Doesn't feel like January...

...at least not weather wise. It's rainy. And while it's not necessarily warm, it's warmer than it should be this time of year. We have had a little bit of cooler winter weather, but not much. Going from warmish to coldish and back, makes for some stuffy wee ones (and a stuffy mommy!).

This week was full on "blarg." It was the first week of filing with the IRS, so there are always kinks to work out. I ended up working more than I hoped. I mostly whined all week, lol, but now that it's Sunday, I can step back and say that I'm looking forward to a paycheck with overtime. :D

This weekend Bailey participated in a Klondike Derby with his Scout troop. I'm guessing since this event is scheduled in January, involves a sled and is called "Klondike," that it would be best if we had snow. Since that rarely happens in these parts, we were lucky enough to have rain. Which means we had mud. Lots of mud. But the boys had a great time. They were cold and wet all day, but they did a great job. There are competitions throughout the day, all wrapped up with a "Great Sled Race."

Look! Pictures! Thanks to the hubs...

Soaking wet ALL day, lol.

The boys, pulling their sled like little dog sled doggies. :D

Tracy's dad helped the boys make their sled and it was AWESOME! I know Tracy sent me a photo of just the sled, but I can't find it. I will get her to send it to me again and I will add it. It really was an incredible sled.

**Updated...here is the photo from Tracy:

It eventually was varnished (I think that's the right word, lol), had wheels and lots of other extras. But you can see the wonderful workmanship of the sled.

In all of the competitions, their troop received 1st place in Nitro Carry (I have NO idea what this is, but all the boys came home in one piece, so it's all good, lol) and 2nd place in First Aid. They were doing really well in the race too, but at one point in the race, a boy from one of the other troops fell and got ran over by his sled. It was apparently pretty bad, with EMTs needed. But our troop stopped to offer help. For this, they received a Presidential Award of Merit! Everyone is SO SO proud of them. Even without the award, knowing that stopping would blow any chance they had to place in the race, they still stopped and did what needed to be done. Definitely worth bragging about! ;)

I didn't get to go the Derby because I had to work, but I guess if I try to find the silver lining in missing it, I'm glad I wasn't out in the chilly muck all day. We didn't want Braeden out in that either, so he spent the day at the office with me. He did well, but even with his gadgets he brought, nine hours is a looooong time for me, much less a 7 yo, to be stuck in an office. He had a few moments of "Please, PLEASE find me something to do!" Tracy and I let him shred a lot paperwork...cause shredders are cool. He would look over the papers and find the words he could read before loading them into the shredder. Fortunately, we are still working on his reading comprehension, lol, so even though there were several words he could sound out, there wasn't an understanding there. Not that he would have seen anything bad, I'm just glad I didn't have to spend the whole day explaining tax stuff to him.

**Another update...at one point Braeden also got to Facetime with Tracy's niece in CT. We all love her, and it was a special treat for him to be able to do this. :)

Big fans of iGadgets... :D

Today is our family day. It's still chilly and icky out, so we are about to go grab a few groceries then head home to have a movie marathon, all cuddled up on the couch. This week will probably be the same as last week, as far as the working and whining and working goes. :D The boys will continue on with school. Braeden is spending a lot of time on one of our online games sites, which is fine with me because that means that the hubs isn't struggling with him. Bailey is finally going to start one of the homeschool writing courses we have been wanting him to take. I have to sign him up tomorrow. Walter went through and decided this morning which course he thought would be the best for him to start with, and we are all excited (even Bailey!) to see how this addition to his school day works out.

Alrighty, that's all for now. I hope everyone has a great week!

Every Day I'm Shufflin'...

That silly song is stuck in my head right now. It's not in my preferred genre of music, but I hear and it sticks around forever, lol...

This week was good. Busy, but good. Adjusting to different schedules is going alright. The cooler temps are moving in, for the moment anyway. I like the cooler temps. I actually like experiencing a little bit of ALL seasons. Here in the south though, we don't get much winter. It's like an extended, slightly more harsh, fall. Oh well, I'll take what I can get.

Next week we will continue on. Things will get a little crazier at work, as Tuesday is the IRS's first day to file. At home, there's nothing major to interrupt the boys' schedules. No Scouts. No sports. Just Masters on Thursday. It'll be nice for them to have a laid back week. They are going to focus a little more than normal on their vocabulary this week. Bailey will play some antonym games. Braeden will play some parts of speech games. Yes, "focus more" in this house usually means more game play. It works. They learn. I'm happy. I'm long past concerning myself with HOW they grasp a concept, I just want them to get it. :)

Today, Bailey is working on some Scout stuff and after I drop him off, I'm going to swing by the office for a little while. Tomorrow, Tracy and I are heading to the ATL for our first Dragon*Con Directors meeting of 2012. YAY!

Hope errbody has a mucho fabulous weekend, and a great week!

What a week!

This was a big week for my family. My mom and her mother (my grandmother, Nanny) haven't seen one another in almost seven years. Families have problems all the time, I know. But this was difficult for me. I am close to my mom, but I am also close to, and live next door to, Nanny. I have always felt torn (even though neither of them pulled me or asked to be on their side of the issue) between them and to be honest, it has weighed on me much more than I realized. They recently spoke on the phone for the first time, and this week my mom came up to visit! It was awesome. There is a lot of sadness and pain, and that's not going to automatically go away, but relationships are re-building and that's a wonderful thing!

Here is my mom, nanny and the boys (As a side note, Braeden was only 8 months old when they became estranged, so he has NO memory of ever seeing the two of them together...makes this photo a little more awesome):

We spent a lot of time together, just talking over coffee and shopping...girl stuff. :) I think we all really enjoyed ourselves.

Thankfully, in the midst of this, my tax schedule didn't actually start this week so I was able to spend that extra time with them. I will however, start next week. You know what that means...

Weekly whining. Heh.

I will make a conscious effort to NOT whine. Just remember, I'm trying. It's not success I'm looking for, but effort. Keep that in mind.

This weekend we are going to spend a quick overnight with my in-laws. They live out of the country and were not in town for Christmas, so we are going down this weekend to have our holiday with them. The boys love being able to see everyone and spend time with their cousins, so even though it's going to be a short trip, we are all excited about it.

Next week, we are going to try again with the work thing. I have all of my laundry done. Yes, this is a note-worthy accomplishment. The house is clean and organized. Cleaned out the Cobalt (which I should be driving anyway, as it's better on gas). In year's past, we have never been this ready. Go us.

As far as grocery shopping and everything, that task falls to the hubs while I'm working (yaaaaaay! I know I should feel ashamed for putting that burden on him, but I HATE grocery shopping!). He and the boys enjoy planning our meals though, so I don't think any of them mind.

The boys were supposed to officially start back to school - as official as we ever get at any rate - this week, but with the unexpected visit, that was squashed. Oh well. Fortunately, we have got that "go with the flow" thing down. And since we aren't planning any mid-year changes to any part of our homeschool curriculum, I'm not worried too much about finding our groove again. Like I said before, we tend to take an unschooling approach during tax time anyway. I am behind on printing their progress reports, but that doesn't take too much time to fix. I don't keep these for myself...not for grading purposes or anything (remember, I don't like putting pressure on them...I want them to learn for the sake of learning). But, I do need them for their homeschool portfolios. Which is a fancy-schmancy way of saying "homeschool records," lol. I should get on that before the end of the school year actually rolls around...

One last thing. I said in a previous post that we watched two of the three Millennium movies last weekend. Well we watched the third and final movie this week. That trilogy, and the story it told, has got to be one the best things we have watched in a long time. I have had the books (for those unfamiliar with the Millennium series, it's the Stieg Larsson books: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest) for quite a while, but knew I wanted to watch the Swedish films first. I am so excited to start reading these now, and then seeing how David Fincher did with the American remake. What I am trying to say with all of that is, everyone should watch the films and read the books. It's so worth the time! It's dark and, at times, very graphically violent. But if you can find time, I don't think anyone would regret it.

Okay, that's all for now. Hope everyone has a fabulous week!

Happy New Year!

Holy clap. It's 2012.

We closed out 2011 and rang in 2012 with a great group of friends! Many thanks to the hubs and my boys, Tracy, Scott, Quentin, Zachary, Leigh, Lisa, Hank, Tyler, Pamela, Isobel, Mark, Maggie and Kevin for a fabulous weekend of laughs, games (Pass the Popcorn is really cool!), movies (two of the three Stieg Larsson movies, which are just phenomenal) and fun! We had a ton of pizza for dinner last night and this morning woke up with thick, yummy Belgian waffles and five pounds of bacon. No, you didn't read that wrong. Scott cooked five pounds of bacon. Nomnomnom.

The last of our peeps just left and honestly we are ready for bed, but we are so thankful for the wonderful time! Tomorrow finds us starting our Tax Time schedule. I begin at the office on Tuesday. The boys start back to Master's this Thursday. I will be working six days a week. The hubs will be growling. The boys will be having to take care of themselves, which means we switch to a more unschooling mode here at Casa de la Learnin, lol.

While there will be an insane amount of whining (mostly by me), everyone knows that it's temporary so we try to get through it the best we can and not be too miserable. I know, I know...why do I do it every year? Cause I'm greedy. And I want to make that extra money for vacation and DragonCon. But it's alright. Before we know it, the end of February/beginning of March will be here and I will be back home, trying to remember how to home school, and attempting to conquer Mount Saint Laundry. :)

I hope everyone had a safe but fabulous weekend and your 2012 got off to a fantastic start!

Pictures!

Yay, more pictures! This is like...twice. In the SAME month. Whoa... ;)

One of my oldest and dearest friends, Katie and my "niece" Mariska with the Build-A-Bear dachshund the boys made her for Xmas. :)

Aunt Katie and Uncle Mike - who wasn't there because he is stationed overseas right now :( - got the boys an Xbox game they have really been wanting!

Bailey and my mom, in the kitchen. Even though she was sick, she spent a lot of time cooking for our dinner. Bailey helped her make SIX pies! :)

My dad, with the boys and my niece Brooklyn.

The boys love playing pool when they visit...

My little brother, Joey, helping Braeden out...

Brooklyn LOVED opening gifts! Once they were opened however, she was very willing to hand them over to someone else so she could continue ripping into other presents! :)

The boys got a few gifts from my parents, but this Skylanders game was #1 on both of their wish lists this year! Braeden accidentally (yes, it really was an accident, lol) saw this when we were down at Thanksgiving and he kept this secret for a whole month so Bailey could still be surprised! :)

My brother's better half, Emily.

The boys and Nanny. She loved her Thirty-One zipper pouch they got her, with them and her three puppies on there! :)

Excitement over yet another video game. But...they only got the three, so I'm ok with that. :)

Braeden and his new iPod touch he got from Mommy and Daddy. I love sleepy faces... :)

Bailey and his new iPod touch... :)

The boys and their gifts that Q (he is the one in the corner of the pic) handmade for them! Minecraft stuffs...

This pic is one of my favorites! All 4 of the boys got iPods this year and while we were waiting to eat at Tracy's parents house, we saw all of them staring down at their new gadgets. It cracked us up! 

Tracy's parents got the boys Best Buy gift cards, which they loved. You can also see the Invader Zim shirts that Tracy's boys got them. :)

We had more pictures of our evening at Tracy's, but my camera was doing some weird, spotty, light-reflecting thing and I don't know why. So all of my pictures had spots on them. I will see if I can get a few from Tracy and I will post those later.

Can't believe we are closing out 2011 this weekend. Nuts. We will have a house full of peeps celebrating with us and we are thankful that we can close out one year and start a new one, with some of those that mean so much to us!

Hope everyone has fun, but SAFE weekend!

Merry Christmas!

Can't believe it's Christmas already...just seems like I missed a couple, or seven, months somewhere, lol.

We stayed busy this week, I am very proud of the boys and myself for sticking with the baking we needed to do. We always say we want to give baked goodies for the holidays. Most years we even buy all the stuff we need. Then we just end up running out of time and give up before we even start. But this year we set our minds to it and got everything done. It took about 2 and half days to do it all, and we needed Nanny's help, but it was done and the boys were SO happy to hand out and gift their goodies to everyone.

We had several gatherings and enjoyed each and every one of them. Lots of smiles and laughter! We are so blessed to have the family and friends that we have. Even with the craziness of trying to be everywhere, and see everyone, all in one weekend...it was awesome.

Since we finally have a camera (and took more than 300 photos in the last few days, lol) I will have pictures to share later in the week. Honestly, I am exhausted right now. When we travel anywhere, we have a horrible habit upon returning home. We make it as far as the dining room table with all of our stuff and it sits there for days. But I need to really get everything put away and cleaned up before our NYE gathering here next weekend!

The boys got quite a few gadgety gifts and games, and they are looking forward to getting everything set up and to start playing with them all. Unfortunately, even though we are on a school break, they are going to have to compromise with me. If they want to spend an afternoon playing new video games or playing on their new iPods and tablets, they are going to have to spend a little time in the mornings playing some games that I want them to play. Learnin' games. ;)

My kids are so much like me, that they can get completely consumed in games and such...to the point that when they stop playing, they have this blank look on their faces like "oh...ummm...gee...now what do I do with my life?" Lol. To break that up, we institute a tit for tat thing. For every hour they give me with educational games, they can have a couple of hours for the noneducational stuffs. :D

Normally it's not an issue. They really do enjoy the games sites that we use, but I know it's going to tough for a few days with all of the new stuff they want to play with. They will probably stick with the easy stuff, like typing games and art games. Hopefully they will squeeze in some spelling and math...

Alrighty. Off to pick up my baby from the vet (we have to board our bigger baby when we travel, but fortunately, Nanny keeps our two little babies). Then to run by the grocery store, so I can get some food to break up the leftovers. :/

Look for some photos in a few days. Have a great week and enjoy the last of 2011!

Don't freak out or anything...

...but I have photos to share. Photos that I didn't have to thieve from Tracy!

I know! Makes you wonder if Hell just placed a bulk order for parkas, don't it? ;)

These are just a few of the photos from that parade I told you about in my last post...the one where I said words can't really describe it...

I just love the little Shriner cars. :)

A giant, and street ready, Radio Flyer wagon. We actually see this on the roads during the holidays, lol.

The loooong line of tractors...

I don't suppose a caption is really needed for this one... ;)

The line of "Newer Big Trucks"...

...then later, the line of "Older Big Trucks." Yes, that's how they are categorized. 

The hunters. They get their own group, lol.

This one actually had hydraulics. And it bounced. BOUNCED.

This was cute!

"Huh. We'll just make our own damn reindeer." :D

See? NO. WORDS. 

We laughed. A lot. And it was a great day. Not being from the country, this parade probably makes me go "wth?" more than anything, but you have to appreciate people enjoying themselves!

We are busy baking cookies this week. Hopefully by the end of the week, I will have pictures to post of that too! :)