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!

September Already!

Let's see, Thursday while at the library, I saw a homeschool newsletter for the Treasure Valley area. So when we got home I emailed the contact lady. I'm now on the mailing list, so maybe we can find some activities with other homeschoolers to do. :) She also told me Friday morning, that it was Homeschool day at the Discovery Center of Idaho. We could all get in for $2.50 each. Paul was off for the long weekend, so we headed out there since it isn't far. It was very neat. There weren't alot of people(I suspect because of the holiday weekend), and we were able to move around to all the exhibits easily. There were so many hands on things to do. We sat through a demonstration on liquid nitrogen. That was very cool! Afterwards we walked across a little bridge and into a park that connects to the zoo. We didn't do the zoo, but the park was neat. There was a paddle boat rental place that we are going to try and go back to. We didn't have time to do it then.

Saturday, was very warm and we spent the day running errands(that we should have done on friday!) and cleaning house. Sunday, we overslept, Paul says he hit the snooze button a couple of times and I don't even remember hearing it. Yikes. We would have had to rush to get to the one we wanted to visit and then decided since it was a holiday weekend, we'd just wait until next Sunday. I will set my alarm as well! So we did yard work and such. Paul's brother and family drove up after their evening church service.

Monday, we all got up and after breakfast went to finish some school shopping my SIL wanted to do. We got home just in time for Paul's dad and stepmom, sister and niece and nephew to arrive. We bbq'd a huge lunch, sat and talked, walked around the mall, hit the 50% off sale at the thrift store, came back for pie and ice cream and surprised Grandma with singing and bday presents. Her bday was last wednesday and she was very surprised! I think she liked having all her grandchildren together as well! Everyone left for home monday evening since there was school/work the next day.

Today(tuesday) was our first day on our full school schedule. The kids did pretty well. Jacob has alot more writing with 7th grade. But he did very well and was determined to get it done. He also got to do a science experiment, which is always fun. Abby struggled a bit with sitting still long enough to get through everything, but she did do it. Paul started his first 10 hour workday today. We are excited to have him home for 3 day weekends every week!

There was finally some chatter on a local homeschool list I found. We are set to meet for a park day on Friday. Jacob is especially excited as there are at least 2 boys his age that are supposed to be there. Yay! He really wants to make some friends here.

Well, I have pics to post, so I will end this and try to get them to upload.

Be blessed!