The Adventures of the Pickle Family

My 3 Sons

2012-02-03T21:10:00.000-05:00

Tonight I had a friend point out that I never announced on here what we're expecting.

We found out shortly before our crazy trip to Oklahoma for Christmas so we put it out on Facebook and promptly forgot to put out the update on here.
So if you haven't heard before now, we are indeed having a 3rd boy! We had spent a lot of time preparing our 2 boys with the knowledge that it could go either way and they reacted very well. Every day since then they have been anticipating him coming more and more! They love to feel him kick and want to help pick out his name and help get his room ready for him to come.

Next week I'll be in my 3rd trimester. It has passed by so fast this time! There is still so much to do. I'm glad we still have a few months left to get it done in.

The Difficulty with Giftedness

2012-01-10T22:56:00.000-05:00

If you would have told me 5 years ago that in a few years one of my children would be markedly gifted I would have been really excited! I have learned so much since then.
Joshua's uniqueness is something I tend to avoid talking too much about. I know exactly how it sounds for a Mom to call her own child "gifted." It is just a mother who thinks her child better or smarter than everyone else's. This may be true in some (or even most) cases, but not in all.
Whenever I do decide to brave the admission, "Joshua is gifted," I find I always have to justify that statement. "He was asking us how to do multiplication when he was 5 years old." "He figured out how to do basic square roots after a 5 minute conversation with a friend at a birthday party." "He enjoys figuring out how many days a person has been living in his free time." "He was asking to read chapter books in Kindergarten." "One morning I woke up to find he had been entertaining himself by converting temperatures from Celsius to Fahrenheit and vice verse." He is always providing these little snippets of proof so they're not that hard to think of when needed.
The trouble is most people don't know the whole story of what being a gifted child can be like. We assume it's based on the observation of a child who is brighter or smarter than his peers in some way but we don't realize the other side of this "gift." First of all, it is not always easy to keep up with a child whose brain seems to work in a completely different way. Second, for most gifted kids these areas of acceleration come partnered with other areas that can cause quite a bit of frustration, for themselves and for others around them.
It is a response to this very frustration that lead me to buy the book, "Living with Intensity" edited by Susan Deniels, Ph.D. and Michael M. Piechowski, Ph.D. earlier this year. As it reads much like a college textbook it's been a bit of a slow one for me, but I have laughed and cried multiple times reading it because of how much it has lead me to understand about Joshua and who he is and what is going on in his mind.
In this book they address a series of what they call "overexcitabilities" that are common among gifted people. There are a couple of these that seem to fit perfectly with Joshua's quirks that have come to light as he's grown up. I thought I might list some of the qualities that go along with them here so that others who love him might be able to understand him a little better as well:

Surplus of energy, rapid speech, marked excitation, intense physical activity (e.g., fast games and sports), pressure for action (eg., organizing), marked competitiveness, compulsive talking and chattering, impulsive actions, nervous habits, workaholism, acting out.
In young gifted children, we hear rapid, seemingly excessive, almost compulsive speech. They may explain things until you beg them to stop!

Reading through that list and the pages of continued description that followed brought a sudden feeling of relief that I am not the only parent who is trying to help a child who sees the world through a very different lens. It is because of this that other parents have asked if I've had him tested for one disorder or another. I've read up about most of them and don't feel that any really apply to Joshua like they should for a diagnosis. This list, however, does.

The more I have read out of this book, the more I am certain that Joshua is merely a gifted little boy trying to function in a world that puts a high value on normalcy. It is my job as his Mom and his teacher to help him learn to do that. In the mean time, it is certainly a comfort to know that I am not the only one on this path.

""Gifted children can be exhausting, demanding, and perplexing enigmas. They often amaze, delight and confound adults who know, love and teach them."

Christmas Card

2011-12-06T13:14:00.000-05:00

A Different Christmas

2011-12-02T12:10:00.000-05:00

This year Christmas is going to look a little different for us. For the first time we'll be traveling to visit family for the holiday.
We found out in August the Phil's Dad was diagnosed with stage 4 Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. We have decided to take a trip to Oklahoma for Christmas to be able to spend the holiday with him.
While we're glad to be able to make the trip out to see him, we've had to change some of our normal traditions so we can. We usually buy a fresh tree each year to hang decorations on and look at each year. It seemed silly to buy a fresh tree for just a couple of weeks before we leave that will sit here dark and lonely on Christmas day.

So we've done a bit of improvising. My Mom bought this little tree for me sometime in high school so I could decorate one in my bedroom. I've kept it and we usually put it in the boys room during the holidays. This year it will be in the living room instead. The boys seemed to have just as much fun decorating it up as a regular size tree.

To be able to enjoy some of our favorite ornaments that make an appearance every year I hung a garland that is usually used elsewhere in the house on the living room wall. I put most of our of pickles on it (15 in all now) then let the boys choose their favorite ornaments to put in between them. I think it turned out pretty well and the boys are very happy with it.
Most importantly, they are even more happy about being able to go to Oklahoma. They talk about it every day. It will be a very long drive there so hopefully the anticipation will somehow make the drive feel shorter.

Thankful

2011-11-23T18:14:00.000-05:00

This year has been one for the books in our family! We have so much to be thankful for, so I thought I'd take a moment the day before Thanksgiving to list just a few of those things specifically... in no particular order.

1. Phil made Chief!
Most of our year had been spent worrying and doing our best to trust God over what the future would hold. We had no idea until the 1st of August whether we would even be in the Navy anymore by November. He was denied PTS over and over. It came down to the options of Phil making Chief his first time being board eligible, or we would be getting out. It was a mite overwhelming, to say the least. On August 1st, I received the unbelievable tear-inducing phone call from Phil letting me know he was on the list! Though, as Phil has commented, those anchors he put on do get heavy at times, I could not be more grateful for them.

2. This teeny baby in my belly.
We decided to wait on the decision of whether or not to have another baby after Jeremiah until we felt more certain about it. It took a few years, but I'm really glad we waited. It is all a new feeling again this time. The boys are so involved in the entire process. Not a day goes by that they aren't curling up beside me to watch a show or read a book that they aren't putting their hand on my little belly just to have it there. Joshua was even trying to sing a song through my tummy the other day. They say that by now our baby would only be about 4 inches long, but it's plain to see this baby already has a hold on all of our hearts.

3. My two loving and cuddly boys.

They are also brilliant, kind, funny, creative, talented and sincere. I could probably go on all day. They have their faults as well, of course, but overall I am so happy with my two unique little boys that I would be perfectly content to have another to learn from and watch grow.

4. Homeschooling.
This one goes hand in hand with #3. I am so thankful for the ability to be able to spend all day every day with our boys helping them to slowly the become these amazing men I sometimes see peep out of their little boy shells. They really genuinely enjoy learning and I really do enjoy teaching them all these new ideas and ways of doing things.

5. Food on the table and clothes on our backs.
This one so often goes without saying, but this year in particular we are grateful for a regular well-paying job for Phil that enables us to not have to worry too much about these things.

6. My Better Half.
I could not be more proud of Phil than I am this year. As hard as those PTS challenges were on me, they must have been 4x as hard on Phil but he never gave up. He kept putting in the effort as much as he was able. After his pinning for Chief I had several people tell me about how well he did in making it through the induction process (which was definitely another challenge in and of itself). Not only did he prove himself worthy to become a Chief to the selection board, he continued to do so by not giving up until the results came out and then again through the induction period that it seemed might never end. He has always been a great provider for our little family and a leader for us in many ways. I am so grateful for my decision early on to marry him. Every year he becomes even more the man of my dreams, though I never would have thought that possible.

Soccer and #3

2011-10-08T14:14:00.000-04:00

Soccer is now finally in full swing! We had been set back by quite a bit of bad weather, but things have cleared up and games and practices have been fairly consistent.

This year Josh is in with the 7-9 year old group. Josh is now one of the youngest on his team. The competition is more intense and the players more skilled. So far he's doing great at trying to catch up to the other players.

Jeremiah is a Soccer Tot for the last time this year. He's doing really well with it, but is definitely looking forward to playing with the bigger kids next year.

While I'm putting up an update, I might as well mention that we are pregnant! We'll be expecting baby #3 sometime mid-May of next year. We're excited and nervous all at the same time. The boys couldn't be happier with the news. Almost every day they are coming up with a new suggestion for names. Joshua has been going over and above with trying to be helpful and Jeremiah is adjusting the idea of being a big brother. There will certainly be a lot more news about this in the coming months. For now, I'm right around 9 weeks and really looking forward to the 2nd trimester and the relief it should bring from the morning sickness!

Phil's Pinning

2011-09-27T17:50:00.000-04:00

Over a week ago now was one of the most important ceremonies in Phil's career.

We were so proud of him when we first found out he had made Chief and did our best to support him through the induction season.

His pinning marked the end of this process and the beginning of his time as a Chief Petty Officer. I thought I'd share some pictures and things from that day.

Phil was able to choose 2 people to pin his new anchors on his collar. He asked me to do one of them and had the boys work together to do the other. Jeremiah put on the front of the pin.

And Josh had the difficult responsibility of putting on the back. We realized shortly after they had done it that it ended up being put on upside down. I think that only added to the cuteness of it, though. The boys did a really good job with it.

After we did our part, Phil's sponsor put his new cover on for the first time.

After the ceremony was mostly done, each new Chief walked down the center aisle one at a time. It was so great to see each of them. It was such a proud moment.

Afterward we grabbed a few family shots with Phil in is brand spankin' new khakis.

As proud as we have been of Phil this whole time, it has definitely been a difficult few weeks to get through and we're so glad now to finally be on the other side!

We did find out that because of all of this Phil will be transferring soon. We'll be staying in the area (so we don't have to try and sell the house yet) but Phil will now we working from a different base. I still have work to do on learning about this new command so maybe once I know more, I can share a little more. In the mean time, it's so nice to be done and settled and ready to move on after all those months and months of waiting in limbo not being sure if we'd be able to stay in the military or not!

All Sorts of Updates

2011-09-27T16:35:00.000-04:00

This has been quite a couple of weeks for us! Things are just starting to quiet down today so I thought I'd get some pictures out for everyone to see.

The first big event was Jeremiah's 5th birthday. We spent the entire doing things Jeremiah wanted to do. Waffle House for breakfast, playing video games, Chuck E Cheese,

chinese food for lunch, and a bounce house place. My Mom and Dad were coming in on a flight that evening so we went to soccer practice while we waited. They came in right after so we grabbed a pizza and enjoyed their company until bedtime.

That's when the rest of the family started getting here for Phil's pinning... which was the very next day! I'll put pictures together from this event on a separate post since I have so many.

The day after the pinning was Jeremiah's birthday party. It turned into such a fun day!

He had asked for a Hot Wheels theme. I had a car cake pan from when Joshua had asked for the same theme. We gave each kid a car cake and let them go to town decorating their own car. We had so much fun doing it!

We even had a guest appearance of a 3 foot Darth Vader at the end. :) This is him with his Uncle Adam. Notice the toes. Those are my favorite part!

After everyone else headed home, my parents stuck around for a bit. Because of work, my Dad had to head back Sunday evening, so we did our best to enjoy the last little bit of time with him by heading to a museum here called Nauticus.

It was pretty interesting and we had just enough time to get my Dad off to the airport and headed home.

My Mom was able to stay for a week longer so we tried to have as much fun with her as we could.

At the end of the week Phil and I were able to go to his Khaki Ball while my Mom watched the boys. We stayed overnight and had such a good time!

The day before my Mom had to leave, we all headed to the Children's Museum that has been completely remodeled since the last time we were there.

Wow! I had forgotten how fun this place was for the boys. The price has gone up since the remodel, but it is definitely a completely different museum now!

Only a few things were reused and the layout and design of the place now is spectacular! It definitely made for a memorable time for the boys and the adults as well.

We'll have to go back sometime soon.

A Tip

2011-08-14T20:15:00.000-04:00

Put a little dry erase board in your kitchen somewhere. It works great to keep the list of things you're running out of so you don't forget when you're making your grocery list or a place to list the things you'd like your rock star husband to take care of... and every now and then you might end up with something like this:

Translation of Joshua's: "Mom rocks! She's cool. Love: Joshua"

Worth every penny.

He Made It!!!

2011-08-08T09:45:00.001-04:00

A week ago today we received the news we have been waiting over 9 months to hear. The results of the Chief's board came out. We had been doing our best to wait patiently. It's a difficult thing to do when it is an answer that will change forever the trajectory of your life's path. With a lot of prayer and effort we had waited. Phil would either be thrown very quickly into a 6 week induction process to become a Chief or into a process of transitioning out of military life altogether.
Phil was the first to find the news and after verifying what he saw (it was a little difficult to believe), he called me and quickly said, "I made it." I could hardly believe it! He had to say it again. I had to say it out loud. His chances had seemed so small and yet... he made it. Tears rose up and flooded my eyes but there was an irrepressible smile. He had made it.

Now we are in the middle of what will be a 7 week induction period where we will see very little of each other while he becomes a Chief. It will culminate with his pinning ceremony in mid-September. It has been an interesting transition going from such uncertainty into this. Most days he has been gone all day from before any of us are awake until long after the boys have gone to bed. As exciting as this change is, you can't help but looking forward to when we'll be able to have more time together again.
As far as everything else goes, we're not sure what will happen from here. After he is pinned we may be asked to move or we may be allowed to stay here. No one will know until it's over. So for now, we get through the next few weeks and be happy and grateful that everything so far has worked out better than we could have hoped for and trust that the rest will as well. A few times every day it hits me all over again that Phil made it and I can't help but smile and feel overwhelmed with gratitude and love.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. -Proverbs 3:5-6

Reptiles and Bees

2011-07-30T14:06:00.000-04:00

In the last couple of weeks we've had a couple of really neat experiences.

Yucky long snake that Mommy wouldn't touch.

The first was at our nearest library. I just happened to see they had something going on at the library we were planning on taking our books back to one day and just barely got the boys signed up before we left for the morning.

Baby crocodile

We learned all sorts of things about spiders and snakes and mice and crocodiles. My personal favorite also happened to be the least threatening... the tortoise.

Then last weekend I heard about an even with the Beekeepers Guild of Southeastern Virginia. They were uncapping their hives to extract the honey.

One way to uncap the honey.

Ever since Joshua was stung back in Illinois he has been extremely afraid of bees. To try and help with that this year we studied about bees.

Another way is to use a pick from 1990, apparently.

We read several books on the subject and now Joshua is extremely interested in bees (mostly of the honey variety... as apparently all the other ones are just mean).

Hives full of honey.

The entire process was really interesting and the boys even got to try a couple of different types of honey. The volunteers there were more than willing to answer the questions the boys had about the hives, bees and honey.

Empty after all the honey has been taken out.

I love it when the boys show interest in learning things on their own. I can't help but look forward to all the other things they'll want to learn as they get older.

The Aquarium

2011-07-05T19:51:00.000-04:00

We headed to the Aquarium today for the last time for a while. Our membership there expires tomorrow and since we don't know what'll be happening in 3 months... let alone an entire year from now, it doesn't make sense to renew it.

We had fun anyway. We've been able to go many times this year. A lot more than if we didn't have the membership, which was the idea.

Can you see Jeremiah teeny face trying to peep over? You couldn't see Jeremiah at all the first time we went to this Aquarium and Joshua was about Jeremiah's height. They've gotten so much bigger since we got here!

This would be the boys perspective of the world if they were blue crabs. I'm kinda glad they're not, though. :)

So now we officially don't have a museum membership for the first time since right after we moved here. It's kinda sad but how life is these days. Glad there are a few free museums we can go to this summer to make up for it!

2 Boys, a Camera and a Summer Afternoon

2011-06-30T17:06:00.000-04:00

Peaches and Changes

2011-06-28T09:57:00.000-04:00

Things have been brewing on the employment front. I briefly mentioned it here. The program I mentioned is called PTS and Phil was denied for the last time this month. We knew there was a good chance of his being denied. There is one more chance that we will be able to stay int he military- if Phil advances to Chief later this Summer. This is not a guaranteed advancement by any means. It's been an incredibly nerve-wracking time for us not knowing what to prepare for. We'll finally have a definite answer as to our possible future in the military by the end of the Summer. Until then we wait. It's difficult, to say the least.

Trying not to focus on those things coming up, we have been trying to find some fun things to do around. This weekend was a pretty nice one on that front. I found out there was a peach festival going on not too far away.

We headed there after church on Sunday. We stopped to pick some of our own peaches first. Phil had the best luck at finding the really ripe ones. I think he used his height as and advantage.

Joshua tried to do the same... but ended up with other problems as a result...

We tightened his belt a little after this. Funny boy.
I love taking the boys the find out where food comes from.

Joshua's latest enjoyment is finding all the bugs he can when we go. He's also found a few problems with eating while missing his front 2 teeth.

He's found ways around it for the most part, but watching him eat corn off the cob was hillarious!

Can you believe they didn't coordinate their shirts in the morning? They look like M&M's!

Joshua worked on his bravery a bit with Daddy's help.

Spent some time at a small town Peach festival. It was pretty cute.
We stopped on the way home to pick some very early blueberries. What did Joshua find? Bugs.

Homemade Sidewalk Paint

2011-06-02T11:32:00.000-04:00

Recently I started using a website called pinterest.com. The more I use it, the more I love it!

That is where I found the idea to make homemade sidewalk paint.

It was super hot this morning already so the boys didn't last very long before we had to come inside for water and shade.

I used our cupcake tin and put in 1 tablespoon of cornstarch and a smidge of gel food coloring then filled it with water. Mix and voila! Sidewalk paint!

Pungo Strawberry Festival

2011-05-29T17:31:00.000-04:00

This has been a harder than average separation for us for some reason. Could be that it's the first since the deployment. Could be because Phil is getting to go somewhere fun without us. Regardless, it's been a struggle.

We're getting through it one day at a time. Today I forced the boys out of the house (they are content to stay inside and play with toys and what not all day right now) and we headed to the Pungo Strawberry Festival.

They had rides and 4-H animals and all sorts of different fair foods to choose from. We had a strawberry taco and ended up spending most of our time in the military display section.

(look for the little face in the window missing a front tooth)

One might think this is because of being a military family, but my guess is it was more because the boys were allowed to get into a crawl all around these vehicles and ask questions until they were blue in the face.

They had such a great time doing this that they forgot that they would much rather be at home! It was hot and we were all sweaty but they would still wait a half hour just to get to stand on the top of one of the tall armored vehicles.

It was a pretty cool thing to be able to do so close to Memorial Day. We've started talking about the meaning of it already. The boys are a little older now and can understand some of these things better

We eventually headed out and came back home. It was nice to get out for a bit, even if it would have been nicer if Phil had been able to come with us.

The boys did get to see quite a few guys who were wearing the same uniforms as Daddy... so that's something. They also saw an ambulance (or "ambu-lance" according to Jeremiah) and a fire truck!

Joshua also ended up with his face painted (Jeremiah is not a fan of paint on his face) which is pretty funny since we have a picture of Phil in his younger years with his face painted as well. If I had the slightest clue where it was right now I'd put it up here for you, but you'll have to settle for your imagination for now.

Grilling and Leaving

2011-05-23T09:48:00.000-04:00

It doesn't get much better than this right here:

Today Phil left for the first time since he returned from deployment. Not so fun.
He'll be back in a couple weeks but it's still sad to have to go back to getting by without him.

Showing Off Artwork

2011-05-16T17:37:00.000-04:00

I found this idea that I loved about a year ago. I'm pretty certain I found it on the FamilyFun.com website but haven't been able to locate it since. I thought I'd share our version of it here. I only spent 2 dollars out of pocket to make it happen and every time we use it I love it even more. This is how we display the boys favorite pieces of artwork.

We change them out every week or so. You'll find coloring pages or art projects or school work that we are particularly proud of in these frames.
All I did was repurpose some old frames that never made it to the wall in this house. I took out all the glass and backing, bought a $1 can of black spray paint to make them match and hung them on nails on the wall. Inside of these frames I hung another nail to hook on an alligator clip that I bought at the office supply store for another dollar. Voila! Perfect place to hang the things the boys are most proud of.

How to Begin Homeschooling

2011-05-06T16:11:00.000-04:00

I have had a lot of friends ask about how I went about figuring out how to start homeschooling so I figured I'd share here so I can just send a link instead of rewriting it over and over again. Deciding how to start was definitely one of the more stressful things I've ever done.
The #1 thing everyone is most concerned about is curriculum. What books are you going to use? There are so many out there it is hard to know where to start. We have a pretty unique set of circumstances with Joshua's math abilities so box sets were never an option for us. I'm also too cheap for that. They can be thousands of dollars a year! I knew I could work ebay and do better than that. They're just books, after all.

First, to give myself some sort of feeling of preparedness, I looked up the Virginia State Standards of Learning (SOL's). I looked up anything that didn't sound familiar so I had a general idea of what Josh would have been learning if he remained in public school.
Then I went to my library catalog and looked up "homeschool." I was pleasantly surprised that there were several books there so I put all that looked interesting on hold. Some were definitely better than others once I got them home. I didn't have enough hours in the day to read them all. The one that was my favorite turns out to be one of most homeschoolers favorite resources. Cathy Duffy's 100 Top Picks. It definitely helps you get a feel for what style of homeschooling might fit you and your family. You learn about learning styles as well and she gives recommendations based on those things as well as many others, like how much time you will have to prep and give attention for lessons. I picked books for each subject based on that, recommendations of other homeschooling Moms that I knew and a little guesswork on where we would be academically. I searched ebay and alibris.com for all I could find used and bought the rest as cheap as I could find them for new. We walked away with an entire "curriculum" for a year under $100. Not too shabby for a first year, if I do say so myself. The best part is a couple of our subjects will cover more than one year and most can be used with Jeremiah as well. I'm all about bang for your buck.
Here is what we've been working with this year:
Math
We started using the Math U See curriculum (the 2nd grade equivalent book for Joshua and the Primer for Jeremiah). Joshua loved his book and learned a few things. My problem was he finished his book in less than half a school year and it's not a book you can copy so he wrote directly in the book. We can't re-use it. We re-evaluated when he finished it and bought him a more challenging Saxon book. He is not as crazy about this book but it's definitely more on-par with where his brain is at academically. We've tweaked my expectations of him with this book and he is enjoying it more that I don't make him do ALL the review problems.
Truth be told, though, his favorite math activities we've done so far this year have very little to do with his textbooks. He is naturally very curious about math methods so the things I've shown him to answer his questions are much more interesting to him than any old text book.
We did find one book that Josh loves and wants to spend his free time in. It was an impulse buy at Barnes and Noble and I'm so glad I bought it! Math for the Gifted Student. Joshua geeks out for math stuff and each page has something new for him to learn and be challenged by. That's exciting stuff in his book so I go along and pretend it's kinda normal.
Science

We bought the A Beka 1st grade science book and were really disappointed with it. It was more for Jeremiah's preschool level than Joshua's. So we breezed through it and moved on. We have been doing unit studies in science paired with random experiments to add some fun. We have used books that I found on clearance at Barnes and Noble and Scholastic Book Fairs and put them together to make units. One week we read all about fish and ended with a trip to the aquarium. Another week we read a few books about dinosaurs. Recently we found a couple books at the library about honeybees. Their favorite are the experiments, though. They like getting in the kitchen and making things happen. We use this book to get ideas. We will never run out of things to do with this book.
History

History is one of my favorite subject and the boys seem to not mind it too much because of that. We went with The Story of the World curriculum. The best part of this is the activity book. I learned this the hard way. The book is fine by itself, but what really made it stick was the coloring pages and activity suggestions. The boys have loved some of these activities and they lead to more discussion about what we learned. I'm really happy with this one and we'll continue it next year.
Language
We have used "First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind." This is more of a classical education book but the boys like it. You learn parts of language (verbs, nouns, etc) and memorize poems through repetition. This helped Jeremiah with his days of the week and months as well. This book is good for 3 years so we'll continue it next year.
Spelling
Spelling has been a tricky one for Joshua. Jeremiah is not old enough since he just started reading during this school year. I knew Joshua was an advanced reader (being partnered with his teacher for reading exercises in Kindergarten) but I hadn't realized how advanced he was in spelling. Wow! I bought him a 1st grade book that was reviewed as being challenging. Not so much for Joshua, apparently. We breezed through the grade 1 book and will be over halfway through the grade 2 book when we bring this year to a close. We still skip weeks every now and then when he already knows how to spell all the words on the list, but I think we're pretty close to being at his level.
Etcetera
We do a LOT of etcetera type learning around here. We take field trips whenever we can find them. We read book about whatever the boys are interested in at the time. Right now we're reading a book on video game designers. We read Magic Treehouse books and work in the garden in our backyard and bake in the kitchen. There are things to learn all around us even when we're not directly trying to learn.
What I'm Into Now
I've been reading up a lot about Thomas Jefferson Education. There's a strong emphasis on raising your children to be leaders instead of just to hold jobs and get by. You read classic books and let your children power their own education for the most part. Been reading a lot and am still intimidated by this, but we're getting there. I'm really inspired by the idea of it.

So there you go. That's all I have to say on the subject... for right now, at least. We're still learning as we go and are figuring things out one day at a time. Some days are better than others but we're stronger and and more understanding now as a family than we were before we started this journey. The boys get along better and overall our stress levels are lower. We've seen a lot of benefits from homeschooling already and we haven't even finished our first year yet!

Spring Is Here!

2011-04-05T17:59:00.000-04:00

Spring has finally found it's way to our corner of the world! It has been a long cold winter for this area. Spring has been long anticipated! I think it feels this power as it has been playing with us. One day it will be nice and warm and the next they're calling for snow again.

We've been doing our best to embrace the warm days as they come. For Joshua's birthday he received a set of big kid tools and a project he could do with them. They're the Red Tools set from Lowe's. He was so impressed with himself.

Yesterday the weather called for wind so we went to our local dollar store and bought a kite! We had a great time playing with it... but it did a lot of... well... this.

We did our best to help it out but sometimes there's only so much you can do. When it comes down to it, you can't help a kite that won't help itself. :)

30 Things Before I Turn 30

2011-03-26T21:07:00.002-04:00

This summer I'll be crossing the threshold into the wonderful land of my 30's (being optimistic here).
It's definitely a milestone. I'm not particularly dreading or fond of the idea of turning 30. Kinda seems like just another year passing so I tried to come up with some sort of list of things I would like to do before I turn 30. Unfortunately the only things I could come up with that wouldn't require a substantial amount of money (for places I'd love to visit and whatnot) were things I have yet to try to make myself.
So I guess that's what I'll do. I've started a list of the things I have yet to try to make myself or things I made a long long time ago that I'd like to give another go. If you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them!

1. Bagels
2. Sally Lunn bread
3. Butter
4. Pineapple pie
5. Naan bread
6. Tortilla soup
7. Barbecue sauce
8. Strawberry strawberry cheesecake
9. Chocolate chip baked donuts
10. Smothered chicken and biscuits
11. Olive bread (mostly for Phil since I'm not a huge green olive fan)
12. Boston Cream Pie
13. Sweet potato biscuits
14. Bread pudding
15. Tres leches cake
16. Spritz cookies (I have never been able to get these to work properly)
17. Eskai's recipe for vanilla ice cream
18. Paella
19. Chicken and dumplings completely from scratch
20. Caramels
21. Double Fudge Oreo Cookies
22. Rum cake
23. Marshmallows
24. Hmmm... I'll have to add to this as I think of things...
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.

Homeschooling Update

2011-03-04T13:39:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since the last update.
Thing have been chugging along here in spite of that, of course.
I'll put some pictures throughout so you can see how the boys have grown.

First, Phil's work situation is getting a bit touchy. The military is reducing their numbers which means that people must be kicked out for that to happen. Because Phil would be reenlisting soon he has to get permission now. We have been waiting for months for his request to be approved. There is a chance it won't. There's a chance that by the end of this year we will no longer be a military family. It's been a stressful time because of that but we've come to terms with the possible change and are doing our best to trust that God is in control and that what happens will be for the best in the long run.

Joshua just recently turned 7. It's really really hard for me to believe that! It's like it sneaks up on you. One day you're holding your little baby while you're trying to buy groceries and the next he's adding up a subtotal and seeing if he's right at the register. I am no where near ready for him to be 7 but he has told me that doesn't matter. He is 7 anyway.

Homeschooling has been going great! Each day is a different day. Sometimes we do great. We get everything off the calendar done (how I've been sorting what we should be accomplishing each day). Some days we have other things that have to be done during the morning and we have to run errands instead of doing school. The nice thing is that learning happens even when we're not at home and generally speaking we haven't had too hard of a time catching up.
Math is still Joshua's favorite subject but he really loves doing science experiments. Jeremiah may not share the exact same enthusiasm for math but he is already much farther ahead than I expected him to be by now.
I feel like we're finally into our homeschooling groove. The subject matter changes. We read different books, but we all know that most mornings we'll be getting up and having breakfast then getting ready to learn around the table.

This week we took a field trip day to see the new area they are opening at our zoo. Since we were nearby the art museum we stopped by to take a look around there as well. They have a section of art from Egypt including a couple sarcophagi. A museum employee was talking to the boys about it and Jeremiah asked her where the sarcophagus was. It's a pretty impressive word coming from a 4 1/2 year old! We have been learning a little about Egypt this year in our history book. I love moments when I am not the only one blown away by the brilliance of my boys. I am definitely a lucky Mom!
Oh... and then there's the car.

THEE car! The car Phillipp has wanted for.... well, probably all of eternity until this point. That's not being very precise. It's been probably 5 or 6 years. It's a Subaru STi and it's really pretty awesome. That's my blue wagon in the background. Poor thing didn't see it coming being upstaged like that. Our cars make their own happy little Subaru family now and Phil is one happy guy. Some day soon I'll be able to get Phil to talk about something other than cars but after this, it's not looking good for anytime in the near future.

Belated Christmas

2011-01-23T15:03:00.000-05:00

Sometimes Christmas around here is a little spread out. We have the big day, of course, but we also had a few things come later in the mail. It's actually a little more fun that way. When the Christmas toys lose their charm a little, new ones show up in the mail!

We had a box from Auntie Verna and Uncle Randy (from Oklahoma. We visited them this summer, if you'll remember).

You should have seen the boys with these 2 toys! Bingo cage for a boys obsessed with numbers? It was a perfect match! Then Jeremiah and Iron Man? Jeremiah's been doing the Iron Man thing for a while now and it doesn't show any signs of letting up.

We also got a card with some spending money from my Grandma and Grandpa. This worked out really well since we can use it after Christmas when every single toy in creation is on sale. To continue with the Iron Man theme, Jeremiah found this beauty. It was the missing piece to his ensemble. Iron Man heart, check. Iron Man gloves, check. Iron Man mask? Check!

Joshua just used his to order a Monopoly game for his DS. We had the good idea (read: bad idea) of teaching Joshua how to play Monopoly one night. It was a pretty fun night but it was followed by day after day after day of, "Will you play Monopoly with me??" Unfortunately for Joshua, there's a pretty low limit to how much Monopoly we can handle. He's counting down the days waiting for it to arrive here at the house.

Operation Paperback

2011-01-08T17:18:00.000-05:00

While Phil was still deployed I heard about this organization:
http://www.operationpaperback.org/
I signed up for a box for the boys (since we can never seem to get enough reading material around here). This evening a knock came to my door. It was our postman carrying a box FULL of books for us!

We won't be able to use every single one of them (the Goosebumps series I think may still be a bit much for Joshua) but there are a lot of fun ones in there. Some of them I wouldn't have picked out myself but the boys seemed interested in.

There were a LOT of books! I read the letter that came with it to the boys. Here's the important part:
"These books are a gift from supportive citizens around the United States. It is our way of saying thanks to military families for the incredible sacrifices they make every day."
Funny thing is the boys don't really realize they've made any sort of sacrifice. They will some day, though and I'm hoping that things like this help them realize that people are grateful for the things they've given up.

There was one that was a favorite of the boys. We have some geekiness issues over here.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-28T19:15:00.000-05:00

So our big plan was to take a really nice family picture to send everyone for Christmas this year. That didn't exactly happen. Between the wacky Virginia weather this winter, 2 boys that would rather do anything else other than sit facing the camera and smile, and other trips and errands to be made, this is the absolute best we could get. We went through a lot of pictures to get these few.
Even though it's several days past Christmas, here is our Merry Christmas to you and Happy New Year to boot!

Tonight

2010-12-16T17:52:00.000-05:00

I should be: making a delicious and nutritious dinner.
I am: reading blogs about food and homeschooling... and whatever else looks interesting, really.
My kids are: ruining their minds with video games.
My husband is: at Target buying things for me!
I'm really really glad we have nothing else better to do tonight. :)

Getting the Holiday Started

2010-12-08T10:33:00.000-05:00

Christmas has always been a month-long celebration in my mind. To pass that along to my own kiddos, we've been finding little things to do along the way to the big day.

(The boys looking at gold, frankincense and myrrh)

This weekend we visited a local church that was set up like a modern day Bethlehem. You visited people along the way all talking about the star and the coming Messiah as well as taxes and the census.

I found it all pretty interesting. Towards the end, you actually see Mary and Joseph with baby in a stable of sorts. Then there were candy canes, cookies and cocoa.

We've been incorporating Christmas into our regular little projects at home as well. I'm not a big fan of gingerbread, so we made graham cracker houses. We just used M&M's to decorate for a couple of reasons. First, I'm cheap and didn't want to spend a fortune on candy that was just going to go stale while we looked at it.

Second, M&M's are my favorite. It seemed like a good reason to eat the leftovers.

Today we borrowed an idea from another homeschooler's blog and decided to decorate a tree on our easel. It turned into a lesson on sharing and negotiation, which was unexpected, but I imagine by the end of the day the tree will be beautifully colored and decorated by both of our boys together. A girl can hope, right?
And yes, sometimes we do school in pajamas... and sometimes the boys aren't really great at finding matching pajamas. I'm not terribly concerned.
I hope you're enjoying all the season has to offer already as well. For now, I'm off to turn up some Christmas music!

A Thankful Tree

2010-11-22T12:50:00.000-05:00

With Thanksgiving coming up, we've done a few special projects to help the boys think about all they have to be grateful for. We have so much to be thankful for this year!

This is a project we've been working on for a while. It's a Thankful tree. I got the idea from another blog I often read called Teach Mama.
We went for a hike last week and picked out a few branches along the way. I spent a couple days searching from some silk leaves to no avail so today we printed and colored our own!
Each leaf has one thing to be thankful for on it. There are still a few more to be added on but I found their collaborative list pretty interesting!
hugs
butter
Daddy coming home
books
peanut butter
writing
Thanksgiving turkey
Earth
North Carolina
video games
Dad
air
driving to Oklahoma
eating
toys
wrestling
the sky
Ironman
home

He's Home!

2010-11-19T16:07:00.001-05:00

It's been almost a week now since Phil came home. It's been such a relief! We're getting back into our own feeling of normal. The day of his homecoming was quite a day!

We woke up at 4:30 in the morning and hustled to get ready and out the door. Once we got there we waited... and waited...

...and waited!
Finally guys started to come in. I started to cry. I couldn't help myself.
I saw all of the guys I know come in. I pointed some in the direction of their family and kept waiting. The boys were so impatient. They couldn't wait for Daddy to get there!
Finally... we saw him.

It was still so crazy with all sorts of people coming in and going out and moving all around.

I held it together perfectly fine... until I saw this:

and this:

I tried to give them time. After all, they have been missing Phil so much lately. I wanted them to have their moment.

Of course they couldn't have him all to themselves forever.

And then there was the kiss. The one and only kiss that could make almost 7 months of deployment okay.
Yep. That was one good kiss!

Then it was time to return to functioning as a 4 person family.

And that is really what we've been doing ever since!

Bye, bye, TV!

2010-11-01T23:20:00.000-04:00

I was going to email a friend about this who I know has gone without regular TV for some time now, but I figured it might be beneficial for me to write it all out this way instead. Sorry for the long post with no pictures. And to that friend, thanks for being an example.
We made the TV cut a couple weeks ago. We had talked about it off and on for months before. When we decided to get more serious about finances we agreed on this cut. We switched to one of the lower options of Netflix so we would have something to watch when we wanted to. Aside from that, we figured anything we really wanted to watch that was on regular TV we'd be able to find online for free.
I was probably the most hesitant between the two of us. Being home alone with 2 boys day in and day out. When showers must be taken and dinners must be made, TV is an easy babysitter. I am fairly certain no one will be hurt or get into too much trouble while something interesting is on TV. On top of that, once the boys go to bed the house can be a little too quiet at times and the TV functions as my companion in ways as well.
In spite of all my hesitations and... let's face it... fears, things have gone rather well! The boys have found a few shows on Netflix that they can watch when I still need the babysitter and when I really feel the need to give my brain a break and watch something at night I have no problem finding something on Netflix or online. I've even found all my favorite shows online. I just have to switch evenings that I watch them.
Inadvertently, I've found a few other benefits as well. I had not fully realized the amount of influence advertising had on the boys and myself. Those teeny tiny little commercials that tell you how super fun this new toy is (that is never nearly as fun as it looks in the commercial... thank you very much, Paperoni) or how much you need this new super duper cool lotion to keep your skin supple and smooth. I can honestly say I don't miss commercials one bit!
The ease of one thing always following another kept all of us glued to the screen much longer with regular TV. We can't turn off the TV after this episode of Phineas and Ferb because another one is on right now! Now we have more time to pause in between and realize the other things we should be doing instead of sitting to watch another episode.
In the end, as much as I was afraid of this change to our lifestyle, it has only ended up changing it in ways I'm really excited about. We're watching less TV and the shows we are watching are more diverse and, on a whole, better for us. We are missing out on the commercials that not only steal your time but your self-esteem and even sometimes your priorities. If you are considering making the shift, don't be afraid! It's alright on this side. We've survived to tell the story.

2010-10-30T11:44:00.000-04:00

October has been a month of waiting for us. Phil was very concise when he said the other day, "So close and yet so far." That is exactly how it has felt. We're in the home stretch of this deployment but in the middle of our everyday lives it feels like it is still so painfully far away. We've been doing our best to keep busy and keep pushing on.

We've been busy with soccer practices and games. Both boys are doing really well!

Joshua has taken a liking to playing the goalie particularly but even when playing offense he is one of the better players on his team.

We've been doing a few homeschool group things like a Lego club.

And just last week we went on a pumpkin patch field trip with them.

We've been learning all sorts of things these days! Joshua's favorite new skill is making his own PB&J. He asks for that every day for lunch now!

I've finally found some math that Jeremiah could get excited about. Spiderman math. What's not to love??

We went on another field trip to a local hospital for their open house. The boys got to touch a real human lung. This gave me the heebie jeebies but the boys took it in stride. Who doesn't get to touch a lung on any given Tuesday? The ones on the left is a smokers set of lungs. The ones on the right are healthy.

With Halloween around the corner we've found a few more things to help distract us from the waiting. We carved pumpkins the other day. We'll finish up our work on that front today.

Yesterday we took a trip to Busch Gardens to use up our free military tickets. It would normally cost us over $160 for the three of us to go!

This was the favorite roller coaster. It is the biggest and fastest of the kiddie coasters. We had to ride it one last time before we left last night. We had such a fun time with the Immoos girls.
Hopefully we'll be able to keep finding so many fun distractions for the last bit of this deployment. Every day is one day closer!

Apple Picking... Kind Of

2010-10-08T14:18:00.001-04:00

Today we finally got around to the "apple picking" item on my to do list.

Unfortunately with the lack of rain this entire summer, then the deluge we suffered last week, Our trip was less then, shall we say, fruitful.

I know. I have humor issues. I blame my father.

You know what they say... the apple never falls far from the tree.

Yes... that was definitely my Dad. I suddenly feel a little sad for my offspring. Will they also inherit this really bad sense of humor?

We did have a really good time in spite of all the rotten apples. We found just enough to make ourselves an apple pie in the near future.

We also found a couple pumpkins to take home and call our own. Fall is definitely here and even though I'd much rather be enjoying it with Phil, we doing our best to embrace it knowing that soon he will be back home with us.

Air and Space

2010-10-06T18:16:00.000-04:00

Yes, I have been slacking about blogging lately.
But we finally did something I considered blog-worthy today!

Today we had a field trip day. It was Homeschool Appreciation day at the Virginia Air and Space Center so the boys and I went.

I became very aware of the fact that there are people who understand this world on a completely different level than I do.

Molecules condensing, moon rocks with traces of volcanic ash and it's implications, gas turning to liquid and returning to gas when reduced drastically in temperature.

I'm a smarter person for our journeys today and definitely a more humble one.

The boys had such a good time. I'm realizing I still have so much to learn as I try to teach them.

Look at this activity, though! A craft to learn about the different kinds of clouds? How ingenious!

So here's to pushing the limits of my own understanding to be a better teacher to the boys!
Hopefully they won't ask about molecules anytime soon!

The Package

2010-09-17T22:34:00.000-04:00

This came in the mail for me yesterday among other things.
Be still my heart!
I know.
I'm a lucky girl.
Oh yeah!
The boys got some things too.

I was actually a good Mom and let them open the box. It was for Jeremiah's birthday, after all.
Jeremiah found this little guy in there for him:

A while ago I sent a couple books to Phil and this box contained those couple of books being returned with a thumb drive with videos of him. So tonight Daddy did storytime with the boys.

They loved it! The questions about when Daddy is coming home came up all over again but you could tell they felt like Daddy had been around in a way they hadn't felt in a while. It was a really special treat on an evening when Mommy was struggling.
One more day is done. One more day closer to homecoming.

Jeremiah's Big Day

2010-09-16T00:44:00.000-04:00

Today was Jeremiah's birthday. It was quite a day!

It started with pancakes in bed for breakfast. Then we were off to the toy storeto buy a toy. He picked light sabers for both him and his brother.

Then we were visiting the zoo. We just learned about elephants yesterday then noticed they had plans to do something special with them at the zoo today. On top of that elephants are Jeremiah's favorite animals at the zoo!

They had made a 15 foot banana shaped pinata of sorts so we were able to watch them tear it apart to see what was inside.

We even took a train ride! Now that's how you know it's a special occasion! Jeremiah said, "Mom, that train ride was awesome!" Mission: accomplished.

If that wasn't enough, we made a trip to Chuck E Cheese for lunch. Jeremiah is finally figuring out skeeball!

Then after opening presents with Daddy on the phone we headed to a bounce house place here. Believe it or not, 6 months ago, Jeremiah wouldn't have much to do with bounce houses. He refused to go down even the smallest slide. You would never know it from how he was today! He was so impressed with his own bravery. Apparently now that he's 4 he is not worried about the bounce houses anymore (according to Jeremiah).
It was definitely a long day but also a really fun one! we couldn't have asked for a better birthday for Jeremiah. And to think... there's still a party to anticipate this weekend!

Our Homeschooling Group

2010-09-15T08:50:00.000-04:00

We've been a part of a nearby homeschooling group since before the end of the school year last year. I thought it would be valuable to have others in the same boat to talk to and bounce ideas off of. Last night we finally got around to going to our first event with them. It was a "Not going back to school picnic."

It was at a beautiful park. Joshua was even able to get in a short game of kickball with the older boys.

I sat and visited with other parents who feel my new found "pain".

It was a good night. I can't wait to meet up with them again!

Soccer Game #1

2010-09-13T22:22:00.000-04:00

This Saturday we had the first games of the season. The boys were both really looking forward to it this season. It was so cute to see them all geared up and ready.

The boys both played hard and had great first games.

There was a rough moment when I realized their games were going to overlap and I'd have to miss part of both of their games while I tried to balance them. It's days like that when I really miss having Phil around to help out with these every day things.
In the end, I couldn't be happier with the new organization we decided to go with for soccer. Josh played goalie for part of his game and blocked every shot!
I can't wait to see what else awaits us this season.

A Story

2010-09-07T17:46:00.000-04:00

One of the things we've done to help the boys feel connected to Daddy when he's gone is to write a story back and forth. Each will add a bit then we'll send it along and wait to get a new piece back from Daddy. We finally decided to bring it to a close the other day. Here is their story all finished:

There once were two little boys, brothers in fact that loved to have adventures. The brother's liked to run and to play all day long. One day, a very hot and sunny day, the two boys decided to do something really, really special. And so, they built a rocket ship in their backyard.

The rocket ship was sooo big! It was bigger than both brothers together, it was bigger than a car, it was bigger than their house, it was 19 feet tall! And can you guess what the boys named the rocket ship?
They named it Cranky. They painted it blue with red, yellow and black spots. Because they loved having adventures so much they decided to take a ride in their blue, red, yellow and black rocket.

It flew high, high, high into the air when they realized they forgot to put a steering wheel in the rocket. So it went down, down, down straight into a volcano! Fortunately the boys made the rocket fire proof.

Cranky crashed into the volcano so fast that the volcano erupted shooting the rocket and the boys back high in to the air. It was then that the brother's remembered that they had made Cranky and they could make something to make the rocket steer so they made a steering wheel and were able to fly the rocket anywhere they wanted to go.

But, the boys decided that they needed to stop at home to get their dog and some ice cream so they landed the rocket right back in the back yard.

The boys ate their chocolate ice cream with M&M's on it. They put their dog in the blue, red, yellow and black rocket ship.

When they were back on the rocket they decided that it would be fun to fly in to space.
They flew so high that they met an astronaut and an alien. Actually, they met a LOT of aliens! 19 of them.
They took their seat belts off and were able to float all over inside of Cranky. They had a lot of fun doing that!

After they were done floating around, one of the aliens asked if the boys would like to come to their planet that was covered in slides and swings and stuff. Their planet was one GIANT playground.
The boys went and played and saw that there were also houses there and each house had a backyard. The aliens in the houses had horseshoes and fireplaces and kitchens with ovens and bedrooms and beds in the bedrooms and hallways and some had stairs and computers.

The boys even had fun letting their dog and the alien's dogs play together and run around.

The aliens and the boys got hungry so the aliens got out their Halloween candy and they all had a piece.

After they all had a piece of candy the boys thought that maybe they should get home before their mom started to get sad that they were gone. So, they got back in to Cranky with their dog and headed home. On the way home though, they had to find a place to get some gas for Cranky.

So they stopped at a gas station. But not a earth gas station. A space gas station. It was an outer space Quick Trip. Then they decided that they had to go home but they went a little too fast so they had to stop a second time to get gas!

After stopping to get gas one more time, the two boys and their dog finally got home where their mom had dinner waiting for them.

After they had dinner and took a bath, they sat with mommy for a story and then went off to bed. Sleep well boys. Daddy loves you both!

Soccer Clinic and Halfway Party

2010-08-29T19:38:00.000-04:00

Saturday was a pretty busy day for us compared to normal. It started bright and early with a soccer clinic.
We switched organizations this season. We just couldn't afford what it was costing to go with the really popular one here so I started asking around. Low and behold there is a homeschool soccer organization called B.E.A.C.H.
I was initially a little hesitant. After all, I don't want the boys completely sheltered from normal society. Our registration cost was half what it was with the other organization and from their website it seemed there is more an emphasis on helping develop the kids rather than just letting them play. So we tried it.

This Saturday was the clinic that starts off their soccer season.
Joshua is playing with a 5-7 year old boys team and Jeremiah is playing with the 4 year old soccer tots. They seem to really like it so far.

Hopefully they'll still like it when they have to get up and ready every Saturday morning!
Later the same day was the Halfway party for our squadron.

It's technically more than halfway but it was nice to celebrate anyway!

So we should be on the downhill slope of this deployment... in theory.
Hope you all had a great weekend as well!

First Day of School

2010-08-27T23:10:00.000-04:00

Today marks the end of our first week of our new homeschooling adventure.

Here are our pictures from the first day.

It's going really well so far! I have been learning a lot along the way and we're tweaking it slightly each day. The boys are definitely being flexible with me. I'm learning more about both of them, what they already know and what they understand.

Hopefully at some point I'll find the groove that's right for us. They both keep blowing me away! We haven't had to back track on anything yet. We've only pushed forward in a couple subjects to find material that is more at their level.
Can I just take a minute to brag on my husband? He's the one who makes the whole homeschool thing possible. Not only does he do a wonderful job serving our country but he also brings home the bacon for us so I have the freedom to be there and do this for the boys. I couldn't be more proud of the man he has become over the years or more grateful!

Neighborhood Festival

2010-08-27T22:45:00.000-04:00

This last weekend there was a festival a few blocks away. Since the boys and I were heading to the pool in the same area anyway, we stopped and ended up having a great time!

The boys haven't done a whole lot of carnival games yet so it was really fun to watch them try.

They won a few little prizes. This one was my personal favorite. I'm sure you can see why.

They even got cotton candy with some spare change out of the car.

The bounce houses were a particular favorite. Even Jeremiah got in on the fun for a little bit! (He's not a huge fan of bounce houses overall).

The pool was awesome on such a warm day! It was a great way to pull the free time of summer to a close.

Concord, North Carolina

2010-08-27T22:09:00.000-04:00

This was our very last stop, just like it was our first. This time going through we had more time so the boys really enjoyed extra time with family there.

They ask for their cousins constantly when we're home so it was nice that they were able to have some time together.

They even had some fun taking some pictures together.

This one was their idea. I thought it turned out pretty cute.

This one was Uncle Adam's idea. I think it turned out really awesome as well!

While we were in North Carolina we were able to enjoy time with all sorts of other relatives than just their cousins.This is Papa Pickle. His birthday was right after mine so we wanted to get an extra special picture with him before we left as well.

After a couple of days we headed back home.

It was such an amazing trip for the boys and I to be able to go on. Hopefully it won't be another 3 years before we find our way back to Oklahoma.

Nashville, Tennessee

2010-08-27T21:52:00.000-04:00

Our drive to Nashville was longer so we just headed to our hotel for the evening after dinner. The next day we got up and headed into the heart of town.

We couldn't see the Grand Ol' Opry because the museum part was closed due to a flood.

So we decided to just walk around and see what we could see. The boys were enamored with these life size figures outside of the businesses along the main streets.

A bit hit were the Elvis ones. Could it be that not just a couple weeks ago they had been introduced to Elvis in a big way??

It was so quiet when we first got there. We must have beat the crowds. It was so much more crowded when we left.

After walking around for a bit we got a call saying some of our friends from Illinois were in town. Matt and Anne with their adorable little girl, Rilyn.

We had matched up our dates ahead of time. It was so great to see them again!

After lunch at Hard Rock we headed to the Frist Center for the Visual Arts.

This was such an awesome museum! Their entire upper story has art experiences for kids!

They did water color, block arranging, transfer printing, sketching... and more! After a completely enriching experience at this museum, we headed back on the road toward North Carolina. It would be our last stop before reaching home.

Little Rock

2010-08-27T17:43:00.000-04:00

Did you know there's next to nothing to do in Little Rock?? I do! Well... now I do. We did the 2 things I found tempting in the area.

As soon as we got into town we visited the William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum.

It was pretty neat, actually! Both boys sat in the President's chair and acted as leaders of other important parts of our government. (In case you're wondering, I did tell him to put his feet down... right after I took the picture).

The saw a reproduction of the Oval Office.

Then the highlight of the day... the shuttle ride.

You have to ride a shuttle to the gift shop (or drive, but it's so close it's silly. Not really a safe place to walk, though, given the traffic). Josh asked to ride in the front. Are my boys really old enough to ask to do these things?? I could hardly believe it! But I let him anyway. Part of the process of gradually letting go, I guess. After shuttling back to our car, being disappointed by our completely melted gummy worms, we headed to the hotel for the night.

The next day was one of the highlights of our trip! TheMuseum of Discovery.

I'm pretty sure whoever set up this museum had the boys and I in mind. We could have easily spent a couple days working our way through this one museum.

We were limited to our 2 hour parking spot and still had hours of driving ahead of us that day,...

... so we didn't get to do and see everything.

But with that we left Little Rock and headed toward Tennessee... Nashville and stardom! Or not. But you know, a girl can dream.

Leaving Tulsa

2010-08-27T17:22:00.000-04:00

The day before we departed from Tulsa we had a lot of catching up to do! I had several things on my list to see before we could leave. First came the big hands.

These are at Oral Roberts University. Not a fan or anything but I thought the hands were really neat!

Then there was the fact that we were driving on Route 66 quite a lot down there. I wanted to commemorate it for them. It might not be from that long ago, but it's still a part of history.

Then there's the Tulsa oil driller guy. Not sure what he's called but he's HUGE!

Then there was the water park we had talked about taking them to over and over during the trip.

We probably could have stayed here all day but it was so hot that even in the shade the grown ups were miserable! Jeremiah even let go of his reluctance a bit and got wet from head to toe!

We also got one last fishing trip in. The boys loved fishing! Uncle Randy taught me how to take a fish off the hook and everything!

We caught a bunch more fish... none of which came home with us!

Then there were the boys with their blue eyes, long eyelashes and cute smiles. I love these boys!

Then the next day we had to really leave.

We took some pictures with Auntie Verna and Uncle Randy (who, to clarify, are actually Phil's Aunt and Uncle).

Even got a picture of just the two of them. They're so cute and we love them and miss them. However, we had a dog and a house waiting for us so we drove away.
Joshua cried the first 20 minutes of our trip. Talk about heart-wrenching! We were, however, still headed for Little Rock.

Almost Leaving Tulsa

2010-08-26T23:02:00.000-04:00

The next few days of our trip were pretty peaceful. The boys picked out some more flowers to take to Auntie Verna.

We celebrated my birthday.

It was a good day, even though it was spent without my hubby. I was treated to breakfast and lunch. I was able to talk to Phil for a while. We visited a museum that was one of my favorites from our trip. I couldn't have asked for a nicer birthday.

The day before we left Tulsa, we took a trip out to see Uncle Tyler at work.

Since Uncle Tyler works at a garage, this was the next best thing to a candy store for the boys.

So many cars, so many tools, so many machines!

Tyler barely had the time and patience to give answers to all the questions!

We went out to lunch together and the boys fought over his ballcap. When we took Tyler back to work he got the boys one of their own. Now the boys wear it about every other day.

The boys really miss Uncle Tyler and talk about him often. We did more this day of our trip but we took so many pictures I'll have to save that for another post another day.

In a bit of a real time update, we're almost at the end of our first week of homeschooling. This week has been an adventure in and of itself and the learning curve is still really high for me. I'll put up some pictures as updates about this once I finally get all these updates from our trip caught up. I promise I'll get caught up eventually!

2010-08-26T22:34:00.000-04:00

The next day we headed to the Cherokee Heritage Center.

We learned so much on this little trip!

We learned about baskets and blow darts, the trail of tears, arrowheads, bows, stickball, and all sorts of other things!

We got to see all that even though it was 10 billion degrees outside! (I can't help but stipulate here that we have no right to complain about the weather given the weather where Daddy is right now. Even in spite of that, though, we were HOT!)

Fortunately there was quite a bit to see inside where the air conditioning was working very effectively.

On the way home we found something Jeremiah was so excited about! He has asked a couple times recently to go see the Statue of Liberty. Our boys have inherited our love for travel. Both of them ask to go random places and see random things on a weekly basis. Last week it was Hawaii. This week it's Antarctica. We aren't able to take them to all the places they would like to see so when we spotted this little gem on the side of the road, it was a pleasure to be able to stop and let Jeremiah have his moment with his mini-Statue of Liberty. Maybe someday we'll be able to take him to see the real one.

Day 10: A Family Dinner

2010-08-21T15:45:00.000-04:00

It had been almost 3 years since the last time we went to Oklahoma so it was fitting that at least one day we'd have everyone together in one place to enjoy each others company.

It was a fun night with all the family around. The boys had a good time challenging everyone to Connect Four and wrestling with Uncle Tyler. Great Grandma June's pies were a highlight too!

We did get to have some cake to celebrate my birthday as well. It was a good night.

Day 9: Ice Cream and Bass Pro

2010-08-21T14:57:00.000-04:00

For the record: I'm still catching up from the trip. This happened on 7/29.

Feeling only slightly better, we headed out to our scheduled tour of the Blue Bell ice cream factory.

It was so neat! There aren't any cows there but they do have lots and lots of milk to make lots and lots of ice cream!

We couldn't take any pictures in the factory so you'll have to settle for one of us enjoying some of their ice cream afterward. Please notice Jeremiah's way of eating it.

We had some time afterward before it was time for lunch so we took the boys to Bass Pro on the way back to town. I'll save you all the pictures I took of the boys on all sorts of different outdoor equipment. I will show you this, though. They have a new thing for Buffalo. We read a book from the Magic Treehouse series about buffalo when we first got there, and then found lots of cool things about buffalo while we were there. This was probably the most memorable.

Day 8: Sick

2010-08-20T10:56:00.000-04:00

The night of day 7 I was sick as a dog! I'm not even really sure what happened but it carried through into the next day and for several days to follow. Because of that we had to really take it easy. So this day we pretty much just hung out and waited for me to feel better. The boys seemed to enjoy it anyway. I think Auntie Verna did too.

Day 7: Peach Picking

2010-08-20T10:51:00.000-04:00

Few days in my life have been more content than the ones I've spent picking peaches.

Growing up my Grandparents had a peach tree and a couple apple trees in their backyard. I loved going there to help lighten the branches. I don't know what it is about it that I find so enjoyable.

Verna found a place we could go pick our own about an hour away and I've never such such beautiful juicy peaches! Jeremiah and Joshua both enjoyed squishing the overripe ones quite a lot!!

Gross, I know.

They did let me sit them in a tree and let me take their picture, which counts for something.

We did go out a do a few other things that day but the peach picking was definitely the highlight! And all that hard work picking peaches did produce another really nice side effect...

Day #6: Fishing

2010-07-27T08:50:00.000-04:00

Today Verna and Randy decided to take the boys on their first little fishing trip.

We all had a great time!

We didn't catch anything worth taking home but the boys sure had a good time catching the ones they couldn't!

Both of the boys caught several fish. Our attempts to find the big ones were in vain, though.

We will go and try again.

This was such a fun experience and such a good practice for them at learning patience.

Even the worms were fun!

Do 3 year olds need finishing licenses? Looks like I'll be finding that out in not too long.

It was a super hot day and the boys didn't last as long as any pro fisherman might, but it was a wonderful first experience for them.

They caught a lot of fish, learned how to stand (or sit) there with their poles and kinda got a first idea of what fishing is like.

When we came home, though, their first idea was to go to the pool to cool off. Then it started raining! After such a fun long day we all slept really well!

Day #5

2010-07-26T02:23:00.000-04:00

Today the main event was lunch at Grandma's.

Grandma made this cake. Caramel cake. It was so good. Jeremiah said, "It was delicious!"
Josh played Tic Tac Toe with Grandma.

The boys both played on everyone's phones.

We took pictures

And played outside.

It was a good day.

Day #4: Tulsa, OK

2010-07-25T11:39:00.000-04:00

In spite of how late the boys got to bed last night, they were still up and at 'em bright and early!

Auntie Verna and Uncle Randy had the bright idea of taking us to the local farmer's market. What a good idea!

There was this bakery with these pastries....

I was really glad we went!
So the boys bought some flowers for Auntie Verna.

After lunch Phil's Grandma June came over to see the boys and had a nice visit.

She spent some time with both of the boys.

Today we'll be going to have lunch at her house. In the evening after some of the heat had subsided we headed out to Claremore and picked blackberries.

The boys ate a bunch of them! I know that is shocking news.

We brought home quite a bounty considering how sparse the bushes were.

I'm pretty sure we got the last blackberries of the season. This morning Auntie Verna made them into a cobbler that I can't wait to have later today!!

We came home and checked for ticks (not something I'm particularly used to doing) and had pizza and crashed. It was definitely a great beginning to our trip here. I think I like Oklahoma a little more every time we visit.

Road Trip Day #3: Memphis and on to Oklahoma!

2010-07-24T23:19:00.000-04:00

Even after staying up until almost 10 o'clock, my "alarm" (aka Jeremiah) had me up before 7 and getting ready to start the day.

Our first stop: Graceland.

How could we not go to Graceland? It's an American Icon! I have to admit, though... Elvis was one odd duck. Even in spite of that, I'm so glad I had the opportunity to show this to the boys and see it myself. I had no idea of the scope of Elvis' fame.

The boys actually seemed to really enjoy it and are walking away with a much more expanded knowledge of the man. I walked away with an Elvis cookbook. Fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches, here we come!
Next we were off for the National Civil Rights Museum but needed lunch first. Tyler pointed out this place:

Boy, were we ever lucky to find it! Awesome chicken in the most unassuming location... and walking distance to the museum!

We headed off to the museum after washing our greasy hands and patting our full bellies...
I don't have many pictures since photography wasn't permitted but I found the place really interesting and lead to a lot of good discussions with the boys about discrimination and segregation and why people can believe things are really true that aren't.

In the end, we took home a couple books on MLK Jr and Rosa Parks and a picture of the boys with their Uncle Tyler at the place where Martin Luther King Junior lost his life.
And thus began our drive for the day... all the way to Tulsa.

We drove across the Mississippi River and into Arkansas... and straight on into Oklahoma.

We dropped Tyler off here and headed off to Phil's Aunt Verna's house where we will be hanging out until we head back the same direction we came.

Road Trip Day #2: Getting to Memphis

2010-07-24T22:48:00.001-04:00

Day 2 we added a passenger today. Phil's brother caught a ride back to Oklahoma with us.
Poor guy had no idea what was coming!

Our entire day as spent driving from Concord to Memphis.

We passed through clouds...

and rain...

and the Smoky Mountains...

and traffic and naps and much much more... and finally ended up in Memphis in time to check into our hotel, jump in the pool and crash for the night.

Road Trip Day #1

2010-07-21T20:45:00.000-04:00

Today was the first day of driving. We went down to North Carolina. We'll be leaving Arthur behind here and heading further on our way tomorrow morning. It was a great first day!
I'm pretty sure I forgot 5 or more vitally important things... but I've only realized a couple of them. I think we're doing good!

Got a later start than I intended after I woke up feeling pretty crummy. Some helpful advice from a sister-in-law helped me feel more like my normal self and we got our stuff together and got on the road.

The boys handled the travel very well today! My guess is our last day in the car will be much different!

We stopped off the highway and got ourselves some fresh peaches. Yum!! Those were there tomatoes. I have never seen such big tomatoes!

Then we finally got to our destination! Time for a fun night with cousins and grandparents before heading off on our way tomorrow!

Getting Ready to Go

2010-07-20T10:08:00.000-04:00

The boys and I are heading out on a road trip tomorrow. After the boys made a few comments yesterday about wishing "we could be 4" and missing Daddy I decided to bring "Daddy" along. I found this at Target around Christmas time. It's a Mighty World toy.

It reminded me so much of Phil I bought it for his stocking. I bought another one the other day on sale at Target so we're going to take him with us. The boys are excited! Hopefully we'll get some cute pictures along the way.

Maybe it will feel a little more like Daddy is getting to enjoy the adventure along with us.

Goals and Reading!

2010-07-12T14:51:00.001-04:00

Phil and I are doing our best to raise our boys in a way that is somewhat counter-cultural. I'm sure this is no big surprise after having read so much about us. I think this weekend was the first time I really saw clearly how we are different.
Joshua has been wanting this one game for his DS. We found it for $28 used. It wasn't that long ago that the boys had just saved up their allowance and raided their piggy banks to buy themselves a new game for the Wii so I wasn't real hip on the idea of putting out that much more for this game that only one of them can really play. I told him to save up his allowance again for it but since he only gets $3 a week that would make for a very long wait for a 6 year old. Since I don't want him spending every single penny in his piggy bank he started practically begging to put up a lemonade stand. After talking with Phil about it we decided to go ahead and let him.

We bought lemons and squeezed until we couldn't feel our wrists anymore. We found a recipe and mixed it all up. It was delicious! Sunday after church we set it up. It was sunny and super hot! I hung out with a book in the shade beside the house while Josh sat out by the street... by choice! He wanted to be where the action was! Even Jeremiah helped. They waved at just about every car that went by!

Enough people stopped and bought Josh's lemonade that he was able to go out and buy his game today. We did have to drop the price which brought in more customers but hurt his profit. Phil and I decided that the amount of work he put into this was worth putting in some of the supplies to make it happen for him.

Today I let him play for a little bit. Jeremiah watched over his shoulder. I had no idea how much they'd enjoy this together. Josh is so proud of himself. His first real goal accomplished. He is quite the little businessman!

Jeremiah is making his own improvements as well! The other day he looked up on the counter at the pharmacy and read to me the word, "on." So today we brought out one of our favorite learning tools we got for Joshua, the Bob books.

Today he read his first book! We sounded out the words he couldn't figure out and he did way better than I expected! Looks like both our boys can say they started reading before they were 4 years old!
On a side note, the Bob books are great for very beginning readers! The stories are a little funny if you point that out and the words start out with 3 letters each so they're easy to sound out. We only bought the first set with Joshua because once he started reading he didn't really need much more guidance. He pushed forward on his own and quickly outgrew them. They make several levels so we'll have to see how it goes with Jeremiah.

One Summer Day

2010-07-10T14:58:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was pretty fun! It was cow appreciation day at Chick Fil A. You have to dress like a cow so we used their thing on their website and cut out some cow accessories.

We make pretty good looking cows, no?

Then later we went to a dinosaur storytime at the library. They had a guest speaker from the Virginia Living Museum come talk about dinosaurs and he brought some animals to show around. He did a great job! Josh touched everything he brought (a snake, an opossum, and a skink). Jeremiah shied away at the snake but touched the others.

He was on my lap which made him feel a little braver, I think. Not sure what he was talking about in that picture, but it must have been dinosaur related.
All of these were a perfect way to distract us from the mess going on at home... and the financial burden it will inevitably place on us once we get the final bill.

With all this going on, I'm always on the lookout for some free summer fun!

Legos

2010-07-08T11:06:00.001-04:00

I love legos! The boys love them too. Sometimes I wonder if I love them more than they do. Is that weird?
The last couple days we've been on a build it/make it kick.
The legos have been out, our craft box has been out, my kitchen is a wreck! It's all good inexpensive fun for the summer, though.

The boys both asked me to take a picture so they could show these particular projects to Daddy.

Josh built a sailboat from a project thing in Lego Club Jr magazine that we got for free with some lego pack we got sometime.

Jeremiah's was one he created himself. He was particularly impressed with the propeller in front.
We also all agreed this morning that we miss Daddy quite a bit today. Maybe all this making projects and all is just our way of distracting ourselves. I'm good with whatever works.

Phil Being Awesome

2010-07-06T18:03:00.000-04:00

I thought you'd like to know a bit about what Phil has accomplished this deployment.
Phil earned 2 new ensignias for his uniform. He already had 2 from his first command. They symbolize a specialty in a certain area. He already earned a Surface Warfare Pin (ESWS) and an Air Warfare pin (EAWS) while he was on his first ship. It was an aircraft carrier.

Now he's at a different kind of command and so eligible for different specialist pins. He earned his Boat Captain pin first. It's something he's always wanted but was afraid he wouldn't have the opportunity to get it, so it's pretty cool. In it's metal form it looks like this:

His is the silver one. He couldn't put that one on, though, until he earned his Expeditionary Warfare pin. For this one you have a "board" as well as a test where you're asked a bunch of questions orally. He thought he'd have a few more weeks to study for the board after he passed the test but they surprised him and a couple others by scheduling him for the next day. He passed! I'm so proud of him! Now he gets to wear this one as well:

The picture at the top and below you can see these new patches in their embroidered version on his desert uniform.

I'm so proud of how Phil has been handling this deployment. He's been keeping his chin up and continuing to push himself even in difficult circumstances. I can't wait for him to come home!

Toothbrushes, a Painting and a Quandry

2010-07-05T19:49:00.000-04:00

I need your help. Why is it I have 2 children and 8 toothbrushes in their bathroom?

Like any thrifty Mom would I bought the mulitpack of superhero toothbrushes to last us a while. I put the extras under the kids sink to get when we needed them. Apparently Jeremiah had other plans.
That's not really what I need help with. The painting is dry. I decided to go ahead and hang it even though it still smells some. I'm impatient. Ask Phil. It's a problem. I'm pretty sure I get it from my Mom.

Anyway. I don't know how to hang it!

The boys noticed right away a smile that was completely unintended and now I'm not sure how to put it up there.

Do I turn it and try to hide the fact that it's there or just leave it exposed unabashedly?

What do you think??

Morning in the Country

2010-07-03T21:39:00.000-04:00

This morning we headed out to Pungo again. We had plans to pick blueberries which turned out to be not ripe yet.

We did find more blackberries to pick... and a million dragonflies! They were beautiful in a weird buggy way.

These berries were huge! A mouthful in each berry.

Blackberry pie is on the list for this week. We'll see what else can figure out to make with these ones.

We also stopped by a couple farm stands to get some fresh produce for our meals this weekend. These peaches are delicious!! I bought 4 on a whim. They weren't on the list. I only have 3 more. They're from North Carolina and the boys and I will be driving down there later this month to hang out with family for a while. I might just eat my entire weight in peaches while I'm there.

This is a little farm playhouse they have set up at one of the stands for the kiddos to play in.

They also had this. The Californian in me has to call it a bean bag toss. Sorry rest of the world who calls it something else. I just can't think of what it's really called right now.

Joshua also bought me flowers. They were a buck. I couldn't resist!

In closing, happy 4th of July.
A special thank you to all the military men and their families for the sacrifices made to enable us all to live in such a country. As much as we would all prefer peace, sometimes it's worth it to stir the pot and all the policies and papers in the world could never have won us our freedom by itself.

This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.
~Elmer Davis

Painting

2010-07-02T23:51:00.001-04:00

The boys have always loved to paint. Me? Well, painting makes a lot more work for me. Not a huge fan of mess.
However, I've taken on a project involving painting and I hope it turns out well.

We picked up a couple canvases and a small pack of oil paints the other day.

I was nervous but the boys loved painting. Jeremiah said, "I wish I could do this all day!"

Which of course did not last. About a half hour in he was done and ready to do something else fun.

Because we used oils it will take forever to dry so hopefully it turns out alright when it finally does dry and you'll get to see our final creation. I like it. The boys did a good job. It'll be on our fireplace for a little while at least. We have one more canvas left. Maybe on the next one I'll let them use whatever colors they want. Now that would be a site to see!

Father's Day Tweaked

2010-06-19T20:34:00.000-04:00

Usually on Father's day the boys and I would get up and make something delicious to make Phil eat in bed.

We'd give him gifts and loads of hugs and kisses... tell him how much we love and appreciate him. We'd do something really fun and enjoy our day together.

This year will be different.

Weeks ago we already sent a few little gifts and a card. There will be no fun trips or quality time.

Last night when I started thinking about all that, I decided we'd do something to show Phil that even though this Father's day won't be our normal traditions we still love him and are very proud of what he's doing.

So we took some pictures.

We can't do anything to help take away the heat or the flies or make him a yummy breakfast or give him a fun day but...

Well, hopefully this can at least make the day a bit better with the reminder of how much we love him and how much we're proud of him.

Phillipp, the boys wanted to say something to you for Father's Day,
"Happy Father's Day! We wish you were here to play Super Mario Galaxy 2 because you will be a pro. We miss you so much and we love you sooooooooooooo much!"
Jeremiah would also like to add that he loves his alphabet. He wanted to type it to you.
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

Another Day at the Zoo

2010-06-12T21:52:00.000-04:00

Friday I had plans to have lunch with some friends after Josh got out of school. I had been looking forward to this for a while. Then Friday morning Joshua wakes up with a sore throat. Lunch date broken.
Josh has had no other symptoms but he sore throat still persists. So rather than spend a beautiful day inside we took advantage of our zoo membership. It turned out to be a great day!

They let their peacocks roam and this one has put on a little show for us several times now. The boys love it!

This day we were there in time to watch them feed the elephants. It was neat for the boys to see them picking up the apples and oranges to eat them.

Josh's highlight, though, was the water fountains that were on this time.

Joshua and Jeremiah are very different boys. They approach so many things differently. For example, water. Joshua will jump in whole hog without any concern about whether he will end up soaked or not. He has fun with it then worries about asking questions later.

Jeremiah, on the other hand, is very skeptical about things that aren't in his control. The fountains... not his thing.

He likes things within his control. Ask questions before... and then maybe have some fun after we know it can be trusted.
So... in review...

Jeremiah: safe.

Joshua: wet.

They both have positives and negatives. Hopefully they will learn how to handle these traits of theirs as they get older and use them to their benefit.

Alright I have no real reason for sharing this particular picture other than the fact that I really love the picture. Snakes really creep me out but there's something really neat about them... when they're behind glass... in a place where they could never possibly reach me or hurt me. It's amazing to see Gods' beauty even in the dangerous things.

Blackberries

2010-06-09T21:11:00.000-04:00

Blackberries are in season these days around here so we headed out to bring some home.

Blackberries are some of Phil's favorite berries so yes, we picked some for us, but there is now also a bag of frozen blackberries in the freezer waiting for him as well.

Josh did a great job picking them without hurting himself on the thorns.

What did Jeremiah do? He picked them... and ate them. All of the ones he picked!

He ate every single one!

Josh ate some too... notice the black around the mouth area...

Me? There is no photographic evidence... so I guess you'll just never know.

Riverines in the News

2010-06-08T22:08:00.000-04:00

This isn't Phil specifically but I thought you would enjoy it anyway.

The Pool!!

2010-06-04T22:03:00.000-04:00

Our neighborhood pool is officially open so we took a little trip over there today. I was amazed! Last year Jeremiah couldn't touch anywhere and this year he could walk around the entire shallow end without any help at all! Freedom. Yes!!
I got to really swim by myself for the first time in a long time (with my eye on the boys and not too far out of reach, of course). It was such a relief! Yet... at the same time... the boys are getting so big!

The sun was pretty bright, but I wanted to show Phil just how much taller they've gotten.
Now I really need to get serious about getting them in swimming lessons. Anyone have any ideas??

Everyday Stuff

2010-06-03T18:43:00.000-04:00

The boys' new favorite brain-wasting past time is Mario Brothers. We limit their time playing and all... but even at their tender young ages they're amazing! Both of them have me beat! Joshua was particularly proud at finding out that he had maxed out his lives reserve. Apparently 99 is the highest you can get! Who knew?? Certainly not me. I do know what "continues used" means, that's for sure!

Today we took the crib both boys used as babies back to Walmart because after a little researching I found it had been recalled. With some of the money we got from that we bought a couple little toys. Jeremiah picked out this color changing Hotwheel. It's a little bumblebee.

I know he'd be upset at me saying this (he is, after all a very tough and dangerous guy), but is that not the cutest thing ever??

And we recently located a toy that I can honestly say is what taught Joshua how to read clocks. I can't find a place to buy it anywhere online. We bought it at Target but it was a long time ago. We just brought it out again for Jeremiah to learn with it. Believe it or not, apparently it's still a fun toy for Joshua too!

Williamsburg Again

2010-05-30T22:28:00.000-04:00

This weekend passes to Colonial Williamsburg were free for military again so we took advantage.

The weather was really warm so the boys didn't last long but it was nice to at least get out of the house for a while.

I'm really glad that Williamsburg takes it on themselves to offer these free days twice a year for us. The boys are definitely a bit young to understand all that this gargantuan living museum has to offer. Each time we go they get something new out of it. This time we took the Children's orientation tour and went through a garden maze that they enjoyed.

They also found out that the brickyard had opened today so they helped to make some clay bricks.

This was so much fun! You work the clay with water until it's tough enough to form into bricks and then dry it in the sun. They're later fired to be usable bricks. This was probably the boys' favorite part!

We also found the plantation on property which was really just a little colonial style farm.

This part made the whole trip worth it!

We learned a lot about farming during that time. They have corn, tobacco and cotton planted. We helped look for horn worms on the tobacco plants (I use "helped" loosely here). We learned how vegetables and herbs where used as a homeopathic medicine cabinet. Did you know potatoes have antiseptic properties? Me neither! The woman in this picture told us all about it and even gave the boys some spearmint to take with them from the garden.

Every time we visit we learn something new. It was really nice to have a long weekend to take advantage of this. I'm definitely looking forward to being able to do things like this next year when they will be official field trips.

Buttons

2010-05-28T10:23:00.000-04:00

Jeremiah decided to try and button his own shirt today.

This is not as simple as it might sound...

He did a great job, though! For a first time really trying for it, he did 3 out of his 5 buttons on his own.

And the last 2 buttons on this particular shirt are pretty tough ones.
He was so proud of himself and wanted me to take a picture to show Daddy.

Cold Beaches and Warm Friends

2010-05-28T00:09:00.000-04:00

Today we needed to get out of the house. It was beautiful and warm outside. Where did we go? The beach. Sadly for us the weather turned on our way there and most of the time I spent with our towel wrapped around me trying to stay warm.

The boys didn't seem to care, though. Until they got cold... then we had to leave. No sympathies for cold Moms around here.

We then got to have dinner with some friends and stay out after bedtime. It was definitely worth it! Aren't those kids adorable??

What a Day!

2010-05-27T14:11:00.001-04:00

Yesterday there was another knock at my door. I'm starting to get used to this!
This time it was another super special delivery! I opened the door to a white styrofoam box from Omaha Steaks.

Can a girl get any more spoiled??

Jeremiah couldn't help himself. He opened it right up! We found steaks and chicken and burger and potatoes... and the crowd favorite around here: Hot dogs!!
The person who sent this amazing gift to me I have known my entire life. I miss seeing her quite a bit.
She passed along through my Mom that she had sent this to let me know that she's thinking about me and the sacrifices I am making.
Now here is where I try not to cry (even though you wouldn't see me even if I did). It's so easy to feel like you become invisible during times like this. There are a lot of organizations out there doing what they can to help families back home and that's great. For me, though, it is a whole different animal when someone I know personally recognizes the struggle we're going through as a family.
I'm not sure what else to say other than Thank you, Mary, for this amazing gift. It means so much more than just help with figuring out what's for dinner. I'll be thinking of you every time we eat something you sent... and I can't wait to start because I hear this stuff is delicious! You are amazing!
Oh and P.S.

The dry ice that came in the box was a lot of fun too!

My Presents

2010-05-26T00:07:00.000-04:00

Today I got my anniversary presents from Phil!

I was a little excited...
Can you tell Jeremiah took that picture? He was on a chair... I crouched down. We made it work.
He had also sent me a card a while ago and they all came at once in the mail today like he had planned it that way all along. The card made me cry. He's good at doing that. I think part of him enjoys making me cry.
He sent me the nicest most comfortable sheets I've ever slept in. I think I might just stay right here in bed all week!
Oh... shoot. Boys. That's right.
Well, guess I'll have to get up in the morning anyway.
He also sent me a remote for my camera. Happy day!

Josh helped me try it out.

So did Jeremiah... though not willingly.
He had just woken up from a nap he didn't want to take in the first place. Can't really blame the poor guy for having a Mom who won't stop taking pictures of him.

Mr. Hew and Storytime

2010-05-24T12:49:00.001-04:00

This is Mr. Hew. He teaches a storytime every so often at the library we go to. He's Jeremiah's favorite. He can't wait to see him every week (even though he's pretty shy when it actually starts). Today was Jeremiah's last storytime for the year. It was bittersweet but he was glad to take a picture with Mr. Hew (even getting to wear Mr. Hew's hat!).