for being included is starting to get very near : (
I have always felt that at anytime in your life you have many roads you can take - Some times you go with your gut, somtimes by what others people have influenced you to take, sometimes you just feel that there is no other options and you take that road ect. I know my mom used to say to me - "If I could do it all over again, I would have done it all differently". I used to think that so sad that she felt that way but now that I am slowing down and taking a look at my life you can see areas that you jumped the gun and should have re-thought things out better and made better decissions for sure.
My son is now at that one of those raods in his life - He turned 18 years old, He will be a senior this year in public school. He has played football since he was about 9 or 10, He has now decided to quit playing football for his highschool team. This is huge for him - Many of his dreams were attached to his playing college football and then possibly playing semi pro or pro ball. His highschool football coach had said to him that with his size (6ft. 3 in. but at 185 lbs.) He just wasn't going to get the colleges looking at him..... that broke his heart! He has been a changed fellow since then, he has been so angry every day. I have tried to step back and look at it from his point of view and I can see how whn you have so wanted something for so long and then somthing happens and it changes pretty much over night youa r thrown for a loop. My husband felt he should still continue to play this year and finish it out that maybe some small school would take a look at him and he would still be able to play - But Kris felt that there is so much time and effort into playing (Especially down here in Florida) that he could not stand putting the effort in and then being placed week after week on the bench after being told "Your the starter", "Your playing both sides of the ball tonight", "We are counting on you" ect. and then playing a few downs and then being replaced for one reason or another..... I can't blame him there!
anyway, I felt that after reading the gal aboves "fork" made me see how many time in our lives we do run up against "forks" and how we deal with them.

Horse Back Riding Day Camp

We had signed Kelly up for a Horse Back Riding Day camp run by the P.A.L. goup here in Flagler County. As yesterday approched she became very nervous, She was worried that she wouldn't know as much as the other girls there, wouldn't be able to handle the horse ect. I reassured her that she is a good rider and everything will turn out just fine. On our way to the camp yesterday she turned a funny color (I had made her eggs & toast - If she doesn't eat in the morning before getting going she get's sick), sure enough she looked terrible. At the convenience store I asked her if she wanted to go back home (I had ordered a sandwich to be made, As always I was on top of everything - NOT!), She said no, We might have to pull over and throw up but she was going to make it. She made it there and when I dropped her off I was worred they were going to call me so I rushed around with my errands and flew back home - But she did just fine! When I picked her up she was all smiles and she had had a great day : ) Of course when we got home my son was in a mood and as usual runined her day by yelling.... that happens all most evertime here in our house - If you have a great day, someone always brings you back down : (
I am really looking forward to getting back to homeschooling - I am so hoping all the reading I have been doing about the Charlotte Mason method I am going to use will help get things running a bit more smoother.

Grow-A-Frog

This is a video of our Grow-A-Frogs. We had such a tough time in the begining, each time they sent us a tadpole it would be dead when we opened the box. Then when we thought we were in the clear and had a frog grow from a tadpole to frog (Our guy had grown so fast that we weren't prepaired for his changing so quickly and we didn't have the correct food on hand)I feed him some cut up chicken livers but I must have overfed him - He passed away. Finally we got our two handsome fellows you see here in the video - A white colored one & a greenish colored one. They are such a hoot to watch!

Barrel Racing

This is a video of my son's girlfriend ridding her horse in a barrel race that we had gone to see - She is really great at it and Kelly hopes to ride like that one day : )
As