Various pics

Jacob with cotton and cotton seeds from his Civil War Times class at co op.

Okay, these pics are in the wrong order, but here is the result of his chemical reaction experiment. The kids thought this was the coolest thing! LOL

Before the baking soda was dumped in the bottle.

Hiding from the sun, playing his video game while at Abby's soccer game. LOL

Run Abby Run! They won 7-3!

A picture of Emmett, Idaho from a lookout point. It's beautiful out there! We were looking for a particular orchard for a field trip, but never did find it. :( So we stopped at the outdoor market and still brought home some apples!

My exciting $24 clearance purchase at Sears. A polo shirt for Paul, three tops and two skirts for me! Yipppeeee! $186 dollars worth regular price!

Daddy has joined Webkinz world LOL! He said he never would unless they made an Eagle! heehee!

Things are going well here. We are in full Fall activity schedule. The kids started their co op last week and enjoyed it. We are meeting people finally. Settled into a church.

Be Blessed!

A Week?

Ack! I can't believe a whole week has flown by. I guess I haven't had too much news to report. LOL I did get to go to my first parent meeting for the local homeschool support group. It was very different from the one in Washington(which I miss greatly!). But it was still very nice. It is a Christian group, I had to sign a statement of faith, which was very good to read. I was nervous going in, but picked up my name tag, made my way to a table, asked if the seat was taken(it was not) sat down and started talking. LOL I met a few very nice ladies, one has just recently started homeschooling her daughter who is Abby's age, one is starting this fall with her 5 year old son, and one has 5 children, 7 years down to two months. So there is a great variety of women. There must have been at least 100 women there if not more! There was prayer, a great devotional, and then announcements. Usually there is a speaker, but since it was the first meeting of the new school year, there was not one and it was more talking about the year to come and activities, co op and things like that. We did sign up for co op. I let the kids choose their classes this time around. Since we do academics at home, I didn't make them choose any of those. They will both take a drawing class together the first hour and then Abby will be in choir and Jacob will be taking a Civil War History class. I was surprised at first that he chose that, and he was adamant that was what he wanted. Guess the subject came up in his reading recently and he wants to learn more. We have our first class tomorrow morning.

We had severe thunderstorms roll in last friday night and saturday, so soccer games were cancelled. I can't remember what else we did on the weekend. Mostly just stayed around the house. No bike ride because of the weather.

We've just been humming along doing our normal day to day things. Jacob had Boy Scouts last night and checked off a few more requirements for his Tenderfoot rank. He came home filthy though. Seems they ended the meeting with a rousing game of elbow tag, which he had never played before, and deemed the most fun ever. LOL Abby and I read more of Beautiful Girlhood while they were gone and then watched Biggest Loser.

Well, not much else to tell. We've got to leave for soccer practice in a few minutes, so I will close for now. Hope everyone is having a great week.

Be Blessed!

Just some pics

Jacob ready for his first scout meeting with his new troop! He had a fun time and actually came home talking all about it. Those that know him well, know he is a boy of few words usually. So that was kind of neat. Paul said it was a very welcoming group of boys and they really went out of their way to include him. :) BTW, if you want some popcorn let me know. He's gung ho about selling a bunch, and of course we hardly know anyone here yet! There's a way to order online and I can figure it out if you're interested!

Abby's birdhouses for a science project, except we can't seem to catch when the birds are eating! LOL I think they are eating in the cover of night! LOL Paul thinks because it's still so warm here(high 80's) they can find bugs easily and will find the bird seed when it gets cooler. We'll see!

Be blessed!

Bicycles and More

Jacob spent the day dodging the camera. Only pic I have of him and I think Abby might have took it. I think he's just tying his shoe! LOL

What did we do this afternoon? Six mile bike ride along the river! Yes I did it! I need to get in shape and I showed up at the truck about 20 minutes after the rest of the family....but I finished. I know it's not a flattering picture, but it will spur me on to keep going. Paul promised the kids at least once a week until the weather turns bad!

Abby wanted me to post this picture. The PROPER way to drink a slurpee. LOL (Though notice the lid is OFF!) LOL

Abby's been working on this painting for a few days and finally finished. Horses are her new obsession.

We started the day bright and early with soccer pictures and a game. Abby's team won 9-4! We were home for lunch and then off for our bike ride. I'm wore out, the kids are still full of energy.....

Just thought I'd share some pics.

Be blessed!

Gas

My 8/13 post shows me excited about gas for $3.86 a gallon. Today we filled up for $3.64 a gallon! Though I've been reading it's going back up in some places because of Hurricane Ike. What is it in your neighborhood?

Be blessed!

Zoo

Jacob and Abby atop the giraffe slide.

Abby the turtle! LOL

Jacob and daddy working on a model after dinner.

We are really liking these 4 day work weeks! Today after a math lesson and spelling tests, we headed out to the zoo. It's much smaller than Woodland Park, but still very nice. They had the African Savannah area closed off for construction, so we will have to head back next month when it opens up. We were able to buy a family membership for the price it would cost us to go to Woodland Park zoo one time! It's easy to find, so as Abby advances through her science this year we'll probably trek over to study the current animal :) It also looks like they offer some neat things throughout the year.

We went to the library next. I was excited to pick up some books for history. They came from all over the state and only took a few days. NICE!

Hope your friday was a good day.

Be blessed!

Inside pics FINALLY!

This is our master bedroom from the doorway. If you go to the left you run into the bathroom and closet.

One view of our walkin closet.

And another view of the walk in closet.

Here is the master bath. To the right is a linen closet(there is another one in the hallway!). To the left is the closet, all the way down to the shower/tub go left and it's a little room with the toilet and a door!

This is the laundry room, with a door to the garage.

This is the kids' bathroom.

Jacob's room, the closet is around to the right.

Abby's room with her window seat!

A view of the living room with the fireplace. This is the view you would have coming in the front door, looking straight ahead. When you come in the door, to the left is a coat closet, to the right is the den/schoolroom, and then the kitchen.

Here is a view of the left side of the living room. To the left of the curio hutch is the hallway to the bedrooms.

Dining area. Looking from the kitchen. To the right is the sliding glass door to the patio and back yard.

Kitchen. Excuse the dirty dishes in the sink! The door on the right is my pantry. It's huge!

Shelves full of books, curriculum and supplies.

Jacob's desk. The windows face the front yard. I'm not too sure I like these curtains, but they'll do for now.

My desk on the left, Abby's is on the right. She's right next to me, to help keep the dawdling to a minimum! LOL. The couch we sit on to read and such is on the left.

There you have pics of the inside of our house. It's 1600 square feet, much smaller than the last house, but we really like the size. It makes us really think before buying anything too! Paul and I say we want to buy one just like it, but with one extra room that can be a guest room. His brother and family have been up to visit a few times and always end up on the floor :( Well, that's enough for this post. Good night.

Be blessed!

Remembering

Today the kids were full of questions about 9/11. They are too young to remember it at all. So we talked about what happened, what has happened since then and so forth. They both had a hard time grasping how anyone could be evil enough to do such a thing. As a mom, it was hard seeing them realize how bad people can be. :( They both asked what I remember, what were they doing? I remember Paul was up getting ready for work and the phone rang. It was his mom telling him to turn on the tv. I had heard the phone and got up, he motioned at me to turn on the tv. I never in my life imagined that I would be watching what I watched. The plane going into the building. Breaking news, after breaking news. Was it real? Was it a horrible hoax? Then realizing it was real. Paul went into work. I didn't see him until two days later. They put the whole reserve center in lockdown. For months afterward, they had round the clock security, he brought home alot of overtime pay, but it was bittersweet. We would rather have not had to do what they had to do, because of what happened. I remember vaguely turning the tv to kids programming and going about getting Jacob ready for his day at kindergarten. One of the ladies in our condo complex was tying black ribbons around all the lamp posts, Jacob wondered why as we walked to the bus stop. I was really afraid to send him to school that day, but Paul said go about the day as usual. I remember that evening there was a candlelight vigil out on the basketball court that was outside our back door. Because Paul was not home, I could not participate, the kids were in bed, so I watched out the sliding door. I couldn't believe the number of people who came out to pray, and sing, and be just quiet in the darkness and candle light. I remember phone call after phone call asking if Paul would be sent to "war". I remember feeling scared and hopeful at the same time. It took along time to feel normal again, yet normal was somehow different. It was hard to put it all into words for the kids today. They wrote out prayers for their journal. They prayed for the families that lost loved ones 7 years ago. I think they were concerned, but not totally understanding. I hope they never have to understand to that magnitude ever.

There was alot of red, white and blue out today as we ran a couple of errands. The flags were at half mast when we drove by the neighborhood school and spurred quite the conversation. It was a good conversation, yet sad at the same time.

We remember those who lost their lives, those who forever had their lives changed. We pray that they have Jesus in their lives, the Comforter of all comforters.

Be blessed!

Ancient maps and banana bread

Abby asked to bake something today. We had bananas I was going to smash and freeze because they were overripe. So she made a loaf of banana bread. Here she is mashing the bananas.

And here she is with her first homemade loaf of banana bread. It was very good, a little lumpy in the bananas but still good. She did everything, except pour the batter in the pan(the glass mixing bowl was too heavy) and pull it out of the oven. Go Abby!

Today in history we made ancient maps of Greece. First we marked our maps with the important landmarks and such. Then we crumpled them and soaked them in tea. Then we spread them out to dry.

We tried to burn the edges, but the lighter and wind were not cooperating with us. So daddy came to the rescue when he got home from work!

Their finished maps. They are now in page protectors and filed into their history notebooks. It was a day full of fun school :)

Be blessed!

She Wins!

This one she booted the ball. She was stunned for a moment how far it went. LOL

She played right forward most of the game. She had two goal assists, and she tried for one and just missed it. She played AWESOME!

It was hot and the game was moving. She did alot of running! They won 4-2. I can't say their team name cause it really narrows our location down. If you'd like to know, just email or call me :)

Friday we went to the park and met up with two homeschool families I had met online. They both have boys Jacob's age. He had a blast playing with them, the park was cool too, and had quite a few features that were interesting for older kids, like some huge climbing rocks. They were really good about letting Abby hang out with them a bit as well. Though she had fun helping with some of the younger siblings of the families on the playground as well. One of the boys brought some of his Lacrosse gear and tried to teach the boys....I'm bummed I forgot to grab the camera.

Saturday morning, Jacob and Paul headed out to a meeting for First Lego League. We are waiting on some more info before we decide if they do it. Need to know it won't happen at the same time as boy scouts. One of the boys at the park is on the team.

We then headed out to Abby's first soccer game of the season. They played really well and came together great as a team. They had scrimmaged at practice this last week and played well then too. This is a rec league and the teams are pretty random, I think only two of the girls actually knew each other before soccer. Some really nice girls she gets to play with, and she has a really nice coach, who really knows what he is doing. That's always a good thing!

After soccer, we headed home so Abby could clean up. Then headed out to the mall to go to the bookstore, both kids earned new books, so we had to go fulfill that. Then daddy suggested going to Olive Garden. It's never ending pasta bowl time and it was yummmy! LOL

Sunday morning we headed to the church we were going to go to last sunday. When we drove up, the outside was not what we expected. The website gives off the vibe that it is a huge church. This was a very old, city church. They call themselves an inner city church. But don't judge the book by it's cover. The people inside were awesome. I don't think I have ever been in a church where just about every single person comes up to you and introduces themselves, welcomes you, and so on. I think we met everybody there, and there were alot of people. They are all very nice. Of course, again, there was a special speaker(LOL, one of these times we'll actually hear the preacher of the church!)who was very, very good. I think it may be the church we attend. There was one more we wanted to check out though, so we'll see.

The rest of sunday was spent doing things around the house, I went grocery shopping and then worked on lesson plans(we're set through October!).

Be blessed!

Science, Soccer and Smoothies

Ooops! She caught me taking pictures of her at practice.............

Kicking the soccer ball(not the one in the picture)!

Recording his results for his lab notebook.

Atoms in motion experiment. I even let him boil the water. And he went and put the goggles on without me asking him to. "Since the book said to wear them mom" LOL

Abby made smoothies! She liked using the blender. LOL Of course I didn't think to grab the camera until the product was finished!

First science experiment of 7th grade. He did not want to wear the goggles and he didn't want his picture taken. LOL

Not much else to write about. Just thought I'd share some pictures from the last few days :)

Be blessed!

Pictures!

Grandma's surprise birthday!

All of the "F" family cousins in our backyard! (notice Jacob's new hair cut!)

There were lots of bicycle exhibits. Jacob said he'd have to bring Grandpa Jim back here.

She didn't realized Mr. Bones was there at first. He startled her! LOL

It took some doing to get him to try this. Looked to much like a "carnival ride" to him. But once he did it, he liked it! LOL

This seat was hooked to a pulley and you pulled yourself up and down.

Look what Paul bought me at the fair! I've been wanting these forever :)

Be blessed!