Game

Yea!  We won the basketball game.  Well at least the JV squad did.  I am not sure how the other two teams faired.  We did not stay until the end as it is a long night when we do that.  We were hungry and needed to go get some food.  One of the Moms spoke with a bbq place across from where we were playing and they agreed to give a portion of all the purchases that were brought in back to the team.  My family was very excited as we looooove bbq.  I was hoping for something like City BBQ (for all you Ohioans).  I made the mistake of getting the pulled chicken... more like chunk chicken.  The flavor was good but I would opt for a different meal if we were to go again.

Tebow's pro-life ad set for Super Bowl - Washington Times

Tebow's pro-life ad set for Super Bowl - Washington Times

Here's a plus for CBS let's hope and pray that it really does get aired!

It is also so refreshing seeing an athlete really talking his walk.  This is a guy I don't mind my children looking up to because he is making and taking a stand for his faith and beliefs.  Amen to Tim!

Ouch!

Extraction.  A word we are becoming very familiar with in this household.  I was back at the dentist today and while assessing one of my teeth the doctor informed me that my wisdom tooth needs to come out in order to not lose the tooth right in front of it.  Sounds odd that we must remove one to save one but since my wisdom tooth is at an angle it butts up against the tooth that we could lose.  Mind you it is a tooth that had root canal done to it but due to the positioning of the wisdom tooth, there is more decay there.  YUCK!  I went in the office today thinking it would be an easy visit.  Not only was the information a little more than I thought but the tooth that was worked on needed a crown.  So I need to go back to have the permanent one put on.   Remember my earlier post about the dentist?  He did say he would start me easy but as we got further along in the mouth it would become more complicated.  Wow was he correct.  I must say that with all that is going on I sure do hope and pray my kids are really seeing the benefits of taking care of your teeth.  Let me also say that I make sure they get it!!!  I don't let them slide in that department.  I have even gotten them out of bed to brush.  There have been times when they had to brush twice because they took a little drink of something before bed and had already brushed.  I am not letting them develop any bad habits.  Some of my problem is that I do have poor teeth to begin with but some of it is improper care.  And some of it is normal wear and tear for silver fillings.  Its just if we caught all this earlier, it would have gone a lot simpler.  I can't stress enough to make sure you have a great dentist!!!   One that knows what should be done with teeth to keep them healthy so you can have them later in years.

I must say that I am not boring for any of my doctors that I visit.  I am due for an eye exam.  I can't imagine what will be found when I go there.  Oh boy! The joys of growing old.  (Come, Lord Jesus, come!)

I will keep you posted when I go back to find out what the oral surgeon says about the xrays!  I am sure it is coming out, it really needs to.  Then I will be looking at scheduling an appointment for that.  It is then that I will have some time off from the dentist for my mouth to heal.  

Something New

All week I have been working on helping the homeschool sports team with the website.  Well mostly I have been updating it so that we can generate business a.k.a. money for the team.  One Mom worked hard at getting the information from the affiliates and then asked for someone to put it out there for people to see.  So I volunteered.  It is not hard work to do but it is time consuming as each affiliate has different procedures and such when placing the links on the website.   I actually enjoy doing it!  It has been a lot of fun trying to figure out what to use and where to place it for the best traffic and such.  This is a way for the team to make money.  What do we need money for you ask?  Well the fee is high and we are trying to minimize the cost.  The rental fees are high too.  You see we don't have a gym that we call our own so we get charged money!   The uniforms cost money.   The plus side is that baseball is run by the same organization so my hope is to be able to cut that cost too!!   While we are very excited about Stephen playing in this league, it has been a challenge due to all the driving (and the cost).  So I too decided to see if there was a way to add it here.    As you can see by the Amazon link off to the side, I was able to do just that.  You just need to click from here and you get on the Amazon site.  It just has the teams special code imbedded to earn the moneys from your purchases.   You do nothing different.   I have also spent some time emailing lots so people are aware of this.  So my apologies if this information is redundant.  But saving money is what I like to do.
Just a warning there will be more as we get closer to Stephen going to Belize as that too costs money.  I would like to say that we love all of you and understand completely if you are unable to help financially. Another way to help is by praying!   We covet those prayers!  This new stage in our life is a change that we were unaware of but walking in faith that the Lord will honor and bless us!

Gonna be a looooong season!

Well Stephen officially was in his first basketball game with the team he is playing for this year.  And let me just say.... it didn't go well.  The lost by over 20 points.   It was very discouraging for the guys.  You could see by half time the dejected looks on their collective faces.

On our way home Stephen was beating himself up.  I quickly reminded him that NOBODY played well and that this is a team sport and he needs to give himself a break.  Our boys only get to practice 2X a week and not everyone shows up.  We are playing schools that practice everyday and are required to show up.   This makes for a very different starting ground amongst the teams.  Plus they schools are playing more games than we can.

From the looks of it I would be surprised if we won any game.  I hope and pray that I am wrong!!!  Next week is game two.

Abigail's Reading Choices

Abigail Loves this series and I thought I would post it for anyone who has some young ones they know that love horses.  She has read several and has to take a break in order to complete her novel requirement for school.  She is eager to get back to reading them.

One of her reads for school was Little House on the Prairie.  She is hooked on these and can't wait to read more. 

Her read for today was Sarah, Plain and Tall.  She enjoyed this book and was able to read it all day today.

Dentist - for Abigail

This morning I was only the driver and loving Mom for the dentist visit. Abigail is beginning the work that needs to get done for her braces. Today she had to have 3 teeth pulled. Ouch!! The pulling of course did not hurt as she was shot with novocaine. It was the shot that bothered her. She was a trooper. I felt bad as I have never had any teeth pulled (yet) so I was unable to help her through this process. The doctor said she gets an A+. I was very proud and considering how uncomfortable she looked I decided to be a good Mom/teacher and require very easy school work to be done. We sat together and worked on some language arts. She got to finish one of her novels for school. All easy things. Especially because she looooves to read!

The pictures below are ones she took of herself with the computer camera. (She also got to keep the teeth that were pulled and the bottom two had some big roots!!!!)

Adventure Aquarium

Today we were up early and on the roady by 8:30 to spend our day at the aquarium in Camden, NJ. About an hour drive. We really could have done the exhibits all before lunch but decided to slow it down and relax about 30 minutes before we ate. We felt as though we were going waaaay to slow and then realized all was okay.

Got to touch some sharks, starfish, and anemones. Josh and Abigail had wet sleeves for most of the day as it happened early.

Some of our group by the "Touch a Shark"

Josh by the baby alligator.

Stephen and Gabe learning about the penguins.

More of our group by the hippos.

Shark tunnel.

This Mama thinks she is done!

Okay I'm gonna say it! I think my kids have gotten dumber. Yup I put it out there. Not even 30 seconds after the directions the entire page was wrong!!! Not even 2 minutes after a definition the reasoning was wrong. Was not even able to complete instructions and got the "I get it." answer and ALL the problems were wrong.

Are you kidding me?!?!?

Here comes the bus will be my theme song real soon!!!

(Sorry about the venting!)

Summary of the 1st week of 2010 - School week that is!

Okay so on Wednesday we had book club. We are working our way through the Chronicles of Narnia. We complete Voyage of the Dawn Treader book 5. Only 2 more left. I only listened to a portion of this book. So as far as recommending can't help you there. You will need to contact the kids on that one. The really funny thing about this weeks book club was Stacy. A mom to two of the boys that are in the older group. She informed us that she can't stand this series. Yup, she even went so far and used the "hate" word. She was leading the young ones and she even informed them that she hates this series. Some of us are waiting to see what the young ones repeat when we begin the next book. (I should not hear that from Ab as she likes the series. I mostly think it is because she listens to it and doesn't have to read it. Josh on the other hand is not too thrilled with the whole book club idea. So I think the comment would come from him.) But you see there is a family whose 9 year old daughter is extremely negative. I mean I don't recall hearing a positive word out of her mouth. So I feel for that Mom. Back to Stacy - she informed us that her boys are not too thrilled either so she said if we were sticking with another fantasy series they would not be involved. That would stink since her oldest is a buddy of Stephen's and one of the reasons we do this book club. We will take any and all suggestions you may have in regards to a book club for boys ages 10-13.

Thursday was rather shocking as I discovered that Abigail was just clicking off her work and not completing it or not even doing it. I think she was surprised that I was on top of the school work. I was very behind right before the break. But this year I want to stay on top of this and stay on schedule. So imagine her surprise when I called her on it. She lost some privileges here. Namely the chance to horse back ride again. (Silly girl - every time she has gotten close she has messed up big time!) She started back to piano lessons and loved it. The teacher is so impressed with her creativity.

Friday was a pretty good morning and then off to check out a house in the afternoon. Bill was a little late to the house and arrived when the realtor and I were leaving the house. Rick (our realtor) told Bill to get back in his car and keep going. This house was horrible. I was shocked at the price of the house for all that is needed. Rick agreed that it should be about 80 grand lower. I was ready to move on. But the upside to this was Bill and I got to have lunch together. That makes two times this week!!! I love it!!! We even stopped by this cute coffee shop. I enjoyed the setting and plan on stopping back there. Night time was youth group for Stephen. He needed to attend due to the meeting for the Belize trip.

New Year, Same Dentist

Yup, I am back to the dentist to get this mouth taken care of. I really do like this dentist office. I must say that is helping this process. Today I had two teeth worked on. He was so nice to start at the easiest teeth. He said he would gently get me back into the swing of things. He mentioned that there will come a day when he can say that everything looks good upon peering into my mouth. I laughed. And joked that that would be when I was 50. He laughed too and then realized he did not know my age. When I said it was a mere 8 years away. He said, Oh no we will be done in a year. YEA!!!!!!!!!

I know Bill will also be happy when this is all over. Especially with the kids beginning in the next couple of weeks. AHHHHH!

The kids did well for two days in a row having to do work without Mama close by. I know this won't last long so I don't want to abuse this privilege. I actually prefer being around when they are doing work. I even have to beg them to sit with them sometimes. I am thrilled that they are independent but also know that there are some things I could add as they are doing work in order to drive it home more. Please know that I am NOT complaining, just commenting!

Here we go again!

Monday was quite a day. Had to drop off the van and with it being back to school work that proved to be a problem. So we began our year missing art class. The young ones were very sad. Bill helped me dropped off the van and then I had to take him to work so I had a vehicle to use. Especially since he was going out of town and if for some reason the van wasn't done he wanted me to have a car.

I did not get back home until 10 am. The children were listening to book on tape as we have book club this week. Around lunch time they called about the van. Yay! All was okay. I had to go back and get Bill so he could drive me over to get the van.

We decided to go out for lunch at Panera. Steal anytime we can since he was going out of town!

Did not get back home until 1:45 pm.

Two hours later we were leaving to go to basketball practice. Arrived back home at 8:00 pm. What a loooooong first day back!!

Problem is the rest of the week is busy too!

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

Spent 2 hours this morning sitting at NTB while my van was being worked on. I still need to go back on Monday. Apparently they don't have access to a computer on the weekends. Note to self - DO NOT GO ON WEEKENDS!!!

Then it was off to church. I was glad to make church as I thought I would miss it due to the car situation. So, I guess it was okay that they couldn't do it all as I would have missed church. And church was great. Our pastor is teaching from Matthew. Today we were in chapter 26. It is were Mary is sitting at Jesus' feet anointing him with her years worth of perfume. The message from today is where do you sit? and do you stink? The where do you sit makes sense - we should be at Jesus' feet daily learning and listening. The do you stink is in regards to not sitting at Jesus' feet. You see when we sit there we have the aroma of Jesus Christ on us as we go about our dailys. But if we don't we tend to stink with smells of anger, bitterness, jealousy,... you get the idea.

So may this year find you sitting at Jesus' feet. (I know that is where I will be!)

Happy New Year

So hard to believe it is a new year and a new decade. Wow! Where does the time go?!? Anyway, I wanted to wish everyone a Happy and Blessed New Year. Looking forward to all the many, wonderful, and exciting things the Lord has in store for me this year.

I know one is a new home. I can't wait for that one!

So now I ask you, What do you know the Lord will do for you this year?

Check it out

Just thought I would share this with you all.

Precept Ministries: Are you looking for help to grow spiritually?