I told you there was a friendly competition

I had to LOL when RV's mother called yesterday to inform him that she:

1. Had her Christmas wreath on the front door
2. Put her Christmas table cloth & napkins out on the dining room table

Wow. That's even a bit early for us.

But I'm betting she had an alterior motive .... her daughter that now lives with her won't let her put out any Halloween decorations (SIL is very anti-Halloween) so MIL probably said "fine, I know this will bug you almost as much." haha! She's spunky like that.

MIL was just beside herself with glee, wondering what the TV repair man will think tomorrow when he knocks on the door. I didn't even know any TV repair men still existed in this world. Only in FL, I guess ;-)

RV and I chuckled as we envisioned him driving around in his little truck full of tubes (shoot - now that doesn't look like the right word ... what word am I thinking of?? You know, the things they used to replace on TV's .... before we just started throwing them away).

100 Days till Christmas !!

Imagine how thrilled I was when my friend Holly sent this little banner to my Facebook account!

I can't figure out how to load it on Facebook ..... and I tried putting it on the sidebar here but it was too big. So, I'll have to put it here for now, until I figure the other stuff out.

I guess I wasn't jumping the gun TOO badly when I bought Christmas wrapping paper at Costco a week or so ago. LOL! I resisted the urge to buy other Christmas things (mainly because there wasn't THAT much to choose from yet!). But it's there ... as was duelly (will have to check on the spelling of that) noted by the man we passed in the Costco Christmas aisle who muttered under his breath "they skipped Halloween!" Hey, that's fine by me ~ we don't really do Halloween ;-)

I even started my Christmas shopping today at Target. Now THAT'S a first for me!

Did I mention our Christmas tree goes up around the 1st week of November??? I definitely married into a Christmas-loving family. Actually, RV's mom is a huge Christmas freak, so he likes to get the decorations up and then rub her nose in it. It's a little mother/son competition thing they have going on.

We always go away for 1-2 weeks after Thanksgiving .... and found we were way too rushed trying to get the Christmas decor up in mid-December. So, we start a little early around here.

How are the swirls?

How do the magenta sidebar swirls compare to the teenie-weenie dots??

They seem to be easier on my eyes .... but I want to make sure your eyes are ok, too!

;-)

Teaching Textbooks, I love you!!!!

I LOVE TEACHING TEXTBOOKS. Yes, I'm yelling - shouting from the rooftops, even!

Today we started using Teaching Textbooks Math CD's. We would have started a week or two ago, but there were computer issues to overcome.

Both boys joyfully did 3 lessons each. They love it and can't wait until tomorrow. New things don't always come easily to one of my boys and he is often, too easily frustrated. Yet today he sat there with a huge smile on his face - it looked like he was playing a video game, he was SO HAPPY!!!! My face? It was the one with tears trickling down it. I watched as the lightbulb went off in his head and could see that things were starting to click for him - right before my very eyes.

I know there will be times of frustration again - as he learns new concepts, there will likely be 3 steps forward & 2 steps back ... but at least we're making forward progress again.

Oh -- I made them get back on the fish-oil (lemon flavored!) bandwagon at lunch. Brain food, ya know. He wasn't very happy about it, but this afternoon when he got a 95 on one spelling test and 100 on the other .... he said "hey, this fish oil really works!". Well, not yet - but hopefully, if we're diligent with it we'll see some improvements in a few months. I could use some more brain power too, so I guess I'll have to join them - maybe we'll make a toast. "To better school days!" Here, here!

Yep, seems I've cried a couple of times in the schoolroom already this year -- at least today they were tears of joy!

Disney ........ 2009 ........ only about 500 more days

Oh, I'm a HAPPY CAMPER!! Haha ... I crack myself up.

Today I made reservations for Disney's Fort Wilderness Campground .... for the end of 2009.

You gotta plan ahead, baby!

It always makes me happy to have at least 1 Disney trip in the works.

And whoa .... I just had Darcy add the purple side bars (with polka dots) .... but I have a new (wide) monitor and, whew - that's alotta purple! Is it too hard on the eyes?? On my other monitors, NONE of it shows up.

Man Camp 2008

No more listening to the quiet little pitter patter of raindrops. They're home!

Here are the friends who were in our cabin:

Click on a picture to enlarge:

A wonderful time was had by all!

They got soaked in the canoe (it was raining), made a bullseye in archery, played a new game "ga ga" (new to us, anyway), played ping pong, shot an air rifle, rode the zip line, baked apples over an open fire (and of course, s'mores!!) and made crafts.

In addition to all that, they learned about relationships, had praise & worship, came home exhausted and can't wait until next year! Me, too! ;-)

FREE collage/picture software at http://www.picasa.com/

All I hear is the sound of rain ~ and it's music to my ears!

This rainy weekend, my 3 guys are at the VERY much anticipated (by all of us! haha), annual trek to

Man Camp!!!!

They have been SO looking forward to it ever since they first experienced it last year. They are especially thrilled to be there again with some of their best buds and their dads (about 15 close friends). All in all, I think over 100 fathers/sons attend.

It's a camp for fathers/sons to bond and teach the boys about becoming godly men. They do fun "men" stuff:


Fishing
Canoeing
Basketball, softball & tennis
Swimming
Archery
Air riflery
Roller hockey
Skateboarding
Mountain boarding
Team building
Zip line
Bonfires

and more ......

not to mention eating "men" food -- pizza, nachos, etc.

This year's special guest speaker is from FamilyLife Ministries -- and the topic is "relationships".

The wind and rains here at home are absolutely torrential .... we're supposed to get 4-6" (one report said up to 10") of rain today. BUT ..... I just talked to RV and while it rained overnight there (they're sleeping in bunkhouses, not tents - woo hoo!) ...... he said the rain has tapered off and the sun is trying to come out!!!

I'll post pictures as soon as they're home. But for now, I suppose I should turn off the tv and either do some work in RV's office or break out some school stuff and figure out exactly what we need to be doing with our new curriculum in a few subjects. But a rainy day nap sounds oh, so much better!

If only I could get the dog to go out ......... every time I offer, he sees the downpour, turns back around and looks at me like I'm crazy! He is very smart, you know.

Smile and say cheese!

Today was a big day around here. The braces came off!!! This was just "phase 1" of his braces - it remains to be seen if/when there will be a "phase 2". But for how, he's thrilled! He was only in "phase 1" for 11 months.


Below: This was his shocked reaction to how FAST they came off. Literally less than 10 seconds from start to finish!! click, click, click, click - done! It was amazing!!!!!
Removing some remaining glue:
Ta da!

He was really a trooper through the whole experience .... gave up sodas overnight (they were few and far between, anyway) and his only complaint was that he was not able to have popcorn. Guess I better go pop up a huuuuuuge batch of it! If only there were a decent movie at the theaters - we'd go there to celebrate and get him a big tub of his own! I'm sure he won't mind a raincheck. And he's already told us that the next trip to Disney, he wants his very own bucket that he doesn't have to share.

Last days of summer

Ahhhh, the last days of summer. Look what fun you can have with a hose, a traffic cone (they made an 8' geiser out of it) & a few empty juice & milk jugs. This has been keeping them busy for hours ;-)




They might as well enjoy it now .... 'cuz tomorrow, ready or not .... here comes school.