Sticker Shock

I ran to the store for a few items the other day. While I was there I had the realization that school was getting out and I have to feed my kids lunch everyday from here on out. $300 later....Goodbye grocery budget.

My heart goes out to my homeschooling friends who do that year-round.... I really like the fact that mine eat lunch at school and it's one less meal to cook and one less set of dishes to do. How spoiled I am!

Wedding Cake

Decorating cakes is a little hobby I have. Recently it came in very handy. One of the boys needed a little reading tutoring; one of our friends from church is an awesome tutor. Her daughter was getting married. We swapped a semester of tutoring for a wedding cake. We improved our reading comprehension by 2 1/2 grade levels in a semester and they got just the cake the bride wanted. Her cake was my 5th wedding cake; it was set up on the covered back of a grand piano.

Blogging angst....

I think the previous post took me an hour and 3 years off the end of my life. Just a few rants... I mean questions...

Why is it that the formatting/spacing looks one way when you are putting the post together and completely different when it actually posts so you have to change it 3 times to get the spacing and stuff to not look like blindfolded monkeys actually did it?

And why is it that when you upload a picture... it always puts the picture at the top and puts like 5 extra lines at random places all over the post... so that everytime you put in a picture you have to move it... and double check and redo all the spacing in the whole post or it would be 20 pages long??

Anyone have any tips?

A Fun Tradition & Updates

A Fun Tradition...

Because I have all boys, I save a lot of money on haircuts with some very basic "buzzing" skills and a decent set of clippers. They all get buzzed every summer and sometimes in between. Something that has become a tradition is the "Last-Day-Of-School Mohawk." Today, being the last day of school, 3 of them got designer mohawks.

As my cute boys....

And as "My Homeboys"

Rob, at 14, is aparently too old for this nonsense. Translates to: Some girl told him he should let his hair get a little longer cuz it would be cuter... UGH! Oh, and Jake doesn't really have his ear pierced. It's magnetic; a flashing duck mascot from the baseball game they went to last night.






Update #1: Treehouse



View from the outside, the floor is 9' off the ground. They climb up to the top of that ladder and heft themselves up inside. We have become one of the most popular places in the neighborhood for boys... and we have alotta boys around here.

Views from the inside,

complete with carpet and quite a nice roof.
and ... Yes, Alex & Jake have already slept out in it.



Update #2: "Happy Wife, Happy Life"

And Round #1 of the Paint Wars goes to Cassie, because (as my wise husband says) "Happy Wife, Happy Life." So my living room is becoming blue. That is Blue... not another shade of not-quite-white that maybe kinda looks a little blue-ish in the right light... but blue... that looks BLUE! It took a year of patience, non-nagging patience by-the-way... but I got my way.


Maybe patience really is a virtue...
hmmm... who knew!?

It's Official!

Final grades are in and I officially graduated with a 4.0 GPA. WooHoo!!!!

(Thanks, Mr. Biochem-Professor-Man for grading on a curve!)

Helloooooo Summer... Vacation?

Ahhhhhh!!

School is officially over for me for the summer, and possibly for a year. I have decided to wait on School A. I am on a waiting list for an Associate Degree Nursing program and it looks like I will be waiting until fall 2010. I am often amazed at the ease of the decision-making process when you stop worrying and just listen to what God tells you. Mine was a gentle reminder of my priorities.

I was lying in bed one morning, savoring the quiet before the daily storm, when I remembered why I do well in school. I do well because I keep my priorities in line with what God wants for me. Or I try to anyway. My family committments and my jobs from Him come first, and I do what I can with school (God blesses me with good recall for tests). I know many people who spend more time studying than I do, without the same grades to show. I know I do not do it by myself. Why would I want to mess up such a good system to be in a hurry?

So, I have the summer off. HA HA HA

Before the boys get out of school, I am cleaning my house thoroughly, moving kids bedroom arrangements around, making a wedding cake, starting VBS planning, and cleaning some more. After they get out, the boys have 6 weeks of M-F morning activities like tennis, T-ball, and swimming lessons. I'm hoping to get some painting done in my house (still). and Bigfoot is hoping to get a summer job now that he is 14.

The "camp" season starts in the midst of this with VBS at the end of June, then a youth retreat and kids camp in the middle of July, all of which I coordinate. Family Camp is in the beginning of August. I teach a kids class for the week, make desserts for dinner (for 50-60 people) every night, and am responsible for planning (aka delegating) some of the afternoon and evening activities.

Sometime in there I need to test for my CNA certification so I can get a job after Family Camp and work through the school year I am waiting through.

I am going to try to find some time to read a couple Jodi Picoult novels and sit by the pool a little, but I ask you, my fellow moms.... is summer really a vacation?

oh and

PS... I did graduate, but my final grades are not in yet. I'm really hoping my biochemistry teacher grades on a curve.

Now off to clean!!!!

School...

Please pardon me as I am entering that wonderful season called "Finals!" The time loved and hated by college students everywhere. Loved because it means you are almost done! And hated because... well that one is kind of self-explanatory I think. So please excuse my sad lack of posts for the next couple weeks while I study and try not to fall off my academic pedestal.

The good news is that I get to graduate! OK... so it's only an Associates of Arts & Sciences and really means absolutely nothing in terms of money-making potential, and I still have 2 more years of school to get my nursing degree......
BUT! ... it means I finished something!!!! Yeah!

On that note...

I have recently started that application process for a different nursing program than the one I originally planned. The "Plan A" school has me wait-listed and it doesn't look like I'm going to get in this fall as I had anticipated.

So, enter "Plan B." I was kind of wishy-washy about Plan B, but it became very clear to me that I needed to do the leg-work and let God work everything else, so here I go on the merry-go-round of application & waiting... again. Plan B school has different deadlines and it may be possible that I get in to and start a nursing program this summer ... like 2 months from now. Unfortunately, I won't know if I get in or what my schedule will be until the latter part of June and the program starts in July. I hate being in limbo.

But... God has a sense of humor. He knows I hate being in limbo, so he seems to put a lot of it in my life. I think I am supposed to be learning patience or something. Apparently, I am not doing a very good job.

In the mean time, I am trying to plan summer activities for my kids, church kid and youth camps, etc. not even knowing what my own schedule is going to be.... UGH!

Deep Cleansing Breath...

In-Through-The-Nose.... Out-Through-The-Mouth....AHHHH....

But God knows... and He will work it out...

(He better cuz I sure can't!)