Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Matt giving the kids a Aerospace Lesson


















Matt gave the kids a lesson on Rocketry and they made really cool rockets as you can see. :)




















Pictures From Josh's Party and Josh Proposing

Cassie and Josh at RedLobstrer ( The waiters took the pictures of Josh Proposing)
The Sweet Cheesecake the waitress brought out for them


THE Beautiful Ring!



My beautiful Cassie!


The Crowd waiting for Josh to come in to be surprised!



This was taken after he was surprised and after his announcement!!


Josh's dad on the lookout for them to arrive.
Yes I know these are not in correct order. Stupid blogger.














Sunday, March 22, 2009

Monday: We had a great start for the week. I like everyone up on time and the morning chores done before school. Well, I think Ty is going through a growth spurt because he has been getting up later and later. I think it is important to "stick to the schedule" but I just read an article about letting the children sleep until they wake up naturally. I have found that when Ty gets up on his own he is a much better mood and is able to focus better on his schooling. I am all for that, however, I cannot wait until 11 am to get started. We do bible study and morning work together. One day Bre didn't want to wait and had all her school work done before Ty even got out of bed. Now, I know the mainstream educational "experts" would gasp at the idea of letting your child sleep in. :) I have seen the benefits of natural sleep myself, but I do have a limit. Anyhow, Monday morning without any prompting from me, TY woke up around 7:00am. I was one happy mama! I pray that he will make a habit of this. If not I will be howling at 9:30 every morning for him to get up and break his natural sleep. At least he doesn't have to get up at 6am to catch a bus. :)

I was supposed to go to Mom's Night Out with a bunch of fabulous homeschool moms at Panera Bread. But Matt had a job in Ithaca. Next Month, I am NOT missing it, even if I have to walk.



Tuesday: We had another great EARLY start on our day. WooHoo! I started the spaghetti sauce and meatballs in the crockpot before school and prepared the salad and such, so I wouldn't have much to do before the Pastors David and Nicole came over with their family for dinner. (I wrote about that in a previous blog) I am noticing more and more how much Bre enjoys homemaking and hosting. She helped prepare the tables and she truly enjoyed herself.



Wednesday: I gave the kids their morning work on a clip board while I did some laundry. Breanna was still working on it for about an hour after I thought she should have been done. She comes up to me and said she needed a mop. I said, "Why?, what spilled?" She said "my brain, it exploded about a half an hour ago!" Then she turned in her papers. Poor dear did a whole week and a half works of cursive, grammar and spelling! I didn't realize that I had attached that much to her clipboard. Oh, my. :)



Thursday: My friend Mandy had invited us to help make necklaces for Make-A-Wish along with a couple of other homeschool families. Her Daughter Becca, Bre's very good friend has had 5 heart surgeries and has surpassed what the Doctors expected her life expectancy to be. Isn't God AWESOME! Well, Mandy and Becca are still very involved with the Make A Wish Foundation and invited us along to help. We had a great time chatting and making necklaces. We did over 400 in only 2 1/2 hours! We took a tour of the building and did a small walk out to the pond afterwards. My heart goes out to those families that need MAW services. The strength and Faith they have is very inspiring and makes me appreciate all of our blessings and trials that much more.



Friday: Fridays are always crazy busy, however this Friday was the craziest ever. Cassie asked me if she could throw Josh a surprise birthday party here at the house. She said I wouldn't have to do anything. Well, I was already running around like a mad woman, when I got home, she didn't have anything prepared and it was already 4:00. She was taking Josh out to dinner and everyone would be here waiting for them when they got here. (with him blind folded of course) I only had an hour and a half to take a shower and get ready for LOF and pick up a bag of chips for LOF when I realized how much still needed to be done. I told Cassie I would take care of it-Just go! I figured I could skip the shower and still have enough time to go. Well, just after I finished putting the last dish on the food table and positioning the balloons, people already were showing up. I was a bit flustered and wasn't sure what I should do. I didn't want to leave the kids in charge and Matt had a retirement party to attend also. It was one of those days . I had Matt run the chips to Mandy at LOF and decided to stay here and "try" to host the party until Cassie got back. Josh has a LOT of family members. :) The house filled up pretty quickly and I soon forgot that I looked like a disaster. No really, I was up since 6am running around and going to Gym day and everything. It wasn't until I saw a picture on the digital camera, and I was mortified. Oh well. enough about that. I am so happy that I was able to spend some time getting to know Josh's family. They all are very funny and down to earth. Actually, I feel like I have known them my whole life. You ever meet someone like that? His whole family is like that. Cassie called me on their way back here from Red Lobster to let me know they were on their way back (out of ear shot of josh) so everyone scrambled into the Kitchen to yell "Surprise!" I will post pictures soon. After all the hugs and birthday wishes, Josh said he had an announcement to make. I noticed his hands shaking, and I knew! They are officially engaged! So, I guess the surprise was on us!! I though he was going to wait until summer. :) Now, I have to tell you I was a bit woozy and emotional. I know they are great together and will have an awesome Godly marriage. BUT that's my BABY! :) I am happy for them and sad for me. I am being very emotional. Matt is so calm and everyone else seemed to think this is the most perfect thing to happen. I am still a little annoyed with Matt for being so calm about it. :) However, Josh's mom had that same look as I and we both cried:out of happiness and sadness. I immediately felt better. Not at her expense, but because I wasn't just being an emotional basketcase for no reason. Matt said with all his logic, at least she will not be going out into the world or marrying a non christian. Josh is a very nice guy with motivation and I know he will treat her very well. with that said, I am excited for my daughters soon to be (a year)adventure in life. I have posted much to long about my emotional state. Please forgive me. :) This is a new phase in life that I did not think would happen so soon.

Saturday: We had the Garlocks over for dinner. Now, they are gluten,dairy and meat free like so many other of our friends. We have been talking about becoming gluten free for some time because of allergies, IBS and just to be healthier. So I figured this would be a good learning experience for us. I make a mean homemade macaroni and cheese dish. So, I figured I would just substitute the dairy for non-dairy and the noodles with non-gluten noodles. I also made a salad, gluten free banana bread ,organic applesauce and steamed veggies. Well, the Mac and Cheese was HORRIBLE. It tasted like cardboard to say the least. I am so grateful that the Garlocks were very gracious and we just loaded it with salt. We had good laugh over it. Joya gave me some good tips also, for next time. Overall, we had a great time. Jeremy gave Ty drum lessons while the girls played together and Joya and I chatted. They are such a lovely family. It is such a blessing to have so many great christian friends come into our lives. We are going to get together over spring break for some fun!

Sunday: My moms's birhtday!! We went to Church and then straight to my moms. We had a great time over pizza. We left there after a few hours to come home and get ready for the church's 5th year anniversary celebration with the Chris Hopper Band. Whew, it was awesome!! That word doesn't even come close to just how good they are! I had to purchase one of their cd's. I wish I could have gotten them all, but I only had enough cash on me to get one. It was really cool, when he came up to us and said to me "I had my eye on you, you are a true Worshiper of God!!" I was very blessed by that. We had cake and punch and called it a night. I am going to use their Cd for our morning worship. Well, we sure did have a busy week huh? Spring-Fall usually are like this. It feels good after such a long quite winter.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Last Night

Our Pastors came over for dinner last night. I was SO nervous, I'm not sure why, maybe because we never had Pastors over before. Anyway, I had no reason to be nervous, they both are the nicest and most down to earth people I have ever met. We even have the same taste in cheesecake. lol. I bought a fancy cheesecake at walmart and carefully took it off their platter and put it in my super fancy one. Wouldn't you know, Pastor Nicole walks in with the same one!!

They have three children and two of them are the same ages as Ty and Bre. Their youngest son Josiah is a sweetheart that brightens any room that he enters.

We feel so blessed to have had them over and it was nice to get to know them better. Our old church was so large that I honestly never had a conversation with our pastor in all the years that we attended. I now know we made the right decision in leaving. I love that church, but it was time for us to move on. Cassie , Ty and Josh trying out for the worship team Thursday.
That's all for now, we are getting ready to start our day. I was looking online the other day for next years curriculum and had about 15 books in my cart, when I thought " I better do an inventory of what is on my shelves first." The reason I thought that is because I brought home books from the library Friday and found that I already owned two of them!
It turns out that I do not need as much as I thought for next year, I have most everything I need. I do have to get Math for Bre and Literature for Ty. I think I am going to stick with Bob Jones Math for Bre for one more year before I switch her over to Saxon. I also think I am going to sit down one day or two to input all of our curriculum, Literature and games in my homeschool tracker database. I didn't use it much this year, but now I see that if I had taken the time to input my resources I could have saved time and money. If you are interested in Homeschool Tracker here is the link: http://homeschooltracker.com/ I would suggest the free version. I bought the upgrade and I do not see that much difference, however, I suppose it depends on your homeschool needs. I am a huge fan of pen and paper. :) I have a gigantic binder that I use to keep track of all of our forms and lists.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Prayer Request

Please pray for the Fried Family. Their son died suddenly last week at the age of 17. He was a much loved and likable young man that also helped his parents with their business. They have been clients of Matt's for years and our hearts go out to them. This scripture comes to mind: The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. (Psalm 34:18)
Please pray for peace and comfort for the entire Fried family and all the friends that were blessed to know Justin.

Monday, March 16, 2009


Monday: lemon Pepper Chicken, Mixed Veggies (steamed) Mandarin Oranges

Tuesday: Spaghetti, salad, Italian Bread with Garlic and Banana Creme Pie

Wednesday: Grilled Cheese and tomato soup with Shaved Cheddar Cheese (easy Night-Church/CAP)

Thursday: Homemade Mac and Cheese, applesauce and carrots

Friday: Make your own Pizza Night ( Matt and I have a retirement party to go to)


Saturday: Ham and Swiss Melts, Steak Fries and fruit

Sunday: Chicken Alfredo w/ Broccoli, hot dinner roles and fresh pineapple




Our Week at a Glance March 9-15


Monday:Finished up Civil War Unit. Tylor and Breanna were able to delineate The Civil War with ease. If they were unable to give such details in their writing and narratives I would have included one or two more resources. I am finding more and more that they do much better and retain much more with unit studies versus textbook. I still use their textbooks as a resource, just not as a whole.

Tuesday: Nice and Normal school day.

Wednesday: Started out Egyptian Unit. Completed all lessons around 3:00 with a long break for lunch. Ty and Matt had CAP.

Thursday: Another great school day. We went to Church for a healing conference.

Friday: Chiropractor, shopping, library and Gym day. It was nice to sit and chat with Becky (Finally!) in the nursery. Matt and I went out to Red Lobster and watched Frost/Nixon.

Saturday: Cass and Ty went with Josh to visit his family in the country. They played paintball and went four-wheeling. Bre played outside with her friends all day while I happily did some cleaning. Matt gave his commencement speech for the current ITT Grads! He did a great job. I will post the video when I get a chance. (yes, of course I tapped it!)

Sunday: Matt had a CAP class in Rochester so we missed church. Cass took Bre out to lunch and shopping and then dropped her off at her friend's birthday party. Ty and I did some yard work and cleaned off the deck. I let Ty for the first time in his life ride his bike to the gas station for some goodies. This was a big step for me because he has to cross over a Major intersection. See, I am really working on letting go a bit. He is after all 14, almost 15. They grow up SO fast! I am planning Breanna's 10th birthday for next month. Last year she had her party at the Bowling Place. This year she wants it at home. Fine with Me! She wants a horse theme. She is very into Horses and Zebras. Should be Fun!

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Our Week at a Glance


Monday: Normal school routine. Bre is getting very good at drawing Zebra's. I will post pictures soon. She flew through her lessons so she could spend time drawing wild life. Monday's are difficult for Ty to get back into routine, however, he completed all of his assignment independently with a few math exceptions.

Tuesday: Normal School Routine, nothing really to blog about. We are almost finished with our Civil War Unit, we should be done by the end of next week. Tylor whizzed through his lessons like he usually does Tues.-Friday. :) Bre put on a talent show and I almost peed my pants it was so funny.

Wednesday:We finished school around 2:30. Ty had Civil Air Patrol.

Thursday: We finished school around 1:30, went shopping and did some errands. Ty had Youth. Played Clue with Bre like 150 times. She loves that game.

Friday: Chiropractor, half day of school (just the basics) Gym: the kids are doing Basketball and Karate right now. I think next week is the end of the 6 week session before they begin Cardio and something else. I will have to look in the program because I cannot remember for the life of me at the moment. We finished our running around with the Library.
There you have it, a very quite and productive week. I remember the days of complete chaos. You know, school in the van while we cart the kids to one activity or sporting practice to the next.
Spring is in the air, so I am anticipating some more busyness. That's ok, as long as we have a season of rest. and we all aren't stressed out. I now know the signs of too much craziness and will put a halt to it immediately if need be. :)

Saturday: I plan on Cleaning and shopping. Bre is having a friend over to watch the new iCarly program. Ty is going to the mall with friends.Matt is doing a radio class with CAP and Cassie will be going to a Birthday Party for Josh's mom.


Sunday: Church and The Pastor and his family are coming over for diner.


I also want to include Cassie in our weekly updates, it is just that she is not here during the day. She is so busy between school work and nannying that we only get to see her a few hours a day. We stayed up late one night just catching up. Josh came over Thursday to hang out and had a nice chat with him also.

This Weeks Library List

  • American Story by Jennifer Armstrong
  • DK Civil War
  • I Have Asthma (Barrons)
  • Everything Bird by Cherie Winner

DVD's

  • Spanish-Standard Deviants
  • Inside Hurricane Katrina
  • Signing Time (sign Language) Bre is getting pretty good at this.
  • DK Eyewitness Skeleton (In keeping with the health program)

I use Power Media Plus for Tylor regarding educational videos. There are literally hundreds of great videos for every subject. In most cases, there are lesson plans, tests, and worksheets you can print out to go with the video. Bre uses this also, I was mentioning Ty because the library doesn't have many educational titles for his grade level.

Fun DVD's

  • The Bucket List
  • Nims Island
  • Disney's Little House on the Prairie

Bre and Ty both also checked out independent books to read on their own.

Old Pictures
















Matt scanned some old family pictures, so I thought I would share them. It is fun to look back and remember those times. I still cannot believe how young we were when we got married. Our oldest is older than we were, and we still see her as our baby! I have always desired to be a mom and a teacher. How awesome is God that he gave me the grace to be a Homeschool Mom? I am so happy with my life, my husband and my children that I could not even imagine any other lifestyle. I believe that motherhood is the most important "career" a woman could ever be so blessed to have. Times were not always easy peasy and I remember when Matt had three jobs and went to school while I was being tutored at home because morning(more like 24 hour) sickness made me too ill to go tot school. I remember our little apartment and I remember eating peanut butter out of a jar because we didn't have enough grocery money. God's best plan for us? Maybe not, but he sure did make it our best. Matt joined the Army soon after Cassie was born and has worked hard ever since to provide for our family and I have worked hard making our home a loving, fun and relaxing home. I take my life as a mom and wife seriously. I am not a microwave mom, I do not send my kids to school so someone else can "deal" with them. I am not in any way judging moms that need to work out side of home. It just burns me up when someone says to me..."you could have been... (fill in the blank)" I say that I am exactly as God has designed me to be and I am very happy as well as my husband and children! I couldn't ask for more and count my blessing each and every day. Somehow, my idea of a happy, cheerful, walk down memory lane blog entry turned into a rant so I am going to close here with a few pictures from the past. :)

Monday, March 2, 2009

Sooo...What exactly is CIVIL AIR PATROL anyway?

What is Civil Air Patrol?
Civil Air Patrol is a non-profit volunteer organization for people ages 12 and up. It consists of three primary missions: Cadet Programs, Aerospace Education, and Emergency Services. CAP currently has 64,000 members, over 27,000 of those being cadets. Civil Air Patrol offers hundreds of opportunities that cannot be found anywhere else.
What are the Cadet Programs?
CAPs cadet program has more than 27,000 members, ages 12 to 21. The cadet programs are credited with teaching the importance of personal integrity, accountability, self-discipline, and respect for others to the nation's youth. The cadet programs offer an immense amount of resources and activities for your children. Our goal is to instill integrity, teamwork, self-discipline, respect, initiative, and responsibility while building leadership and self-confidence in the cadets. Some of the activities offered includes the National Flight Academy (your child could solo in two weeks for less than half the price of taking flying lessons anywhere else), Cadet Officer School (the top minds in leadership, strategic/critical/creative thinking, speaking/writing, and many other fields speak and teach here; if the course provided was taken anywhere outside of CAP, it would easily add up into the tens of thousands of dollars), and the International Air Cadet Exchange (cadets 17 years of age or older can apply for this activity and be selected to travel to different countries and act as ambassadors). These are but three of the many activities provided through the CAP cadet programs. The things your child could learn and accomplish in the cadet programs are simply amazing.
Why should my child be a part of the cadet programs?
CAP offers a vast amount of resources for the youth of today. Senior members work alongside the cadets, ensuring that they learning the valuable skills necessary to become a leader in today's world. Experienced cadets who are familiar with the program are there to assist the cadets in anyway they need, building in them the values and skills they learned as younger cadets, while building their own leadership skills through practice. Through CAP's cadet program your child will learn what it takes to be a dynamic and influential leader.
Where can I find a squadron near me?
The CAP National Headquarters website offers a unit locator. Select your state from the list provided or enter your zip code and it will give your the location, meeting time, and contact information. http://cap.gov/join/unitlocator.html
The Civil Air Patrol cadet programs offer resources, activities, and opportunities that cannot be found anywhere else. It's an amazing program for anyone to participate in. I highly recommend that you check out your local unit and see if the program is right for your son or daughter. You might even be interested in joining as a senior member, you never know!

I got this article from www.donnayoung.org You might want to stop by her site because she has TONS of homeschool printables!

Want to Know my Hubby?

I get tagged and emailed a ton of those survey thingys. I usually do not post them because they are about me, I like the following one because it's not. It's about my hubs. How Fun!

1. He's sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen?
History Channel or Hereos.
2. You're out to eat; what kind of dressing does he get on his salad?
Blue Cheese
3. What's one food he doesn't like?
He doesn't care for mushrooms. He HATES boxed dinners like hamburger helper. I made this once when we were first married and promised never to make it again. :)
4. Where did he go to high school?
The same school as me.
5.What size shoe does he wear?
12-13
6. If he was to collect anything, what would it be?
He collects Mallory Hats and anything to do with his heritage.
8. What is his favorite type of sandwich?
Ham and Swiss Cheese Melt with Waasabi
9. What would he eat every day if he could?
Pineapple pizza. He variety though.
10. What is his favortite cereal?
Cinammon Life
11.What would he never wear?
Flip Flops
12. What is his favorite sports team?
Yankees
14. Who is his best friend?
Me. :)
15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn't do?
Let food spoil in the fridge. Which is funny because he doesn't like leftovers.
16. How many states has he lived in?
Three.
17. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what would it be?
Most any cake
19. Did he play sports in high school?
Wrestling and Baseball
20. What could he spend hours doing? Surfing geeky techy stuff on the web. He now also has his HAM Radio Licence and has a new amaetur radio. So we will see...
21.What's something cool about him?
He is totally smart and outgoing. He can fit in any crowd comfortably. He's also hopelessly devoted to our family. That's pretty cool!