Saturday, August 21, 2010

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!

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

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.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

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.

Monday, August 9, 2010

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!

Saturday, August 7, 2010

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!

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

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!

Sunday, August 1, 2010

update

I have lots of pictures to post, but no time today. Let's see, we're off in a couple of hours to see the Needle and Pike's Fish Market in Seattle. I got two B's in my classes, although I had a horrible experience taking one of my final exams-they stuck us in the hallway of a very busy and noisy hallway. I was very frustrated, but it all ended well so I won't dwell on it. The boys returned from Boy Scout camp and had a fabulous time. They really enjoyed it alot. TL likes to whittle now. He's very creative, not like me drawing stick houses. Grandma, Papa, Uncle Chris, and two nieces made it safely from Iowa. We're sight seeing with them. Hopefully, the sun will peak out on us today for a little bit.

Enjoy everyone!