The littlest pumpkin.

Last weekend we went to see my dad. We hadn't been up there in a while and we were due a visit. A few months ago my dad was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. IE: Cancer. *ugh*
I haven't said anything about because, frankly, I just didn't know what to say. He's my dad and I'm his little girl. And he's one of the biggest, strongest man I've ever known. So to see him go through this...to see him weak? Well, it's kind of tough. I will say though, that he's actually doing really well. He's finished his chemo for now. It was supposed to be 6 rounds, but it was reduced to 4 when the doctor saw marked improvements just after 3. So that is good. He's still recovering, but seems to be getting his strength back. It was good we went to see him. He said he did more that weekend than he'd done in 3 months. Grandkids will do that to you, I think. ;)
So while we were visiting we took a little drive down to the smallest pumpkin patch in the world. Actually, it wasn't really even a pumpkin patch at all. It was a few pallets spread out on the lawn by the fire station with a few pumpkins, some scarecrows and an old truck. My dad was lured by the old truck. ;)





Anyway, the kids picked out a few pumpkins. Megan took her time looking for just the right one. She wanted the littlest one she could find. Because we'd just read The Littlest Pumpkin and she didn't want any here at this patch to feel left out.


After the tiniest pumpkin patch in the universe we went to the local grave yard. It's just something we do occasionally and it seemed to fit the season (Halloween and all). And it's not just your typical grave yard...These are old. Been around since the Gold Rush days. It's kinda cool to see how old the headstones are. Some of them actually say what they died of, or you can tell if there was some sort of mining accident because several people died on the same day. I dunno, call me crazy, but I think it's interesting. And when I die I want to be buried in one of these cemeteries. I just think they're cool, and much better than some fancy green lawn somewhere in suburbia.
Anyway, so that is that. It was a nice visit with my dad and I'm glad we went.
Today is misty and gloomy. Pete lit a fire for me first thing this morning and it's been going all day. I love it! I have pot roast in the oven and I made pumpkin cream pies for dessert. Which aren't really pies at all. They're more like little cakes with cinnamon flavored cream cheese frosting in the middle. Supper yummy. Supper fall-ish. Pretty much perfect.
I hoping that all the rain gets rained out this weekend so that next weekend it's nice and sunny. Next weekend is Halloween camping!!

Ten on Tuesday.

1. all of a sudden my WiFi on my iPhone is working like a dream. It hasn't worked in months and I could never figure it out. Then all of a sudden today it's working perfect...even out and about like at the library. I wonder if it has anything to do with the power going off (switching off my wireless network)??
2. I really believe that after a certain age all drivers MUST take an actual driving test, not a written test, to receive a new drivers license. Old people going 40 MPH on the freeway is just not safe. Old ladies driving 1972 Buick Skylarks driving 15 MPH down a city street (weaving all over the place) is not safe. I realize that not ALL old people do this, but so many do. Please give me a driving test when I'm 80. And please refer me back to this internet post when I get all crotchety and bent out of shape about it.
3. The library is awesome. Seriously, why did it take me having to homeschool my kids to realize what a wonderful place it is? The library will entertain my kids for at least an hour each week. Probably more, if I went more. Plus (and this is the best part) it's completely silent in the car on the way home. Like completely. They both sit and read all the way home. It might be my favorite part of the day.
4. We had a really fun, but somehow really exhausting weekend. Friday night the kids were up past 11. Then we got up early Saturday and went to a local harvest festival. It was really fun. The kids got to pick corn straight out of the field. We got a bag full of beautiful Indian corn. I'd never quite seen some like this. Bright reds and blues. Really, really neat. They also had an entire field of popcorn. Like corn for popping. They said you let it dry out for 2 months and then stick it in a paper bag in the microwave for 3 minutes and it pops right off the cob. For some reason I think this is SO COOL! I can't wait to try it. Anyway, we were at the harvest fest ALL. DAY.



Then we were invited to our friends for dinner. We showed up at 6 and stayed till 10:30. That's late for us! But it was so much fun. The kids rode motorcycles and played outside all night. Sunday was church and then we ended up going to another friends house for dessert after lunch. Yesterday by 2 o'clock I was done. Jake was reading his lesson to me and I about fell asleep! I could not keep my eyes open. I fell asleep on the couch at 7:30. I don't remember anything else.
5. Our friends that had us over for dinner had the best food. Oh my gosh! I LOVE Mexican food. In fact, I could probably eat it every day as long as you threw in a pizza every now and then. Anyway, she went to the Mexican market and got fresh corn tortillas (so fresh they were still steaming in the bag), salsa, pico de gallo, guacamole, chips and carne asada. Why don't I go to the Mexican market? Seriously...I have been missing out! This food was incredible. She sent me home with some left over salsas and the corn tortillas. I made chicken enchiladas last night. YUM again!
6. We are just about 2 weeks out from our Halloween camping trip. I'm getting excited! What are your kids dressing up as this year? Meg is going to be Tinkerbell. Jake is going to be a pirate again. Pete is going to be the same scary mask guy he was last year and I think I'm going to be a butterfly.
7. I can not believe how fast time is flying. How is it already mid-October??
8. But that also means it's less than 30 days until our Disneyland trip!! I am beyond excited. I mean, I even have dreams about it. I found this really cool FREE app for my iPhone called MouseWait. It's supposed to have pretty accurate wait times for all the rides in Disneyland and California Adventure. It also has a list of restaurants in DL, CA and Downtown Disney with menus and prices. It will even use your GPS location to tell you which rides/restaurants/bathrooms are nearest to you and give you a map (not that i need one) as to how to get there from where you are. There's also a list of hidden Mickey's that you can check off as you find them throughout the park. I am totally GEEKED OUT.
9. Speaking of technology and geekiness....my friend is totally addicted to her phone. Really badly. The other day we're driving to a park that we'd both driven by together many times and even been to together before. Yet here she was driving down the freeway with one hand, and staring at the GPS on her phone in the other hand trying to navigate by a little screen to tell her where to go. All while we are passing up HUGE signs on the road that tell us EXACTLY where to go. I finally told her: why don't you try putting the phone down and following the actual signs on the actual road?!! It sounds snarkey now that I read it back, but really it was a funny moment. We laughed. Have we really gotten that dependent that we can't even look at the signs on the road to tell us where to go?
10. Oh Tuesday, I like you so much better than Monday. At least this week I do. :)
*bonus!* 11. Why oh WHY are the tabloids making these girls from 16 and Pregnant/Teen Mom into stars?? I understand (sort of) the point of these shows on MTV that show that it's not so easy to be a teen mom. That pregnancy is hard, that labor is not easy, that being a mom when you're 17 is scary as hell. I do understand the 'reality' of it, if you will. But every time I go to the grocery store, I stand in line and see these girls and their kids plastered all over People and US Weekly making them look like some kind of teen hero/superstar. I'm sorry, but this is NOT what we should teach our children to look up to. Well, neither is any of the other crap the plaster on those mags BUT *anyway.....* it irritates me.

5 Favorites.

1. This chapstick/lip balm.

A few months ago when we first moved here I all of a sudden had the most horrible chapped lips. I've had issues with chapped lips my whole life, but this was something different. I could not get them to get better. I kept lathering on this cheap chap stick I got at Target. (Target brand) It would be better for a while, and then it was like burning. Like I had a million little cuts all over my lips and someone kept dunking me in salt water. Yeah. It was awful. I don't know why it took me so long to figure out, but apparently there was some sort of chemical in that cheap stuff that I was allergic to. I did a google search for the best chap sticks/lip balms and found these Yes To Carrots lip balms. They are fantastic! 98% Organic. Which doesn't really mean anything to me except that they don't have any weird chemicals I can't pronounce and they don't burn my lips! I have the minty one. It goes on super smooth, has a nice fresh scent and leaves your lips a little shimmery almost like a lip gloss.....but with out the nasty stickiness. AND you can get them at Target. SCORE! Oh and yes, I feel these are much better than Burt's Bees. I know that is the popular all natural, organic lip balm...but Yes To Carrots is way better in my opinion.
2. Essie Nail Polish.

I've heard/read a lot about these nail polishes for a while. But you had to go to a specialty shop or a salon to buy them. No thanks. That is until now...I recently saw them at Bed Bath and Beyond and then the other day I noticed they were at Target! SCORE! Yeah, I like Target. Anyway, they've gotten a lot of hype in the blogisphere so I decided why not? Yep. It's kind of the best nail polish I've tried. I got this color Soiree Mauve. (it's SUCH a color my mom would choose!) I've warn it on my fingernails for the last week, taken showers every day, washed dishes, pulled weeds, washed little girls hair, got hot glue all over my hands, and....it's not chipped. Like, at all. When I walked out of the Target that day I thought to myself did I really just buy nail polish for 16 dollars?? (i bought 2 colors, they're 7.99 a piece!) Totally worth it.
3. Honey Crisp Apples.
I'm so addicted. I'm pretty sure I first heard of these from Kal a few years ago on her blog. They are truly the best apples ever!! I ate all the ones I bought in 2 days (6 apples I think). I went and made a special trip to Safeway just by apples. They're that good.
4. My kid reading.

Last year he pretty much hated it. It was a chore. And boring. And hard. This summer we worked really hard. I joined the local library and we've been going every other week since we moved here. It really is true what they say about reading TO your kids and reading WITH your kids and exposing them to all different kinds of books. I think it really does instill a love of books and reading for them. Over the summer we started reading the Magic Tree House series. I highly recommend them for kids in 1st-3rd grades. They're easy chapter books filled with lots of history and science. Anyway, we'd been reading these books together, but just last week Jake picked one out all on his own and started reading it in the car on the way home from the library. He finished it on his own in 2 days! It really did feel like we'd finally jumped over a hurdle. Now he begs for me to read to him, and asks all the time for new books. He's pulled several books off the shelf in his room and read them on his own too. I'm just so proud of him. Oh and while we were at the library last week I picked up this book. Bunnicula. Do you remember that one? Oh I loved it as a kid. I've been reading this one to him, since it's a tiny bit over his reading level. He just loves it.
5. Megan singing.
It's the funniest thing. I catch her singing to herself all the time. I remember Jake doing this at this age too. She just makes up a melody to anything. And sings for like 5 minutes straight. Then asks: did you like my song? do you want me to sing it again?
It just cracks me up!

I drove my kids all the way across town to the special splash pad park because its a bazillion degrees and we have no A/C at home. And my kids are the only ones playing on the jungle gym. Weirdos.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Just when I thought it was safe....

To put all the kids summer clothes away, summer showed up in Oakland. Of course! It's ok though, I'm not complaining. September has been absolutely gorgeous! Wonderful weather. If this is what fall is like, I'll take it. Plus around here fall means all kinds of fun stuff! Like pumpkin patches and apple orchards, and fall festivals. Oh and Halloween Camping!!!! Yes, we're doing it again this year and we are SOOO excited!! We haven't been camping this year at all so we're happy to be going, and extra happy that it's Halloween camping cuz...dude, that was so much fun last year. AND......AND !!! We just booked our trip to DISNEYLAND for November!!!! Is it wrong that I'm so painfully excited that we're going to Disneyland? Seriously, I'm 99% sure I'm more excited than my kids are. And the other cool thing? We're staying here. Oh YEAH! Disney's Grand Californian Hotel and Spa. Have you seen this place? Click over. I'll wait............................Um yeah. It's kind of fantastic. I've always wanted to stay in a Disney Hotel but never had the chance to do it. Usually, they're pretty outrageously expensive. We usually stay at the Embassy Suites, which we all love. The breakfast, the room, the free drinks and snacks at 7 every evening. Oh and the Koi pond. The kids love the Koi pond. The only bad thing was having to take the shuttle to and fro the parks. That wasn't horrible, but it would be nice to be closer to the park...at least walking distance. So I started looking into our options when we decided we were definitely going to go. Turns out during "off season" they give super awesome deals on Disney trips. This hotel is usually way, way WAY out of our price range. But since it's off season, they took a giant 30% off. It made it only slightly higher than the Embassy Suites. And it's inside California Adventure. Can't get much closer than that! Yes, there is an unhealthy amount of excitement inside me right now! You can laugh, it's ok.
Thank you for all your kind words about Nacho. We are all doing much better now. And we're not considering getting another dog any time soon! One is fine and we're loving her and caring for her more than ever now.
And that's about it. Here's some pics I took of the kids last weekend because every post needs a pic or two. :)

Tragedy strikes.

Our dog died last Saturday. It was awful. AW. FUL. Nacho was always kind of a strange little dog. But we loved him anyway. Friday night Jake went out to feed the dogs and Nacho came out of the bushes looking all weird. Weirder than normal. He had been digging (obvious from the dirt all over him) but his eyes also looked kinda wiggy too. I can't explain it. But he didn't look right. I just kinda shrugged off though and said he was fine and to just go ahead and feed him. Well about an hour later I walk by the back door and notice him still standing over his food bowl, but not eating it. And then snapping at our other dog when she walked by. He never does this. And usually the food is gone in 10 seconds anyway. I just thought maybe he doesn't feel good and again I just passed it off as nothing. A few hours later I walked by the door again and decided to go check on him and he didn't come. He always comes. They both do as soon as the door opens. I called him. Still nothing. Finally after a few more calls he came stumbling out of the bushes with his head down. I just wasn't sure what to do. I knew something was wrong, but...what?? He slowly made his way back to the bushes and hid and I could not get him to come out. Oh and I should mention that Pete was not home all weekend. He had a group of hunters and would not be back until Sunday afternoon. I've had enough animals in my lifetime to know that when they go hiding in bushes and won't come out, there's really something wrong. But what could I do?
I went to bed that night and just hoped that he would be better in the morning.
When I got up Saturday, I went to the back door and saw both dogs cuddling together on the patio. I figured Nacho must be feeling better because that's how I find them most mornings anyway. And, well, he wasn't in the bushes so I thought that was a good sign.
I went about my day normally. We got dressed, went to the store and ran some errands. We got back home around 1 that afternoon. I went to the back door and noticed only Maggie was at the door. No Nacho. My heart stopped for a second. This could not be good. I called for him. Nothing. The kids and I both went out on the patio and called and called. Finally, Jake says "mommy! he's in here!" Oh thank goodness I thought, he's just lying in the dog house. But oh, it was just awful. Nacho was lying in the dog house, just barely hanging on to life. It was the most horrible sight. To see an animal suffering like that, and knowing there just wasn't anything I could do. I quickly rushed the kids back in the house. They are a total MESS at this point crying and sobbing. I'm panicking, not sure what to do. I mean, what am I going to do? THERE IS NO HUSBAND HERE TO DEAL WITH THIS! And I couldn't just leave him there.
I quickly pulled myself together and went back into the house. I gathered up the kids and did the only thing I could think of to comfort them and myself. We said a little prayer, and hoped that God would take Nacho to heaven quickly so that he wouldn't suffer any longer. It was the most pitiful prayer. The kids just wailed and sobbed.
I made them lunch and then waited with a pit in my stomach.
But God seriously answered our prayer, and quickly. I checked outside after a few minutes and it was evident that he had passed.
Thank goodness my neighbor was home. I felt horrible, but I had to ask him to come and assist with the burial. I felt horrible. I mean who asks their neighbor to bury a dog? I do. I just could not have done it myself. Thank goodness for good neighbors. He used to work at a vet so he knew just what to do.
We figured Nacho had eaten something bad...There's all kinds of critters around here. And it was pretty evident by the way he expired, that he had either eaten poison, or eaten something that had been poisoned. It is a terrible way to go.
I can't help but feel guilty some how. Or negligent. I knew he was sick. I just didn't realize HOW sick until it was too late. There was nothing I could have done. But still. I still feel horrible about the whole situation. It's one thing when your dog is old and you kinda know he's getting on in years and the end will come soon. It's another thing when they're young and just acting weird one night and then GONE the next day.
And poor Maggie. She just seems so sad now. We've all been trying to give her extra love. We also went and did a major cleaning up of the back yard. I DO NOT want it to happen again.
Luckily Maggie is getting older and isn't too interested in eating things she's not supposed to anymore.
Anyway. So that's the drama that's been going on around here.
A more lighthearted post to come soon.

Flying by the seat of my pants.

Every week I make a plan for the next week regarding our homeschool. I make a pretty detailed lesson plan including what we'll do every day in Language Arts, Math, Science, History/Geography and Extra/Life Skills/PE etc... I go through each of our textbooks reading the lessons, making copies of worksheets, deciding if there might be a field trip we could go on that would go with science or history. I usually try and plan some sort of art or craft project. I try and make sure there are plenty of outings and at least one day a week we get together with our neighbors.


I do all this, yet most days I still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. I use my lesson plan as a road map, but almost daily I'm finding ways to enrich our learning even more. See all my notes everywhere? :) I fell like we're learning good stuff, but it's just little spurts of information and then that's it, we quickly move on to the next topic. One of the things that always intrigued me most about homeschooling was the ability to really dive into a subject and truly study it. I'm not sure we're quite there yet. The curriculum I chose (for English, and Science especially) is mostly standard based. So, kind of like public school, you move through it rather quickly and I'm not sure how much of it is really retained. I like the idea of the short, concise lessons, but I also like the idea of lots of hands on projects and experiences so that you (your kid) really remembers the subject. I think I've done okay at adding things in, but I'm already thinking that next year I might look into a more comprehensive program, especially for science. (since both kids seem to enjoy it so much)
It's all a learning experience, right?
I did find this fantastic History through literature program. So far I am really loving it. It's from a company called Beautiful Feet Books. We chose the Early American History pack. The program is supposed to go through about 2 years of school. It IS Christian based material so our charter school would not fund this. {Religion is not my focus with our curriculum, I feel like my kids get a lot of it at home anyway, and of course at church and Sunday school, but I thought this particular program was really well put together and that's why I chose it} It's not cheap. What I ended up doing is buying the first 2 or 3 books on my own on Amazon along with the lesson manual. When I finish what we have, I'll go and order more books. Side note: have you tried Amazon Prime? it's 70 bucks a year and on most items you get FREE 2 day shipping. Ok so it's not free, but it pays for itself quickly if you use Amazon a lot. I bought all my Christmas presents last year this way and it was awesome. Totally worth the 70 dollars.
So back to Early American History..... We're currently reading the first book in the series, Leif the Lucky. This book is about Leif Erikson, the person believed to first discover North America about 500 years before Columbus. (I had no idea. See, I'm learning too!) Leif is a Viking, his father originally from Norway. The lesson materials don't really go into detail about Vikings, so I thought it would be good to study these people at little more in depth. I thought...wouldn't be cool to make our own model of a Viking ship? I looked up model ships online. Wow, they're pretty intense, even for an adult, and um...expensive! So I nixed that idea. I thought, ok....maybe we could just color a picture of a Viking ship. So I googled: free viking ship coloring page and found this.



I LOVE the internet!!
And can I just tell you, the Crayola Website is seriously awesome!! Where have I been?? There are free coloring pages GALORE. Free games and activities. VIDEOS. My kids love the videos. There are a lot of really great craft ideas. I've bookmarked it and I have a feeling I'll be using this website a LOT in the coming months. Especially for rainy days.
Anyway, I don't intend on making this a homeschool blog, but since it is part of our daily life, I will, from time to time, post about certain things. Especially cool things!

Vacation best and worst.

Best: Spending time with family, just the four of us. I've been to this little cabin many times before, but always with my dad. This time it was just us. And though I love coming here with my dad, it was really kinda cool to just have the place to ourselves. I felt like a grown-up.


Best: Doing absolutely nothing. Really. There are lots of places to go and things to do around the area. But we chose to just hang out. The farthest we went was the beach.

Worst: Pete somehow got a stiff neck the first night we were there. So he kinda just layed around all day Saturday. It was ok though. I just felt bad for him.

Best: Blueberry Struesell french toast. Oh my word, YUM! I kept seeing this bread at Target (it's their Market Pantry brand, I think) and thought, hey it's vacation, I'm going to get it. I had the idea right away that it should be made into french toast. I was so right. Man, it was good! I only had a few bites though, cuz ya know, I'm still watching the figure ;0) They also have an apple fritter flavor, that I think would be good too. Oh and don't forget to use heavy cream in your custard mix. I'm positive it made all the difference. (it will make all the difference on your hips too)

Best: walks to the park and around the town with my little people.


Worst: Jake dropping the $5 mini pack of Tylenol I bought for Pete at the little mini-mart somewhere between the store and the beach and then having to back-track to find it. We did. Eventually. But I was kinda mad for a minute.

Best: Sunny afternoons. When it's cold and foggy at the beach, it's pretty miserable. But man-o-man when the sun comes out....it's like heaven! Just awesome.



Worst: Almost being submerged in the freezing cold Pacific Ocean.

Best: My husband knowing better than to do that and putting me back down. :)


Best: Knowing that now, him picking me up to throw me in said ocean, will not give him a hernia.

Best: Spending Sunday with our friends Joe and Carolina. They are a little younger than us and so far have no kids. But they are really fun to hang out with. They're both with great with kids, and don't seem to mind being around them all day and doing kid things. They just came down for the day, but we had a great time with them at the beach. Joe dug Jake a giant whole in the sand and put him in, and then filled it up to his neck. Jake loved it. Carolina walked Megan along the shore looking for sand crabs and shells. Carolina saw dolphins in the wild for the first time ever. She was totally amazed. It was pretty cool, they were so close to shore and gave us all a show.


Worst: Waking up Monday morning to warm sunny skies. Technically, this is an awesome thing. But it kinda sucked because we had to come home. That always seems to happen...we get the best weather on the day we have to leave.

Worst: Pukeage one exit away from home. Is this my lot in life with these kids? Vacation=Puke?? Please tell me no! Seriously, less than 5 minutes from home Megan barfed in the back seat.

Best: Being only 5 minutes from home after aforementioned pukeage. I have to say, that that is definitely an advantage.

Best: Leather seats.

Best: easily removable and washable car seat covers!

Worst: the Graco Booster with the back attached...I really hate this thing. She's still little enough that she requires the booster to have a back. But the back comes off very, very easily. But for some reason (mostly because I'm retarded) it is a b*tch to put back together. Do you moms know what I'm talking about? Is there a trick? What am I doing wrong? I about threw the thing off a cliff today. I'm not kidding, ask my kids. They're still hovering in the corner. ;o)

Worst: Having to get back to school work today. We're all just kinda blah today and it was hard getting back into the swing of things. The morning was great, but we petered out pretty quick. 4 days of no school is kind of a lot, I guess.

Worst: Laundry, laundry, laundry. Oh my goodness, the laundry.

Obviously, the good far outweighs the bad.

Birthday Girl

Saturday was Megan's fourth birthday. How in the world did my sweet baby girl turn into....well, a girl??! I know she hasn't been a baby for a while, but dang...four just seems so big all of a sudden. When she got up in the morning I told her happy birthday and said that I thought she definitely looked a little different today and maybe even a tiny bit bigger. She smiled. A few minutes later I found her inspecting herself in the closet mirror in my room. She had to see for herself. :)
We headed back up to Pete's mom and dads for the day.


They needed some help building a shed for their well and so we went to help, and have a little party for Megs too.
Jake and cousin Hannah played all day together. They had so much fun! They spent all morning pounding nails into old wood and then all afternoon catching grasshoppers and butterflies.


Megan spent most of her day with Faith. It was great. Faith is just about old enough to babysit (almost 12) and really seemed to be good with just watching her all day.


In the late afternoon we got down to the birthday party. I made (or tried to anyway) red velvet cupcakes. Only they turned out to be pink velvet because I ran out of red food coloring! Oh well, they were pretty good anyway.
Megan just loved when we all sang Happy Birthday to her.


I didn't bring any candles and Grandma didn't have any bday candles so we used what we could find. One giant candle did the trick. :)


Opening presents:


Then we decided to take an afternoon stroll with the dogs through Grandma's neighborhood. It's just beautiful up there!


And that's about it. It was a really nice weekend. I do wish we could have stayed longer (again) but it was nice to just get away for the day.
My favorite picture from the day...I just love it! We were missing 2 cousins though...I wish it could have been all 6 kids.



So looking forward to the weekend in Santa Cruz!!!

Ten Random.

Well hello blog.
We have been SO busy lately. Going and doing and schooling and going and doing more. I've been wanting to blog it all though. I really want to. Because I haven't scrapbooked in months and the blog is the next best thing, I suppose. But I dunno...both blogging and scrapbooking and even editing pictures just seems like *ugh* such a task lately. Like one more thing to do. I don't want it to feel like that. But for now...I think it is what it is. But I'm going to try and make a better effort to get in here and write things down.
Anyway, here's what's been going on:
(photo's are random from the last month or so)



1. Summer is finally here! at least for a day or two. Yesterday was 98* (shocking!) today is still about 90*. I love the heat and this weather makes me happy. ( I know, feel free to slap me) Buuuutt...yes there is a but...heat without A/C is not quite as enjoyable. Because it rarely gets this warm in the Bay Area, no one puts A/C's in their homes. Being outside in the heat is one thing...but not being able to escape it a little by going inside, is another. Our living room was stifling last night. Just miserably hot. And we have leather furniture, so we were all sticking to it. eeeww. I would go out and buy a fan, but it's going to be back to the 60's by Friday so I'll be pulling on the Uggs and sweatshirts again. :)
2. This is our second official week of homeschooling. So far it's going pretty well. I'm not gonna lie though...we've had our moments. But they have been very few and far between. I am not regretting my decision at all to do this. I know that this is absolutely right and necessary for our family right now. Will we go back to traditional school at some point? Maybe yes, maybe no. I really can't answer that now. I do get a tiny twinge of jealousy/sadness when I hear of all the other kids going back to school. Just a tiny bit. I get sad for Jake because he really does miss his friends and he LOVED school. And I get a little bit jealous because I know what it's like to have that quiet time all to yourself while the kids are gone at school. But honestly....I haven't had that moment all summer where I've said, "good grief! isn't it time for you to go back to school??!". Not once have I even thought it. I've really been enjoying our time together as a family and with homeschooling, the opportunities are so much more plentiful.



3. What I need to keep reminding myself though, is that I want this to be an enjoyable experience. And that we are doing this for Jake and Megan. And while they do need to actually learn (I'm NOT into un-schooling...at all), I don't see any reason why it can't be fun and enjoyable. And it should be, right? That's the cool thing about homeschooling...we get to pick everything we do and if we don't like it.....we just pick something else! :)
4. The kids took swim lessons a few weeks ago. It was their first time. They loved it. Jake actually was moved up a level right away. I was surprised since he'd never had formal lessons before and he used to be sooo scared. But he's totally not anymore. :)
5. Jake turned 7 on the 15th. Megan will be 4 this Saturday. How do I have a 7 and a 4 year old? How is it even possible that Megan will be in Kindergarten next year???? She's just a bayyy-beeee!





6. Pete got his truck broke into the other day. Another reminder that we are not in Kansas (or the valley) anymore. It sucked. Like a punch in the gut, man. They took his phone, sunglasses, some random crap, tools...and his brand new hunting bow. For reals. But I guess that's what you get for not locking up. Live and learn.
7. Pete's parents moved the same time we did...up to the mountains. The kids and I took a short little trip up there last week. It was so nice! I wish we could have stayed longer. They're new house is so homey feeling. I really do miss seeing them often. But now when we do go, it's like a vacation :)
8. Speaking of vacations...we're going to Santa Cruz next weekend for a short get-away. I can't wait! Just the four of us this time, in the same little cabin we stayed in with my dad last October. Since we haven't really done much this summer in the way of vacations or camping or anything like that, I'm really looking forward to it.
9. I thought I had so much to say and now here I am struggling to come up with 10 things.



10. Oh! I thought of something! My mom was here a few weekends ago. She and I spent the entire weekend cleaning out some of my yard. Finally. We worked so hard. My mom is amazing. She just keeps on going! No one had done anything around here in years and it showed. We spent all day Sunday cleaning out just one flower bed. There must have been at least 10 years worth of oak tree and eucalyptus tree leaves in there. It was not fun cleaning it out. But we did it. And it looks so nice! Thank you mommy! When are you coming back...cuz we got a lot more work to do! ;)
Happy Wednesday.

City Life.

If you follow me on Facebook, you've probably seen me complaining. A lot. About the weather. I don't really mean to be so negative. I actually really like it here in our new home. There has definitely been some adjustment, but I am really enjoying our home, our friends and our new area. It's just cold. And I really don't like to be cold. Apparently, even by local standards, this has been the coldest summer they can remember in years. So. I'm not the only one. :) I've never lived in a city before. Like a real city-fied CITY. It's busy, and bustling and there are literally people from all cultures and walks of life here. There are people of all colors and shapes and creeds. So much different than your typical middle class suburban white/African American and Hispanic community that we were used to out in the valley. But I like it. I think it's good to see another side of life every now and then. Plus, living up here on this gorgeous hill, it's like we've go the best of both worlds. We get to roam around in nature and have deer in our yard and chickens in our barn (not yet, but soon) and all the fun of country life, all while the city is just minutes (seconds) away. It's pretty cool. Except when I was at the ATM today, this very tall, mentally ill, black man came up to me and poked me in the side while I was making my transaction. Yes, he came up to me and touched me with his finger, in my side. Bless his heart, he was just looking for some change, but IT FREAKED ME OUT. I mean he was harmless, but jeeze...when someone walks up to you at an ATM and pokes you in the side....well lets just thank the Good Lord it was just his finger! And also luckily I had no cash, it was broad daylight, there were LOTS of people around. Anyway, that was not so cool.
The other neat thing about living here is that there is SO much to do. And we've been doing it! We are two minutes away from the Oakland Zoo. Some friends and I took the kids there today. It was really fun, the sun came out and the kids really had a good time. It's a great zoo.
We're also minutes away from all kinds of beautiful parks (like the one in my last post) and hiking trails, Lake Chabot (we go here at least once a week for a walk/jog), and Chabot Space and Science center (we've been there twice already since we moved in). I really can't wait to get out and do some exploring!
Plus, we're also just a 20 minute BART ride from San Francisco. We've already been over there this month too! The kids and I just keep making a list of all the places we want to go see and do. So, is this a cool place to live?-ABSOLUTELY! Despite my negativity about the weather, we are all pretty happy to be here and are enjoying it.

Other random stuff:
Pretty much since we moved in Pete has been working nights. It's fun to have him here during the day, but him coming home at 4 o'clock in the morning and me cooking the family dinner and eating by 4:30 in the afternoon is taking it's toll on me. I sort of feel like either we have a newborn baby, or we're really old people. Like the senior citizens at Denny's having dinner at 4 in the afternoon! Plus it's just kind of exhausting. I always end up staying up late when he's not home at night, then of course I wake up when he gets home, and then he doesn't come straight to bed so then I either lie in bed awake or drift off only to be awoken again an hour later when he does come to bed. Then I'm awake again just 2 hours later to get up for the day with the kids. So that's where my newborn baby reference comes from. The up/down/up/down thing.
This is supposed to be his last night on nights. *whew*
The second night on this job, Pete cut his hand really bad. He ended up with 12 stitches total in between his thumb and fore-finger on his right hand. The doc said he cut an artery and was very, very close to needing major reconstructive surgery and losing the use of his thumb. So basically he almost cut his thumb off. It was only God's grace that he didn't!
We also have already started some of our homeschooling curriculum. Nicole had asked what we were going to use and 90% of what I chose has come from Evan Moor. I chose this publisher for Reading, Grammar, Science and Geography. I'm also looking into getting their History Pockets too. I just really like the way these workbooks are set up. There's no guess work. Everything is set up in short, concise, daily exercises. It's not overwhelming, but the kids (even Megan) are learning a lot from it. So far so good. These would also be great to supplement regular school learning simply because they're so short. And for home school it's really easy to supplement the lessons with library books and other projects. So I like it. Still looking for a math curriculum though. And I'm dreading it.
Anyway, so that's about it. BUSY BUSY BUSY! But fun!

Wordless Wednesday.

Tilden Park, Berkeley

Wow.

The view tonight is AH-MAZING! I don't have a camera that even comes close to giving it justice. This is the first night we haven't had any fog. I can see all the way to the golden gate and a beautiful crescent moon is delicately hanging over the bay. I could get used to this :) Wish I had someone to share it with. Pete is working nights this week. :(

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Settling In. Random thoughts from this week....

Well we've been here six days now and things are sorta kinda getting back to 'normal'...or maybe a new normal. It's funny how life just keeps changing even if we don't really realize it all the time.
Most of the boxes are unpacked. Well, the most important ones are anyway. I've been to Target for just one more thing about 10 times already. Our first night here I couldn't find the sheets for our bed so I had to run out and buy some. Isn't it funny how when you move all of a sudden you NEED certain things right away that you never needed before? Like a shower caddy. I never needed one before but now all of a sudden we need two. And a microwave. We had one built-in in the old house. And a dinning room table. We ate at the counter at the old house and the "dinning room" table was really the craft table.
The days seem much shorter here. Before, the alarm would go off at 5 am. Pete was out the door by 6 and I was up shortly after. And then he wouldn't be back home until after 5 in the evening. Now, since we're so much closer to his job, the alarm doesn't go off till 6:30 (i actually find myself waiting for it to go off) he's out the door by 7 and back home at 4:00. It certainly is nice having him home so early, but we both kinda don't know what to do with ourselves. He even said he was 'bored' the other day. He never says that!
The weather is reeeeaaaaallly taking some getting used to. I knew it would be different but.....I'm not dealing well so far. It's cold. I do not like to be cold. The fog comes in around 6pm and stays until around 10:30 the next morning. And when the sun finally does decide to come out, it's only been warming up to 67*. I'm sorry, but if it's not at least 80*, I'm FREEZING. And maybe that's another reason why it feels like the days are so short. It's like the sun doesn't come up till half the day is already gone.
I walked down the hill to the mailbox the other day. Yeah, I don't think that's something I'll make a habit out of. It's a really long way down the hill. Which means it's a reeeeaaaalllly long way UP the hill on the way back. I thought I was going to puke at one point. Good exercise though, I guess.
I just had someone ring my doorbell. It kinda freaked me out. Because you have to pass through a locked gate to get up here. So you either have to know the secret code, or have a clicker. I figured the person at the door was going to be my neighbor coming to play with Jake. And we were all surprised to see some dude standing out there we didn't know. Turns out it was just the power company. But still. Freaky.
Anyway, so here we are. I said in another post that I really had no emotional connection to our old house. I guess that was kind of a hasty statement. I was fine until Pete said he got a little sad leaving the little red house the other day. And then it hit me. There was a brief teary moment. And then it passed. I like this new house. And I'm glad to be rid of the old one. But it was a mistake to say there's no emotional connection there. Life was lived there and memories where made. And so connections are there. Good, bad and ugly. I told Pete...it's just time for us to make new memories here, and that's a good thing, and that it's ok. It's all part of life. A new chapter starting here, starting now.

House preview

First...please excuse my messy hair, and just over-all tired looking face on this video. LOL! oh my...it's been a looooonnnnggg week. I have no other excuse except that.
Might do this again after furniture is moved in. Saturday is moving day. Finally.
Please pray we don't have to do this again for a long time.

Untitled from Corey Wilcox on Vimeo.