A Visit with Santa

The boys never really want to meet with Santa too much.... Zack was always content looking at him from afar, but this year, they are totally into it! So we visited the Bass Pro shop today and had 4 hrs of great fun! Wyatt told Santa he wanted "Rudolph and an umbrella" and Zack wants some nerf bow and arrows. Im sure he would love to have the real bow and arrows, but thats not happening haha.... Merry Christmas!

Give me gas money please...

So what do you do when someone pulls in beside you and asks for gas money? do you give it to them? do you buy them $5 in gas?

I was sitting in Kroger fuel station today when this scanky couple pulls in front me... they point at me and go around and come up behind me. He approaches my window and tells me that he and his girlfriend are trying to get to Maryville to see her very sick grandmother whom just had a stroke. Hmmm....well, I did not have any cash - true story. So I said, sorry...no cash. He says "God Bless You" and walks to the next car. Now, his eyes were bloodshot and the girl he was with looked like she just rolled out of bed and threw some clothes on. Oh and he also asked me for exactly $2. Well, $2 is probably not going to get you to Maryville, if that indeed was where they were heading. And they had a very nice Dodge Grand Caravan...$2 would probably gotten them up to the Walgreens on the corner......Another hmmmmmm....

So I watched him for awhile and they went car to car... he sent the girl to the men and he went to all the women... weird huh?

They finally gave up and left I guess... when they pulled out, they turned the opposite from Maryville.. and went back down Clinton Hwy towards Powell. Another hmmmm.....

Now, when I said no, I felt a teensy bit guilty and questioned whether I should give them some gas at all. Then, I realized, while his story was definitely very sad, it could also as easily have been very false. It's really sad that you can't trust anyone anymore.

So I get to Marshall's. I am wasting a few minutes before having to go get Wyatt from MDO... I am in the shoes and there walking smack dab down the middle of the aisle is a skanky girl...behind her, a cop, then a guy with handcuffs, another cop and then what I presume to be the manager. They walk him out of the store....I assume they put him in the car to take him to jail since he was cuffed.. but as Im leaving (about 15 min later) the cop is leaving in his car, alone, the manager is walking back in with a bunch of papers and the guy and girl are walking to a car waaaay out in the parking lot. The girl makes a big scene of SLAMMING her cardoor as she gets in. Now, this has me wondering.. why did the cop drive away? why didn't he take him to jail?Oh well... what an eventful day, huh? haha

Finally...

After 3 summer months of wondering if we are doing the right thing with this homeschooling stuff, after 3 more months of trying to feel my way through things and deal with my own feelings of bitterness towards the school that gave me such grief, I can finally say that I am 100% happy that we have decided to do this. I really can't explain it, but I guess I was sooooo worried about everything that I couldn't see the bigger picture.

We are actually in a place where we are relaxed about school now. I love that we don't have a lot of rushing around in the mornings anymore, not to mention that we don't have to get up at the crack of dawn unless we "have" to for a reason...

I love the opportunities for all of the field trips we have been on as well. I would never have gotten to take the boys to all of these great places if we were not homeschooling. I am able to be with my kids when they have an "ah ha" moment, and I am quite proud of the fact that I am teaching my almost 4 yr old to read. He knows his alphabet and letter sounds and can spell the words, Addie (his girlfriend) (hehe), mama, daddy, papa, emma, zack, ethan, wyatt, noe, kelli, taytay, GG (I know thats easy, but thats what he calls her! haha), and nana. He can recognize his name and the names above along with Jessie, Woody, Buzz, Bullseye (see a theme?), stop, yes, no, and go. I am really super proud of him.. of them both!

I love that Zack comes to me more and asks me more questions about things than he did last year. I guess he has no choice - it's either me or Scott lol..but still.... And that our learning doesn't only happen during the hours of 7:45 -2:45. The other night, we had a long discussion about what drugs were, why they are bad, why people do them, why you shouldn't do them, smoking, God, Satan, right and wrong, etc. You can't really get that in school these days. And I'm glad that the 1st answers he got to these questions were from his parents and not the opinions or values of others.

I love that we don't have to worry about "falling behind" too much... we go at our own pace. If it takes us a week to learn quotation marks, we take a week. We were able to skip over the adding part of Math the past few weeks bc he gets it really quickly.. so we moved on. Why stay on it just to stay on it and pound it in the ground, ya know? when we can move on to higher things....

I love that we can do school in our pjs if want ;) and most of the time, we do.

I love that we can take a break and go get a Diet Coke from Chik-Fil- A in the middle of the day... (I still have to have my fix) ;)

I love that we can have lunch together as a family...I love that I can teach "home ec" when I need the house cleaned ;)....I love that we can do whatever the heck we want whenever the heck we want to ;)

It took me a long time to get to this place and I am excited that I feel that I am finally here. You might not understand that, but it was super hard for me to go from the structured, classroom world, to this "fly by the seat of your pants" kind of teaching and learning. I have had to do some serious soul searching to realize that this is the best thing for our family. And while I wasn't aware at the time we decided to do this, all of my school experience has helped me be able to do this also. I was no where near prepared to teach Zack in Kindergarten, so I am thankful for that Kindergarten year he had in school...and my year teaching Kindergarten last year... that has led me to be able to teach Wyatt Kindergarten skills now. I am glad Zack got those fundamentals in K, bc I did not know then what I know now. :)

Anyway, if you made it through my ramblings, thank you :) till next time.......

2 things.....

I consider myself to be a fairly tolerant person. I am getting more conservative in my views, yes, but in general, I can disagree with you and still be friends with you. There are two things, however, I can not and will not tolerate. Besides the most horrible things you can imagine - child abuse, rape, murder, ect... I LOATHE liars and thieves.

I'm sure this post will be vague to most of you, so I apologize in advance, but the blog must go on.

I can not stand ***saying it again with force *** CAN NOT STAND someone who lies to me. I CAN NOT STAND someone who lies to the people I love and hurts the people that I love. I CAN NOT STAND thieves and cheaters who walk around thinking NOTHING of the lies that are coming out of their mouths. I wonder what in the heck is wrong with to a person when they can just walk around and spit lies out all the time like it is nothing.

I can not stand when someone only calls you when they want money.

I can not stand when someone makes up a lie to cover another lie that they told to a friend of yours.

It HURTS me to think that I know someone so very close that has lied to me soooo many times and hurt people I love. It disappoints me to think that there is probably not a darn thing I can do about it at all.

As a friend, daughter, sister, aunt, wife, mother, etc., I guess my goal is to protect those around me. Today, I feel like my trust has been shattered and will never be regained. This has been long coming and its really sad when you say (and truly believe it) "I can not trust one thing you say to me." This really hurts me to say, but I am sooooo tired of the lies. I want to help this person, but I really think they do not want the help. So what do I do? All I can do is pray.

My boys...

I am super proud of my kiddos and I don't say it often enough. Zack is doing great being homeschooled and has rarely missed his "friends." I use that word lightly, because those "friends" who were real "friends" are still our friends outside of school and we still see them....those who weren't, don't really miss us....does that make sense?

He is getting his black belt in Karate in 2 weeks and has worked really hard. He really has grown up a lot in the past year. People often ask me if I am happy with our decision to homeschool......Im not going to lie, it has definitly been an adjustment on everyone's part and there are days we both hate it. BUT, I do think it has been the best for our family. I simply could not send my child back to a school where he was scared to go back. Zack has always been the quiet, reserved type and I think this fits his personality. Sometimes I wonder if I am hindering him making him be with only the family all the time, but ya know, I think that has it's advantages and makes us a stronger, closer family. We are still learning as we go and by no means have it even close to perfected yet, but we are doing what we are suppose to be doing........so, one day at a time...one day at a time.

Wyatt will be 4 in 2 weeks. He is quirky and sweet and has came up with all kinds of Wyatt-isms lately..

• tormadoes = tomatoes
• we were in Nashville and passed a lot of HUGE, million $$ houses... I told him to look at them and he said "thats where Princess Peach lives." haha
• he asked me if we were in Murfreesboro - I said yes - he said "are we going to have a tornado?" LOL....guess it runs in the fam
• elamator = elevator
• he doesnt like "pumpkinronis" = pepperonis
• he will down a salad in no time flat
• he loves to give kisses and snuggle and still rubs my ear or whoever is near by's ear, when he is sleepy :)

I love both my boys so much and in their own, unique way.

more to come......

Starting again....

So I hope I have readers :) I haven't blogged in awhile and I miss it! I use to record a lot of my kids' happenings here...so here we go again.

Let's see - what has happened since May of 2009....

• I taught Kindergarten at Zack's school all year long of 09-10 I loved those little guys and miss them a lot!
• We decided we were called to homeschool...so we are....
• Wyatt turned 3 and is getting ready to turn 4 in 12 days
• Zack turned 8
• Scott's other granny, whom I considered my own, died in March
• Zack played baseball in the Spring of 2010 and loved it!
• Wyatt was finally potty trained - thank the heavens!
• I have started running and doing Zumba! And Im totally addicted to Zumba! whohoo!

Thats all I can think of right now.. more to come in the next few days Im sure ;)

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