Day 2 Working on more resolutions

It's a good thing Frank does not read my blog, I doubt he would be pleased with this picture as he said I as annoying him by taking pictures! Today I got most of my CHRISTmas decorations down, except, as seen in this picture, the tree. And putting the Valentines Decorations up, which as of this post are not done either, so I have a half Christmas and half Valentines Day house. And I think it will stay that way until tomorrow as I am pooped! Amid the mess of this massive project, the kids had to also start on their "new adventure" that is known as the new chore charts. One of those items is 30 mins of excersise, which is what Frank is doing here. He chose Wii Fit, and is doing some karate game on there. Today, I have also accomplished getting their school stuff all caught up, entering some more of my grandmother's diary (that's a forever ongoing project to get over 40 years worth typed and saved on the computer), making healthy meals (let me tell you we were def. eating to live and not living to eat today, cuz it sure was not so tasty), then after lunch is when I starte taking down the Christmas stuff and here it is after 6PM and I am over it for the night! Ready to go soak in nice wonderful warm bath (it snowed today and is very cold) and read a good book and then crawl in to bed for the night!

365 days Day 1

So I have seen several people doing the 365 pictures a year where you document every day of the year with atleast one picture and journal just a bit with it. I tried to start that last year....didn't get very far. But being one to never quit anything for good, I decided to give it a try again. Maybe doing it on my blog, I can kill two birds with one stone. I can keep up on the blog and hopefully on my 365 pictures. Here's to hoping 2012 will be the first year I actually KEEP some of my resolutions!

So my first picture is my first attempt of the new year to get organized AND one of my other resolutions, to actually try to put to the test some of the things I discover on Pinterest. I actually have tried several recipes and tried a few tips already, but this year I want to start documenting for my tested and reviewed pins! I saw this idea and thought it perfect, so when purging stuff the other day, I came upon this shoe organizer we had originally bought for my daughter for her Barbies. Well she doesn't really play with them any more and wanted to take it down. Thankfully I had seen the idea on Pinterest to use it in your pantry for things like mix packets, fruit snacks etc.... So while starting to put my groceries away, I remembered that and got to it. I also got out my handy dandy label maker (it always makes things APPEAR organized if you stick a label on it!) and labeled the ones we buy frequently and left the misc ones blank. But now that I have done this and no longer have them shoved in a ziplock bag in the pantry, I can see I need not to buy taco seasoning again for a while! HA HA!  I also like the whole repurpose/reuse thing as well......Here's to hoping to become more organized and less STUFF in 2012! Oh! AND to keeping our resolutions!

Great Wolf Lodge

Well, we had talked about it for a long time.....and finally this year we made the trip to Great Wolf Lodge for Frankie's 13th birthday! He got to invite his best friend Blake (who has never missed a birthday since they were in kindergarten!) and we also invited some good family friends to go as well. The only problem, at 13 and 10 the kids are getting a little too old to fit comfortably in the back of the car for an extended  trip! lol It's pretty bad when one of the boys suggests the quiet game!

 

So you can imagine their joy when finally they saw the sign for GWL!!!

We got the room that had the KIDS CABIN..... so they had their own space and their own tv! I thought it was very cute!

The boys took the bunk beds.....

And Gracie took the daybed.....

The lobby was all decked out for Halloween! Very fun, but we were one week too early for the Halloween activities.....Not that there isn't plenty to do any other time. It is definetly designed with kids in mind. A mystery game, an arcade, a kids spa, etc.....

The views from the lobby windows, but unfortunetly, it did not capture the full enormity of the place!  There were so many different pool areas, and several places for little bity kids and it was just so big, you could not see the whole place unless you were up on the stairs waiting in line for a slide.

The wave pool is where the boys spent most of their time. Every 10 minutes a wolf woud howl and the waves would start up like you were in the ocean! Then there would be a brief lull in the water where it was calm and the pool would clear out for the most part, and then the wolf would howl and they would all came a runnin again! 

When one kid would be in there, you would send another kid in to retrieve the first one and neither one would come out! It was more like the Bermuda Triangle than the Wave Pool, for once they went in, you never saw them come out!!

 

What made for very comical action was if you fell trying to get out. Every time you would try to stand up, another wave would come and knock you down! The boys actually liked this effect and would attempt to crawl out and therefor get the effect!

Frankie finally emerging! He used the ladder instead of tring to walk out the other side! lol

Then there was the Lazy River! Now THAT was more my speed! You could sit or lay on a tube and let the current take you around! The only problem, it was so shallow, unless you sat in the tube, you risked scraping your toes or knees! Ha! Ha!

The Rollercoaster Slide! It's the long blue tunnel! It also always had the longest line. It went so fast, Chris and Gracie caught a little air on it! It litteraly lifted them off the slide for a few seconds!! There twords the bottom is a big ol' bowl like slide....we nicknamed it the toilet bowl! It was very much like being flushed down a toilet! I allowed Gracie to talk me into going on it! Frankie was right in his description of it....FAST! Let's just say as we were going down I think the whole waterpark learned Gracie's full name!!!  

One of the very few things I can complain about the place (which is NOT very many) is how many stairs you have to climb to get up to the slides. And if you are afraid of heights, and you have to stand in line for any length of time....not pretty! And if you DON'T have to stand in line, you don't get a chance to stop and catch your breathe before being plunged down the slide!!! It all makes for a very light headed experience!  

So Chris and the kids convinced me to go on "The Family Slide". Such an innocent DECIEVING name!!! The kids went on one raft before us, then Chris and I in the second. He was supposed to make it so I went down facing front, however his insistance that I get in first, along with some probable conspiring with the guy who gave us the heave ho down the slide, put me going down backwards!!! I still get a headache thinking about it! No I did NOT enjoy the ride, in fact I felt motion sick for much of the rest of the day! However Chris and the kids loved it all day, so that is what counted!

Chris and the kids coming down "The Family Slide"....... above and emerging from it below......

Gracie in all her glory!!!

The "Toilet Bowl" to the right of this picture, and where you emerge from it in the middle  of the picture. Then, I guess as a consolation as to how your gonna feel afterwards (literally hard to walk) it takes you right into the lazy river!

 Finally, on the way home, it was a much more quiet ride ! Except for the time we sat still in traffic due to an accident, the trip home went much faster than the trip there! Doesn't that always seem to be how it is. I wonder if part is due to the anticipation of where your going!

Poor Hunter

This is what happens when you leave two warped children alone with the Halloween box and a dog.......poor thing!

A NOVEL idea!

So i have a penpal who lives in Scotland. We have had fun telling each other about things we do in our home countries. I recently told her about geocaching. She told me, they have not heard of that over there, that she is not sure it has caught on over there yet. BUT that they DID have a guy that hid a golden, jewel covered rabbit and then wrote a book with clues in it leading to the rabbit. She said it took 5 years for someone to finally find it and the book, in the meantime, became a best seller! Now THAT is a good idea!.
She said they also do not have yardsales very often, however once a year they have a car/boat sale, where people line their car/boats up at a local school and sell stuff out of them! These are just some of the reasons i love having a penpal!

Back To School

Well we headed back to our homeschool this year. Using a new curriculum this time. Switched on Schoolhouse. So far I like it alot better than the Abecca videos. Plus, once Gracie hits 7th grade (in two years) I only have to start buying new curriculum for one since she can use Frankie's hand me downs! YEA to SOS for allowing that! PLUS Gracie was super excited to start school after we went through how it was going to work, that's half the battle for the year, getting HER excited! PLUS it does most of the grading for me! YEA for all of the above.

Well I have been planning for weeks for this day. Making sure not to make plans with any friends so all my attention would be on the kids. Well as normal, no planned day around here goes as planned. Even though I had walked the kids through stuff on the computers of how it all works, I guess until you actually DO the work, you just don't know. Both had many occasions that they needed my help. So did several other things needing to be addressed, like a repair man, getting supper  going in the crockpot, addressing a couple emails, and cancelling a service contract with Mr. Quick. ALL at the same time. But I am happy to say, I never lost my cool through all that. In fact I only lost my cool once, with Gracie, with Math! That evil evil evil little subject! It truly is my nemesis! But we got through it. She got through her piano practice and we got to the nature park to look for a few geocaches as our PE. I decided, while the weather is nice, it's best to try for some FUN excersising. The kids, while exhausted after hiking for an hour, were thanking me for getting to have some fun afterwards.
The kids were both happy to have such short school days. I was impressed as well, until I looked at the schedule for later in the month. It appears, they try to EASE the kids into things the first week. Both kids having 5 subjects to work on today and 4 tomorrow. However, as I looked into the weeks ahead, there were days Gracie will have up to 16 things to work on! However, that includes all projects, tests and quizes. So while it looks overwhelming, it may go fast. We shall see.
After last year, I decided Gracie would be sitting in whatever room I was in while working on school so I could answer any questions and help keep her on track. We had bought one of those big round chairs at goodwill a year or two ago. I had brought it upstairs (from the basement where it ended up) Saturday to have it ready for today. She opened it and was using it in the living room all weekend. Wouldn't you know it, today, when we put it in my office, the stupid thing broke! SOO now we can go find a new chair! But I think her being with me is going to work out well. Hopefully tomorrow, we won't have so many "issues" arise and the day will go smoother. Although I must say, as first days go, I think we got alot accomplished. Ecspecially considering this family of late risers had to start getting up so early!

To Be a Christian

I was looking through the documents in search of something and came upon some old poems I wrote years back. I still really like this one, so I thought I would put it on here.

To Be a Christian




What’s it like to be a Christian, one might ask

There’s a lot of hard work, it’s not an easy task

Then why do you do it? Some may say

Because in the Bible, it says to obey

But what do you get? What’s the reward?

To see the Lord Jesus, is what I look toward

How do you know, how are you sure?

Because my faith and trust are totally pure

Surely it’s boring, you aren't having fun...

I laugh and joke, just like everyone

I try to not to sin and to keep it clean

Nothing hurtful, spiteful, rude or mean

What if you fail and continue to sin?

I confess my wrong and ask forgiveness from Him

Aren’t you worried what others may say?

I only care where I am on judgment day

How do you continue, how do you go on?

Because if I didn’t, everything would be wrong

How do you become a Christian, what do you do?

Trust in Jesus, accept His gift to you

Build a relationship between you and He

And He will provide you with all that you need

So why does he do this, what does he gain?

That by your own choice, from the Devil you refrain

By your own will, you choose His love for you

You put Him first in all that you do

When you do all that, it brings glory to His name

And your life will never again be the same