I have an AWESOME Husband!!!

Tonight he hooked up our computers together, so we now have internet on both desk top computers in our house!!! Woo-hoo! I am so excited about this. This allows kids to be doing school work two at a time, and play time two at a time on the computer! Both of these are password protected (anyone who knows me, knows I love password protection), so they won't be able to access either one "anytime", but at least now we have the availability.

J is soo excited today! He had saved up the money from mowing to be able to purchase a red I-pod shuffle on his own. It came in the mail today. I am amazed at how small it is! He even has the back engraved with his name followed by "the Jesus Freak".

I received an extra special blessing today. During the hour and a half I am helping in Biology class, three of my kids are in the Learning Center's study hall. The study hall monitor told me today that they are always obedient, and working diligently. I don't think she knew how much of a blessing that was to me! This has definitely been our best school year yet, and that just made it even better!

Wow, it's been awhile!

Ok, so I didn't realize it had been that long since I posted. In my defense, our computer was down last week, so I couldn't do it. (How did people ever homeschool before computers?????)

We have had a fabulous school year this year! God sure is great in giving us so much more than we could ever ask for!

M's biology lab decided to grow bacteria. Unfortunately, one of the things he swabbed was a drinking fountain. I am never drinking from one of those again! That was disgusting! His "clean" fingerprint was even more disgusting than his dirty one. (I always knew boys didn't do a good enough job washing their hands, now I have proof!) Surprisingly enough, the sample taken from the cheek wasn't bad at all, and the nose of his glasses was cleaner than his cell phone. Go figure!

This weekend was awesome! We went up north to see Gramma and Grampa, and Aunt C's family. While we were there, we got to go to the Old Settler's celebration in Kahoka and a football game my nephew played in. We had a blast watching Aunt C's kids in the parade. (I have to say I NEVER thought I would see my nephew in a skirt, albeit a grass skirt, but a skirt nonetheless.) My niece A.R., marched in her first parade with the middle school band, and she did a great job! Mr. Dooley, she has the look straight ahead, and don't smile thing down pat. The band was stopped right in front of us for us about four minutes, at least, and she never one time looked our way, nor did she smile, AT ALL! I was thrilled to be able to watch them.

After Old Settler's we went to Steve's and ate dinner. During dinner, Aunt C and Gramma and Grampa gave J his birthday presents. What fun we had when Aunt C made his birthday card out of a napkin! He now has an original birthday card, made just for him.

Then on to the football game. The Clark County Jr. Indians played against the Knox County Eagles, and whooped up! I believe the final score was 28 - 14. We had so much fun watching the game, and B, C, and V really enjoyed every touchdown! Whenever the Jr. Indians score a touchdown, the cheerleaders throw spirit sticks full of candy into the crowd. B caught one, which he was just ecstatic about. (He obviously thought he didn't catch enough candy at the parade!) I am so glad Aa's team won, even though he will have to do "bear crawls" because they were scored against. Even the name of it sounds painful! I wonder if the fifth graders will have to do them as well? The fifth grade played after the sixth grade, and they won without being scored against.

Sunday afternoon was A.R.'s 13th birthday party. I cannot believe she is a teenager already! Grampa made his famous bbq pork, which was divine! Aunt C made everything else, and it was all good.

We had an amazing weekend, I just wish I had pictures to share! One of these days I will get another digital camera....

Co-op

Today was first day of co-op, and it was wonderful! There are a lot of new families this year (I wonder if they said that about us last year?), and some that weren't there, who we missed. But the kids are very excited about their classes, which makes me happy. I like it when they like what they are doing! Something interesting is happening with my kids, the older they get, the more friends they are getting, the more they are wanting to do stuff outside of home. I'm enjoying them being teenagers/ pre-teens immensely!

Settling into a routine.

We are now in our fourth week of school, and praise God, we are finally starting to settle into a schedule that's workable! When we went to the Learning Center today, the kids had finished their work by the time I got done with the biology class I am helping in. That gave us almost 2 hours of play time. It was a huge blessing to this Momma to see them interacting with their friends, and having a good time.

The way things work in this family...
Last Wed. we picked up B's prescription from the pharmacy, and he hasn't needed it since! Praise the Lord for that!

B's new medication

Last Friday while at Dr. Callahan's office he gave us a prescription for a migraine treatment for B. It's a med he will take at the onset of a migraine, but should relieve the migraine within 30-90 minutes. Dr gave us 4 pills in sample cases, and B has had three migraines since Friday, so we went to fill the prescription today. I was kinda surprised we had to pay $18, we usually only pay $10.

When I was looking at the label from the pharmacy it had this little sentence:

"Your insurance saved you $212.99"


This is for 9 pills!!!! That is about $25 a pill!!! I am soo very thankful we have prescription insurance. Between the Trileptal and the migraine medication, we couldn't do it without the insurance! The Trileptal is normally $284 a bottle, he goes through a bottle every month. WOW!

Week 3: The first Real week

This is the second day of our third week of school, and the first regular week. All the kids classes started this week in full swing, except co-op which starts next week. I am going to have to reconfigure some of our scheduling, but so far I think it will work just fine.

M is not going to start Marine Biology yet, because the class he is taking at the Learning Center is much more involved than I thought it would be. He is going to be doing a lot of work for that class, not just the labs. We are considering starting him in Marine Bio in the spring semester, and see how that will work out.

V started band yesterday and thinks Mrs. B is about the greatest thing since sliced bread. Now mind you, I have been teaching her flute for two years, and she is talking like all the stuff Mrs. B is teaching her is new! Hurts my pride a bit, but I am glad she likes the band director this week. I know Mrs. B is very demanding, and moves very quickly, so V may end up getting frustrated later, but for now she's great!

C is an alto. Mrs. H placed the newbies on parts yesterday in choir, and C is an alto. I'm excited he will get to learn to really sing a part, not just what he "hears" as a part.

Today I praise the Lord for my husband. He is now a realtor, and having the training and meetings for that. I'm so proud of how he is handling himself in this new position. We are praying the Lord will bless, and DH will not overdo himself!