Reading challenge

I love to read.  Don't most homeschoolers?  My favorite is historical fiction, I guess that's why history is my major.  I'm especially fascinated with colonial and pioneer historical fiction, although I do read others.

I've been doing a lot of reading on the Thomas Jefferson theory of reading classics.  I've made an effort over the last few years to read more classics.  TL reads some classics and award winners-time honored and tested literature that has survived generations.

I have decided that along with school this year, I need to start reading more classics and having TL read more of them.  So, I designed a new list to read.  I have also included the list of historical fiction that I need to read that's stacking up:

1776
Mayflower
The Intrique at Highbury (okay it doesn't classify as either, but I have to get my Elizabeth and Darcy fix)
The last of the Mohicans
The Lonesome Gods
Northanger Abbey
A Tale of Two Cities
The Whiskey Rebels
Rebel (by Bernard Cornwell)

That's all I have listed for this year.  I just can't do anymore with homeschooling and college.  Plus, I need to read all the books on TL's list because believe it or not, I have not read any of these books!

From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler
The Phantom Tollbooth
The Cricket in Times Square
A Wrinkle in Time
The Silver Chair
The Horse and his boy
The Magician's Nephew
The Last Battle

We will be reading aloud together The Hobbit, The Wind and the Willows and finishing up Pilgrim's Progress.

I will be reading aloud to the girls their classics.  I'll be reading fairy tales at bedtime and during the day, we'll be reading the Betsy books and Little House on the Prairie series. 

Lots and lots of reading, but I'm looking forward to it!  Take care everyone!!

Have a wonderful adn safe New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!! May you and your family be blessed with peace and joy this Christmas!!




Please remember to pray not only for the service members that are serving away from home, but also the families that not only have their loved one deployed. Most of these families can't afford to go home for the holidays so they are stuck at the duty station without their service member or family.







Blessings to all

Michelle

I've won an award!!

First one ever and I have no idea why.  I am certainly not stylish!!  I dress in jeans and tshirts and sneakers that are ripped and two years old.  My hair is usually in a pony tail.  I don't change purses to match my outfit or my shoes.  I never wear jewelry-well, maybe I will when the baby turns three. 

So, in honor of my award, I'm supposed to tell you seven random things about me:

1.  I've lived in Japan.  Loved it, it was wonderful.  I would go back in a heartbeat.

2.  I quilt.  Lots of people call it the old lady hobby, but many do it.  I spend only a little time on it because of school and homeschooling, but I love to quilt, it relaxes me.

3.  I love to do genealogy research.  I've come across many interesting facts about my family. I've almost traced some lines to the American Revolution and before!

4.  I love to go to the movies.  I haven't been in over a year, since we left Japan.  In Japan we went every week, it was very affordable $2 for me and $1 for the kids.  Of course, most of the movies I've seen are kiddos movies but still-I love the movies.

5.  I would love to travel to Scotland and visit family there-once I track them down that is.

6.  I love to go camping.....in my camper.  Sorry, but I need a bed and a shower.  I'm a cranky lady without them.

7.  I would love to travel in my camper and with my hubby and kids across the US.  I would love to see the country.  I've traveled across the country, but missed many states, and have missed stopping at many interesting places.  I mean really, you have to stop at the Corn Palace, right?

Things I miss about home....

This is the time of year that I miss being home.  Not only for family and friends, but just some of the foods that are comforting and I miss.  We never head home for the holidays.  Its too expensive, too difficult, and usually too far to travel. 

I do miss being in Western NY.  Home of the four time Superbowl losing Buffalo Bills.  I miss watching their games.

I miss watching the Sabres-or any hockey.  Apparently, Directv doesn't allow hockey unless you pay for it.  I'm hating it.

I miss authentic Buffalo wings.  Actually, I'd eat any at this point, but I can't seem to find any on the island.

I miss good pizza.  With a nice thick crust.  This flat tasteless cardboard stuff gets me mad.

I miss seeing Niagara Falls all done up in Christmas lights.

I miss Bison Chip Dip.  For those of you that have never had any, you're missing out.  My husband claims that its no different than any other chip dip he's eaten......yet he eats most of the tub.

I miss Sahlen hot dogs.  NY hot dogs are totally different than any other hot dogs I've ever had.

I miss Friday night fish fry-at EVERY single place to eat.  And the best was in the dumps or bars.

I miss Beef of Weck.  No one knows what that is unless you've lived there.  Its shaved roast beef with gravy (not thick) on a kimmelwick roll.  No one knows what those are either.

I miss Mighty Taco.  Best taco place ever!

I miss snow!  I love snow around the holidays.  I would love to have some now, except that the whole city would shut down!

And I miss my friends and family.  Thank goodness for phones, email, and skype.  I don't know how the pioneers did it!

have a wonderful week!

Let it snow!

I know its been a while.  Between wreath making for the Boy Scouts, being hit with a really bad cold, and a nine page paper due, I've been neglecting my blog.  Sorry.

Monday of Thanksgiving week, it started snowing.  At about 9am.  This abruptly finished out school day.  Even though we live in Western WA, we live on an island in between the Olympic and Cascade mountain ranges.  It rarely ever snows here. 

At about ten, I realized that it was going to make the roads really slick.  I know how to drive on slick roads-I'm from Buffalo!!  However, there are many people who don't and I wasn't going to put my life into their hands.

So, I ran off the the commissary and picked up a few groceries we needed and over to the exchange to discover they did not have any snow gloves.  I couldn't find the big girls-I actually think they're in the camper. 

My husband's work sent everyone home that afternoon.  The schools decided to wait until the roads were nice and slick to put the kids on the buses.  At this point, there had dozens of accidents and road closures.  The island has lots of steep hills and without any way to treat the roads, they were sheets of ice. 

We got two inches.  Just barely enough to cover the grass.

Daddy was off of work on Tuesday.  They closed the public school Tuesday and Wednesday.

It makes me laugh.  Back home, we never had school closures for snow.  It was extremely rare!

Here's some photos.  Our road is a small hill and it was slick with ice, so daddy helped the girls sled down it.

The view of the backyard

The front of the house.  Don't ya love the telephone and cable boxes there?

The girls after their snow run

Daddy getting the girls started

Off they go!!  That's the Pugent Sound at the end of the street!

Little Miss Trouble liked the snow, but preferred to only stay out for ten minutes, then come in and get undressed, then go back out for ten minutes.....you see the pattern here

Prairie Primer lapbooking pages

I am sooooo excited!!  We love lapbooking and I just found out that my favorite lapbooking company A Journey through Learning has just designed a lapbook to go with the Prairie Primer.

This lapbook goes through the first three Little House on the Prairie books.  You can see sample pages here.

Their lapbooks are absolutely wonderful and a joy for us to do!!  I'm looking forward to starting this one with my girls!!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Sad week

Please pray for my neighbor, she lost her mother this week.

And pray for the Gibbs family.  Their 8 year old daughter died tragically of a heart condition this past week. 

Thank you all and God Bless!

Weekly update

I'll have to post our school update later today.  First, we found the glasses!!  and you haven't heard from me because I was studying for midterms!  They are now done and a huge load is off my back now!

Here's some photo updates!  TL participated in an all school taekwondo tournament.  He competed with three other boys in his age range-all higher belts than he is.  He placed first in sparring and his form!  I'm so proud!

Doing his form

Getting ready to spar

Getting his first place sparring trophy from Master Rhodes

 And just cause she's so cute:

Starting our school day in our jammies

We start school at an early age here at Eagle Eye Academy!

Weekly update

I was hoping to post our weekly update, however, I am forced to rip apart and clean my entire house today.  You see, Bug-a-bug has lost her new glasses.  The ones that cost $150.  I am not pleased at all!!

How Pumpkin Pie is Made

Memorization list

I just realized that it will be November next week and I totally spaced out on the kids memorization lists this year.  I'm not quite sure what the problem was, but apparently, I totally forgot.  Thank goodness I read the post by Sergeant Major Mom about her memorization list.  If you get a moment, check out her blog.  She is a military spouse who uprooted from Alaska to Georgia this past year and made a cross country trip checking out everything she could with her kids.  It was quite a trip!

So, here goes my list for the year:

Pronouns
Helping Verbs
State of Being Verbs
Presidents
States and Capitals
Preamble to the Constitution
Lord's Prayer
New Testament books

Poems:  (the first one listed is TL's and the second is the two older girls)  I took the poems from the Random Book of Poetry for Children by Jack Prelutsky.

November:
Thanksgiving Magic by Rowen Bastin Bennett
Thanksgiving by Ivy O Eastwick

December:
From a Christmas Package by David McCord
Merry Christmas by Aileen Fisher

January
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost
The Snowflake by Walter de la Mare

February
Maple Feast by Frances Frost
When by Dorothy Aides

March
Goodbye my Winter Suit by NM Bodecker
The March Wind by Anonymous

April
The Flattered Flying Fish by EV Riev
Ladybug by Joan Walsh Anglund

May
My tongue is Tasting Terrible by Jack Prelutsky
I'm ironing my Rhinocerus

June
Land of Nod by Robert Stevenson
The Swing by Robert Stevenson

I tried to make the poems interesting and fun.  There was something else I wanted them to memorize and for the life of me, I can't remember what it is right now.


I wanted to share this little tidbit.  Chunky Monkey has several words now-mommy, daddy, stop, and da-dow (which is for the dog, Shadow).  Tonight we went to my neighbor's Pampered Chef party and she chased the dog around calling, "da-dow".  I guess all dogs will be da-dows now!  How cute!

Little Miss Trouble's third birthday

Well, hubby is once again off for a few weeks.  He missed Little Miss Trouble's birthday, but more importantly, he's missing pumpkin carving with five kids and trick or treating.......hmmmmm.....once has to wonder why he planned the trip at this time?.......

Today was Little Miss Trouble's third birthday.  We went to story time at the library, Wendy's for lunch, and then unfortunately, had typical running around Tuesday night.  We are going to do cake and ice cream tomorrow night.....but of course we had to have cupcakes for breakfast this morning!

Weekly Wrap

We have had a crazy and busy week this week.  My best friend since grade school came to Seattle with her sister for an international chorus competition.  The kids and I drove up on Tuesday to meet them and their brother, who had arrive from CA.  We went to the zoo and had a blast.  It was so much fun!  We were absolutely exhausted though.  Two hour drive there and back and seven hours at the zoo was alot.  Wednesday we only did half a school day because we were all so exhausted.  We had several meltdowns and temper tantrums-mine included, sad to say.  Wednesday night Princess tried to high hurdle the dog and ended up landing on her foot on the ceramic tile.  We spent the day Thursday at medical-military medical is something less than desired when you want to be quick.  Four hours there....ugh.  We're waiting for the radiologist to read the xray and tell us if its broken.  I still can't figure out why the doctor, after years and years of school, can't read the xray.  Right now we have an ace bandage, crutches, ice, and motrin.

So, not much school done this week, but here we go.

History-Working on our Plains Indians study and free lapbook that I found.  We built an indian village using a book that I had found with punchouts.  Next week we'll be working on Woodland Indians and starting a few projects.

Science-We did a little about caves on Monday.  I was hoping to finish up this week, hopefully today unless we end up at medical again.

Language Arts-TL's having difficulties with the vocabulary program we've started.  I think most if it is laziness and he doesn't want to do it.  I've also noticed that he struggles when looking words up in the dictionary.  He had fifteen to do this week.  Towards the end of the list, I noticed improvement so I'm hoping it was just a struggle because he didn't want to do it.  Spelling is going well with him.  We moved to All About Spelling Level 2 and he seems to be doing better sounding out his words.  Learning to spell by syllable is helping alot.  He's doing okay with his writing, although it is an issue, mostly because of the spelling.  Princess and BugaBug are doing Level 1 spelling and are about halfway through the book.  They really enjoy the program.  They've been working on some fun Halloween stories this week. 

Math-TL is improving his math grade.  He was really lazy at the beginning because it was all review and he wasn't careful.  After a few bad grades and some new work, he seems to be improving.  Princess has finally memorized all her addition facts and can do double and triple digit addition with carrying.  We're through the zeros to twos with subtraction.  I hope to finally begin multiplication around Thanksgiving.  Bug a Bug knows almost all her addition facts-she needs to know the sevens through the nines.  She's working on triple digit addition with carrying.  Both girls are also doing money review.

Literature-TL is halfway through Twenty-One Balloons.  We're reading together.  I read a page then he does.  I'm trying to determine how his reading is.  He doesn't ask me for assistance with words that he doesn't know so I wasn't sure how he was doing.  Princess and Bug-a-bug are working on Explode the Code books and Sing Spell Read and Write.  Princess is just about done with the program and will move into her Bob Jones soon.  I'm toying with allowing Bug-a-bug to do hers at the same time.

Read Alouds-This is one area I've been doing really poorly at.  TL and I have one more chapter in a book we started months ago and then I think we will work on The Hobbit.    The girls and I are working on the Betsy books.  I will be starting Little House in the Big Woods hopefully this next week. 

PreK-Little Miss Trouble is learning her shapes.  She knows a circle and is learning squares.  She knows some of her colors too, thanks to Brown Bear, Brown Bear.  I think I read it almost everyday! 

Enjoy some photos of our zoo trip!

The giraffe and all exhibits were super animal friendly.

Little Miss Trouble climbed every single rock and wanted her picture taken

Red Panda

hanging out with the hippos

 TL hanging with the monkeys

Travis getting a lift from Little Miss Trouble

Chunky Monkey wasn't too impressed hanging out in the trees with the monkeys

All of us, minus Dawn who was taking the picture

Dawn and I-friends for about thirty years or so.  Give or take a few!

Good website

I just found this website while looking for lapbooking activities to go with our Plains Indians study.  I thought you would all enjoy!

http://homeschoolfreestuff.wordpress.com/social-studies-history/american-history/

They also have free math, english, and science links.

Inventions that save time?

Let me start off this by saying, I love all the inventions that have helped me during the day.  I'm thankful that I don't have to run to an outhouse in the pouring down rain with a toddler who's learning to potty train (or watch out for snakes).  I'm thankful that I do not have to split wood to build a fire for heat or cooking.  I'm thankful I don't have to haul water up from the creek or well to boil to do laundry or make bathwater  (and I'm very thankful for daily showers).  I'm thankful I don't have to scrub the laundry on a board, hang it to dry, and iron everything.  I'm thankful I don't have to make every single meal from scratch and the kids can have cereal sometimes.  I'm thankful for my dishwasher.  I'm thankful for electricity and the ability to keep current with friends and family so far away by telephone and computer.  I'm thankful I don't have to rise early to feed the chickens and milk the cow.  I'm really thankful I don't have to skin anything to cook it.

So, why is it that we never have time?  Our society is constantly rushing around -here or there.   We're always in a hurry.  By the end of the night I'm exhausted and have to force myself to do bedtime reading.  We haven't done any game nights in a while.  Movie night is about once a week, but whatever happened to the times where the family sat around the fire and played games, read, or talked to each other.  I long to just sit in a chair in the evening and do a little sewing or knitting while the kids play a game. 

Maybe its just me, but our inventions seem to have made us busier and less time for family.  We also don't appreciate the little things, and our society tries to "keep up with the Jones'".  I noticed lately how much of my time is "sucked" away by the computer.  Sometimes, I just sit there because I can-no reason whatsoever.  So, I'm limiting my computer time to fifteen minutes a day, unless its my schoolwork. I will then have time to post to my blog once or twice a week.   I don't watch alot of tv now so that's not an issue.  Maybe now, I'll have time to finish everything during the day and get some quality family time in. 

Or maybe I just watched too many Little House on the Prairie episodes while the kids were sick this week!

blog, what blog?

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth.  I had finals last week and spent the better part of the week studying.  This was between eye doctor appts, dentist appts, and whatever else came up.  I ended up getting an A in my civil war class and a B in my Latin American history class.  Not too bad.  Onto the Vietnam war and a silly computer class.  Back in the dark ages, when I originally started college, we didn't have to take computer classes.  I decided to wait until this term to do it since its only a 100 level class and the holidays are coming up.  The only issue is that the book has been made up by the college and is $240.  I'm going to look on amazon and see if I can buy the three books that they used to build this book for less money.

The kids have been busy with school.  They're doing well and moving along.  Yesterday we went to an apple orchard and picked applies, watched the cider press in action, and learned how they sort the apples.  I know have thirty pounds of apples to can tomorrow.  Apple butter, applesauce, and apple pie filling.  Yum.

I've also planned some quilting, reading, adn genealogy work.  I'd better get working cause I only have a week left!

Oh, and my camera is dead and I didn't realize the other camera wasn't charged until when we were walking out the door so no photos from yesterday.  I'll make up for it next week when we go up to get macintosh apples, that's when they'll be in season.

Have a great weekend!

Curriculum Review:Download and Go

The girls and I are doing Galloping through the Globe this year for our geography studies.  I thought it would be fun to do some interesting projects like making paper dolls for each country.  I also came across the Download and Go series by Amanda Bennett.  Since our first country study is China, I thought we'd try it.  Let me tell you that for $7.95, you will not be disappointed.  The lessons are very easily laid out with colorful notebooking and lapbooking projects for the kids to do.  Each day is full of information and interesting videos linked right into your download for the kids to watch.  My only complaint is that there was too much information!  We couldn't do everything in one day.  The kids absolutely loved it, even TL who enjoyed the videos.  It is geared for K-4th grade, so he didn't participate in the activities, but he enjoyed the other aspects of it.  It is a very thick ebook-123 pages to be exact.  I highly recommend getting one or two and doing something fun during your school year.  She has lots of fun titles to choose from adn I see that she just added tigers to it.  Enjoy!!

Learning to walk

Chunky monkey has been teetering around for the past few weeks. Her walking has much improved, but she still resembles somewhat of a drunken sailor.

We've been worried because our house has tiles and hardwood floors (well, the Navy claims its hardwood-I don't think pine qualifies). We're just sure she's going to fall down and really hurt herself.

So, tonight we took matters into our own hands to ensure her safety..




wait for it....




wait for it.....

Okay, so really I attached the blue balloon to her so she could play with it without losing it.  It was from my birthday.  I got carried away and attached all the rest.  But its cute, right?

Anyway, thank you for the birthday wishes.  I had a really nice day.  And I was spoiled and got a new pair of sneakers.  I haven't bought sneakers in about two years-you've all seen them in my photos.  They're nasty and very sad.  So bad, my friend went into her closet to give me a pair that was too big for her.  I've been wearing those, and now I feel spoiled.

I also got a Sony EReader.  I'm not sure how that will be.  I like holding a book in my hands.  I'm sure this will take a while to get used to , but I'm looking forward to it.  I've been getting rid of all my books because I don't have the space or weight available when we move (everytime you move, the Navy allots you so many pounds and if you go over, you have to pay).  I'm really trying to week out my books even more and have about four boxes of homeschooling books to sell.

Hope you all have a wonderful week!  Enjoy

Gray hairs are ready.....

Tomorrow is the big day. I officially will be allowed to have the few gray hairs that I pluck out of my scalp. I will legally be allowed to have parts of my body leaning more towards the floor than their intended positions.

The big 4-0 has arrived and is just around the corner.

What's a girl to do? Eat chocolate I guess-I have to help the forces of gravity somehow!! :)

Almost ready for school....

I have a few more things to do before we start school next Wednesday. Get the kids notebooks set up, make some copies....that's about it except for planning things for the preschooler! yeah! I'm excited for their new year. It should be alot of fun for all of us! I still can't believe that I will be adding in a preschooler. Which really means I need to keep her from coloring on the walls or cutting her sister's hair. How is it that they find scissors after I thought I put them all up?

We're off camping again this weekend. Up into the mountains again. Big Foot is supposed to be in that area. I'll let you know if we see him and tell him hello for you. My dad and I were discussing his existence when he was here. The Cascade Mountains are so steep that no one lives on them, in fact, they're extremely difficult to climb. So you have to wonder about all that unexplored area............of course, maybe the martians have beamed them all up? :) Sorry, a little bad humor today!

My two classes are going well. I'm taking a Latin American history class, which is kind of a snoozer, but its okay. The Civil War class is great though. I'm really enjoying it!

Have a wonderful and safe weekend everyone!

Northern Exposure land part 2

Views from the street-looks exactly the same as in the tv show. And the same as when the town was built over 100 years ago. The only difference was that the photo inside the museum showed horses, instead of cars!


The moose inside Dr. Fleishmann's office-which is now the gift shop. As you can see, the paint job is still great.


The coal mining display outside the museum

Northern Exposure land

My father recently arrived in town and in fact goes home tomorrow. That's the difficult part about being so far from family, trips are all too short. Maybe one day, we'll live closer when retirement comes around. Anyway, dad and I are huge Northern Exposure fans and we decided to take a trip to Roslyn, WA, where the filming took place for the tv show. I have to tell you that we spent our share of money to the store buying tshirts, etc.

We were actually surprised that Roslyn was such a coal mining town. We went into the museum and had a personal tour with a very nice gentlemen. Here's the last telephone operator. THe last assisted call took place here in 1995!


Of course, who could miss this photo op!


The building with KBHR is no longer occupied.


You can't get in to see Chris' area, but the town hasn't touched it since the film crew left. Everything looks exactly the same!


We had lunch at the Brick. It looks alot different inside. I'm not sure if they changed it everytime they filmed or filmed somewhere else for the inside. I need to take a look at the dvds again. It seemed to us that the inside was different. We also went inside Ruth Anne's store and that was exactly the same-except for the wall behind the register-it is entirely filled with liquor bottles. I guess they like their alcohol here!

Chunky monkey's first birthday

I can hardly believe its been a year already!! Our sweet little thing its starting to walk by herself. Only a few steps at a time and into someone's loving arms, but it won't be long before she's motoring by herself.

our school schedule

So, here's the layout for our school year. We'll be starting after Labor Day. Still to busy here to start anytime before then and its hard to start earlier when the kids are all playing outside your school room windows.

8:00-8:30 Bible
Explorer’s Bible Study

8:30-9:15 Writing/Spelling
TL -Teaching Writing Structure and Style
-Sequential Spelling
Girls -Prompt, Plan, and Write-Grades 2 & 3
-All About Spelling

9:15-9:30 Break-snack and read aloud

9:30-10:00 Grammer-MWF and Spanish TTh
TL -Growing with Grammer
Girls -Simply Grammer

10:00-10:30 Geography
TL -Trail Guide to World Geography
Girls -Galloping the Globe
-Daily Geography Practice grades 2 & 3

10:30-11:30 Reading
TL -Wordly Wise
-Library Skills
-Novels: How to Eat Fried Worms, The Twenty-One Balloons,
A Wrinkle in Time, The Phantom Tollbooth, Mrs. Frisby and the
Rats of Nimh, Cricket in Times Square-others will be added
Girls -Finish Sing, Spell, Read, and Write and then BJUP Grade 2&3
-Library Skills
-Phonics-Explode the Code

11:30-12:30 Lunch

12:30-1:30 Math
TL -Saxon Math
Girls -Abeka Grades 2 & 3

1:30-3:00 History or Science
History: American Indians, Explorers and then starting history in the
17th century using All Through the Ages and Truthquest
Science: Christian Kids Explore Earth and Space

3:00-3:30 Silent Reading

3:30-4:00 Chores


History and Science will each be two days a week. Wednesday’s schedule will change a half hour starting with the elimination of grammer. History and Science will not be done that day as it will be either a library day or an art day.

Read alouds:

We will do some together and some separately. I have planned Witch at Blackbird Pond and The Christmas Carol as together for right now. I will read the Betsy books and Betsy-Tacy books to the girls. TL and I will work on The Hobbit and The Wind of the Willows.

planning, planning, planning

This year, I decided to only plan the subjects that don't have lesson plans already in place. I usually rewrote Lesson one, etc, on my planning sheets and crossed them off as we did them. yeah, I didn't keep up with it, plus, I really didn't need to rewrite that over. Not sure why I ever did.

So, I planned out geography and science. I need some preschool plans done and history. I also need to lay out the books TL will read this year and get the questions and vocabulary sheets copied. I toyed with buyer a new copier/printer as mine doesn't copy anymore, but after the expense of the new 'puter, I just can't do it. At least I don't have to look at porn icons anymore. Thank goodness.

I'm starting my next two college classes today. Civil War history and Latin American history. I look forward to the Latin American history as I don't know anything about it. I was raised in public schools, y'know the ones that believe that west of Europe is only the United States. Why bother learning about any of the other countries on our own continent, much less South America? Silly me.

I'm starting download all my files onto my new external hard drive. Thankfully, I buy alot of downloadable curriculum and I can re-download the information. (is that a word?)

My inlaws leave tomorrow, Tacty leaves on Thursday, and my father arrives on Saturday. Its been a busy, but fun month.

Enjoy the rest of your summer everyone!

new 'puter

My computer got a virus. A bad one. A message kept coming up that stated that someone was trying to get into my computer, did we want to block it-of course-we clicked yes several times.

Only then did I discover that each time we clicked yes, porn icons would appear on my desktop. How lovely. I'd delete and they'd reappear.

The virus grew and exploded. We couldn't download off anything that may fix it. We tried using the internet to fix it and it wouldn't let us go anywhere that would fix it. I grabbed as much off of it that I could-some pictures and homeschooling stuff. I have no idea if the thumb drive is now affected or not. I guess I'll find that out later.

I'm now typing on my brand new laptop. I opted for a laptop instead of my tower because its easier for me to move around and do school planning or homework. I can take it on the porch to watch the kids play outside.

I also bought an external hard drive to keep all my files on. Hopefully, this will help me out and I won't lose anything again. We'll see.

We have a busy week as my inlaws leave Tuesday, Tacty leaves back to Japan on Thursday, and my dad arrives on Saturday. We're heading to Cle Elum this weekend to see where they filmed Northern Exposure. I can't wait! Any Northern Exposure junkies out there?

Have a great week everyone!

Downtown Seattle

We have been so busy here. I can't believe that the time has flown so quickly since everyone arrived. We have had a great time. Here's some shots of our time in downtown Seattle.

View walking in Pike's fish market. It was very crowded as we went on a Sunday.


Some of the flowers for sale. Those bundles ranged from $5-$10 dollars and were absolutely gorgeous. We have three at the house and they are still looking nice, although a little droopy five days later.


TL and Tacty, our friend from Japan that's visiting, in front of some of the fish at the market.


Pepper wreaths for sale. The pictures don't do them justice. They were gorgeous, the colors were so vivid.


Uncle Chris and Little Miss Trouble outside Pike's Market.


Daddy and Chunky Monkey waiting on the bottom of the Space Needle.



Uncle Chris and Little Miss Trouble on top of the space needle. Can you guess who loves her uncle alot?


View from the bottom of the Space Needle.


Grandma and Papa and some cousins sitting at the bottom of the space needle for some rest. It was a long and busy day, but alot of fun.


The bottom fish is some really really expensive salmon from Pike's Market. The top is a steelhead fish that was really cheap from the commissary. Very expensive-did I mention that already?

Will post more pictures soon!

Have a great week!