Snow Flurries in Houston for Joshua's 17th Birthday!

Georgia pix

Everyone asked about you all. It was nice to see Lynn and her kids. We haven't seen them for 3 or 4 years. Wendell and Lamar were in Kansas hunting so we got to see Lamar too. Scott enjoyed seeing many of his cousins for the first time in 16 years.

Heading to Georgia

We were planning to go to Georgia for Thanksgiving but our trip has been moved up a bit. Scott's grandmother passed away last night so we will be leaving tomorrow and returning on Wednesday or Thursday of next week.

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving! LOVE YOU!

Starry Night Teen Dance

We try to throw a teen dance twice a year for the home-school teens in the area. Here are some pix.

Thanks Sis!

I've been tagged
This one is called 6 on 6's (or something like that)...
6 TV shows I like to watch:
1. Extreme Makeover Home edition
2. Top Chef
3. Rachel Ray
4. The Unit
5. House
6. Law and Order

6 Restaurants I like to eat at:
1. Olive Garden
2. Chilli's
3. Red Lobster
4. Sub Way
5. Panda Garden
6. Logan's Steak House

6 things that happened today:
1. Crossed kiddos
2. school
3. going to scrapbook
4. blood work
5. ate breakfast
6. Got Tagged!

6 things I am looking forward to:
1. A week off
2. The Cool Air!
3. Christmas
4. Free Mondays
5. Soup Season!!!
6.

6 things on my wish list:
1. Debt Free
2. Kitchen remodel
3. my glorified body :)
4. Someone to teach Joshua Pre-calculas
5.
6.

Garner State Park

Well, Scott finished the Hilton Garden Inn. So week before last we took a mini vactions. We headed west past San Antonio to Garner State Park. Since it was during the week we had most of the park to our selfs.

We rented a cabin and stayed for a couple of nights. It was nice not to have to cook on a camp stove and to have a refrigerator to store the food in.

We took lots of walks, hiked and did a lot of reading. It was restful time for all of us.

KPRC Channel 2 Tour

On October 28th several LAF families gathered to tour KPRC Channel 2. A great time was had by all. They took us through the entire facility. We went into the control rooms to see all the different aspects of airing programs from audio to inserting commercials. We toured the Studio and learned that gone are the days of having a camera man behind each camera. There is one man that runs the cameras from a booth robotically. We wondered through the Newsroom where all the reporters and anchors work. We got to look at one of the new vans and we even got to watch a live news update.



I would recommend this tour to anyone that is interested in the media. Joshua exclaimed he felt like Charlie in Willie Wonka’s Chocolate factory. That is good for a mama’s heart. :) The tour is limited to 20 individuals for very good reason; it was a tight squeeze in some of those rooms.

HEROES Made Great Strides in October

On October 10th HERO Kids Care Club held a car wash at the Chick-fil-a at Great Wood to benefit Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. This was our 5th annual car wash for CF and we raised over $300 dollars.



On October 25th club members gathered to walk for our 6th year in the Sugar Land Cystic Fibrosis Great Strides Walk. Our Team raised around $4,000 dollars this year. Matthew Hayes was the top fundraiser, raising half of our total.



It’s great time to spend chatting in the cool of the morning as we walk the 5K. Anyone can do it! Our teams’ youngest walker was 6 year old Khloe Tanner. We won’t say who the oldest walker was but the moms all get in on the act too. A few of us have even vowed that we will run it one of these years. :)

First step.... to college

Well, it's coming! College I mean, Joshua took that first step, he took the PSAT. Next will be the SAT. He doesn't want to talk about it.

New workshops

A couple weeks ago we took a tour of The City of Sugar Land City Hall. The boys found it interesting and Jed loved being the photographer. :)

The boys are moving on to their new units in our home school coop. Joshua will be doing a work shop called "Something Worth Fighting For". It is another government class. They are studying the different branches of the government, Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Trevor is doing a Mock Trial workshop once a month and a work Shop called "On the Contrary". In both workshops they work on critical thinking and government. The mock trial workshop they obviously work through the process and procedures of a trial. On the Contrary is a discussion/debate class. They are currently discussing political topics.

Jed is doing a Weather workshop. Their first week they discussed seasons and did a fun relay.

Yesterday we held our 4th Annual Car Wash for CF. It was a beautiful day but we didn't get much business. We mad about $200, about half what we usually make. Two weeks from today we will be walking in the CF Walk. You can sponsor one of the boys by going to: http://tinyurl.com/48ypq5 or http://tinyurl.com/4f2clf

Jed's new paint job

The weekend before Ike we decided to give Mr. Jed a new paint job in his room. I asked him if he'd like to have his room painted and he said yes. When I asked him what color he'd like he said red and blue stripes. Stripes! The boy got what he wanted, almost. I decided to add in the white so it's wouldn't be so dark. He decided he wanted one wall solid after it took me a whole day to tape 3 walls. I had gotten three walls taped and he came in and said, 'It looks good, but I wanted the stripes to go the other way.' Of course this mom said, sorry charlie, the stripes are already there. Who knew he was so opinionated.

Pool Side View

We survived Ike! We now have a pool side view, at least until we get the fence repaired but we came out of the event with very minor damages. Thankfully all our very big trees stayed put and all the branches the fell missed the house.

We were without power for about 36 hours. Scott brought home a generator and we ran the refrigerator and the TV (grandpa would be proud). We all have our priorities, of course food and tv win! We did loose power again last night for about an hour and a half. We finally got our internet service back, but we still have no phone. Internet is very tempermental, it comes and goes. Here's a few pictures for your viewing enjoyment. :) Thanks for the prayers!

Yikes, here comes Ike!

Well, it looks like Ike is heading straight for us. We won't have evacuations because we are far enough inland the surges won't affect us. We are preparing to batten down the hatches. We've filled up with gas and have cases of water, canned goods and ramen noodles. I'm preparing for 3 days without power, Scott is thinking about three weeks. I hope I'm right this time. :) We are charging our cell phones and planning to stay. Love you all. Pray that Ike just disappears!
Bobbi

On the Go...

We have been quite busy over the last few weeks. Try to wrap our minds around this new curriculum and starting the new coop.

Week 2 of the FLAIR coop: Jed heard the Davey Crockett tale. They got to bring a tall about their pet and share it with the class. Jed told the story of his 'Watch Cat.' Which, was actually a true story. Callie our calico would sleep on the end of his bed or in is door. If he got up in the night and came to our bed so did she. :)

Week 3 of the FLAIR coop: Jed learned about Johnny Apple Seed. They all brought there camping list to class to share what they would take camping. (guess who is planning a camping trip for fall when dad's job is complete?) They got to make a little satchel to carry their apple seeds in. Here's a picture of them in front of their apple tree.

The big boys are doing a political science class. Week 2 they had a debate on the war in Iraq. Week 3 they had a round table discussion on Immigration. They each had to come up with a proposal of what should be done about illegal immigration. Joshua proposed that a death penalty and bound be put into place for all illegal immigrants, giving them 4-6 month to leave the country before it goes into affect. :) I heard it was quite the discussion.

Thursday of this week Jed, Trevor and I worked at the food banks food fair for the entire morning. It was a good break from the school routine. It was boiling out but it always makes you feel good to do something for someone else.

As of Monday Joshua's will have had his license for 6 months. His restrictions will be lifted. He will now be able to drive with more than one person outside of the family. He will legally be able to use a cell phone, although he has been told that's still not allowed while driving mandated by mom. I really like the 6 month probations put on kids by the state. It gives them a chance to get in real driving time without distractions of friends and phones.

I'm busy getting ready for our big kick off party for the home-school group, Not Back to School. Hopefully it won't have to be postponed on the count of Gustav. I see that is already a cat 3. I guess we will be watching the weather closely this weekend. I love you all and I'll keep you updated.

American Folklore- 8/11/08

The kids learned about what a folklore, talltale, and myth is. Then they wrote their own about something that happened to them over the summer. They listened to the tale of Paul Bunyan and then practiced their log walking.

BACK TO SCHOOL

Well, the day has come, the summer draws near its end and we hit the books again. I'm not really ready to hit the books again and neither are the boys, so we are going to ease ourselves back into the routine.

We start our coop classes this morning. Joshua and Trevor will be doing a Political
science class. Jedidiah will be doing a American Folklore class. It should be fun.

This year we are using a different base curriculum that I'm really excited about. It is called Tapestry of Grace. Tapestry weaves, history, government, geography, theology, worldview, literature, and writing together. We will be doing their year four: Twentieth Century. So will will be doing 20th century HIStory, geography, government, theology/worldview, and literature. Joshua and Trevor will get in depth study of the 20th century. Jed will study the exciting people and things that happened in the 20th Century. Things like: Helen Keller, Henry Ford, Teddy Rosevelt, the Wright brothers, and all the amazing things that were invented in the twenteith century.

Well, I guess that's it for now. We are about to head out the door for our first day of FLAIR coop classes.

LOVE YA!

Tropical Storm Edourd

Well, it looks as if we have escaped another Hurricane. Edouard never made it to a hurricane status and turned slightly north before making it to Galveston. We will probably have a day of rain but it looks as if we will miss the high winds, flooding and power outages. Praising God and praying for those in the path of Edouard. I remember Tropical Storm Alicia about seven years ago we had flooding, the worst I've ever seen.

The Cast Die Bloopers

The Cast Die

This is a video Joshua made with his friends. It is based on a short story he wrote.

Kids Who Care

I coordinate a club for the home school community in our county called HERO Kids Care Club. HERO stands for Home Educated Reaching Out. What an amazing group of kids, quickly became adults. I started the club in May of '03 so I have been with a lot of the kids for 5 years now and they have done some amazing things.

Our first project was called 'Cool Hats for Kids with Cancer.' We collected and made hats and donated them to MD Anderson. It was an amazing start, we collected over 400 hats and made the Houston Chronicle.

Anyway, yesterday we had our planning meeting to put together a schedule for the new year. I know I keep saying it but, AMAZING! Here is our line-up:

Septemer- Car wash for Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, we have done this for the past 5 years. The boys have a very good friend in the group who has CF.

October-Walk for CF and they will be assembling Happy Sacks for the Homeless. Happy Sack consist of things like crackers, juice, tooth brushes and paste, sunscreen, lip balm, lotion and whatever else we can think of. We sack it all up in a brown lunch sack and keep it in our vehicles for when we see the homeless begging on the street.

November- we will put together Holiday Care Packages for soliders over seas.

December- we will take part in a wreath laying event called Wreaths Across America. WAA mission is to Remeber the fallen, Honor those who serve, and Teach children the value of freedom.

January- We will make lap blankets and plan for our annual valentine's party at the nursing home.

February- Valentine's Party at the Nursing home.

We left March and April open just so we can shuffle things around if something comes up.

May- Actually this project will just end in May. We are going to start collecting/saving soda tabs for The Rondald McDonald House in Galveston. We are hoping to go tour the home when we take them our tabs and then make a stop at the beach, since it's in Galveston. : )

LAF Slideshow 07/08 school year

The Pretender Music Video

Getting Started

I've enjoyed reading so many other peoples blogs that I thought I'd give it a try. I thought it might be a good way to keep in touch with friends and family that are so far away. I also thought it might be a good way to record our happenings for future remembering, an online Scrapbook per say.

Remember, I'm not a writer so forgive my mistakes before hand.

Summer is already drawing to an end. We start back to school in just less than two weeks. We have a class that starts Aug. 11 and we will start back to our home school stuff at least half strength.





Joshua has kept busy running for swim team. Our neighborhood team didn't make this year so he is driving to practice everyday. He just finished up his season Saturday. He swam on both relay teams for the open (ages 15-18) group and breast stroke in the final meet. He did well but didn't make All Stars this year. He also went to work for the local ACE Hardware store. He really likes it. He's made some new friends and learned how to cut glass and keys. : )






Trevor decided he wanted to learn Russian. So we purchased a very basic Russian curriculum before summer began so he could have something to keep himself busy. He has really enjoyed it. Our church as adopted a orphanage in Russian and he's considering going on the mission trip there next summer. He drives us all crazy by responding to us in Russian. He says he would like to learn several languages. Maybe he has found his passion. He has also been making a little extra money by taking care of a widow neighbors yard this summer.



Jedidiah has continued working on his phonics and writing through the summer. He's attended VBS and a summer day camp at church that's held a couple times a month. He is finally getting past his shyness and is starting to talk to more people and even making some friends at church where we have attended for about three and a half years. Jed has taken an interest in photography. He took the picture of himself and the one above of Trevor. The cool thing is the coop we joined for this coming year is doing a photography class for his age group, so maybe he can learn a thing or two.



Scott is staying very busy at work trying to finish up the Sugar Land Hilton Garden in project in some kind of timely fashion. Unfortunately, those on his team are not cooperating. It doesn't look like they will bake their deadline. He has enjoyed the challenge of a larger project and is looking forward to starting another one soon.



I have been doing the usual, cooking, cleaning, taxi driving, and planning for for the up coming school year.