Hello, Goodbye.

As some of you may or may not know, I have once again entered the college system. I am excited and overwhelmed. My posts on this blog will most likely be suspended for awhile, not like I have really made any effort to post here frequently as of late anyway. I have decided to get my AA in Art, as well as an AA in elementary education. With that said, I have been trying to earn revenue through another blog of mine, It's Easy Being Green. On this blog you can be assured to hear from me at least once a week. If you are missing me and mine, check us out there, or do one better, pick up the phone, write me an email. My regular mailbox works as well, although all I ever seem to get in it are bills and crap, so maybe it's broken after all.

Black Belt

A night of Solo's...

Kenan's very first solo performance.

The boy who turned into a (almost) man.

right after Aunt Jenna got him to try salmon roe.

Yes Kenan had his birthday, the kid turned 14. He's cool, yada, yada, yada. Ash will create one of his original video masterpieces soon, very soon. All else is well.

Me and my boys.

Chad and his girl.

All right, already...

Some people have been pressuring me to write more in my blog lately, (are you satisfied?) the truth is, I haven't really had much to say. Life, lately has been a series of tiny ups and really big downs, so to sit and philosophize has not been upmost in my head. I figured that I would just write about our year, last year, without all the downs.

In the beginning of last year Kenan was still fucking off in school so I am extremely excited to say that he made the honor roll the first nine weeks and it looks like he will make it again this nine weeks, we will find out the beginning of February. He has been doing so well in school, taking advanced classes even, that he has been scouted by a few of the high schools to join their various programs, a pre-international baccalaureate program, a dual-enrollment where he can possibly earn an AA degree at the same time as his high school diploma, and the one he is really interested in a Vet asssistance program. His current plans for his future is to become a biologist, so he can be a vet in zoos and work with the big animals. So we are very proud of him and how he has matured this year. He will be 14 in a month and is turning into an upstanding man.

Genevieve is still her same old independent spritey self. She has fun, is fearless, and loves to laugh. This year she has also been doing well in school, she is jumping leaps and bounds with her reading and math skills, which has made us very proud. She is quickly growing into a young woman, with all the complicities that implies.

Ashton has also matured this year, his schooling is coming along great, we are focusing mostly on life skills, and he is rising to the challenge of being an independent adult. I love getting to spend all day with him, he has an awesome sense of humor, and an uncommon sense of peace about him that makes everyone love him.

Chad and I are still plugging along day to day trying to find our niche in this life. Trying to stay connected to one another, while the hassles of everyday try and keep us complacent.

I am extremely excited and hopeful now that our current President is in office, and from what I have seen so far from him he has yet to disappoint. I actually saw the inauguration, the first one ever for me, and I was inspired. The man is an amazing speaker. So I hope that this year is better for us as a family, last year was a bit hard, but no matter. I have hope, and I have ambition. Everyday I remind myself all of the things I am working toward and not to be distracted, all of the things I can be thankful for. Happy New Year everyone, let it be a good one.

(we ended up having a Mardi Gras Xmas, more pictures to come soon.)

..and Xmas is right around the corner.

retrieving Xmas decorations



this wierd mutant came out of nowhere


nothing says Xmas like: making cookies in your great grandpa's jacket on a cold night with a bowl of tomato soup and a cup of hot lady grey

Thanksgiving was great!

she's my cherry cola, he's my giant, he's my cheese

say turkey

love

Redhead....

She's getting a haircut.

This one's for the freckles.

Such pretty features.

Because she loves frogs.

Peace, Love, and I hope your Halloween was as fun as ours.

Oops I forgot my favorite...

One freebie I forgot to mention that I use every week -yoga today- Click the tab that says get started, then go to watch classes. they give a wide variety of classes from beginner to advance, and they add classes daily. They are very good in explaining what to do if you have never taken yoga before and I like practicing in the privacy of my own home. Use this one if you don't use any of the others. Namaste.


p.s. I received the necklace from the silver jewelry club for Evie and it's very nice, she is going to love it. If you need any more recommendations ;) call Jenna, she's the new expert on that site.

Tae Kwon Do testing

I have been wanting to do this for forever, here is a video of the kids last month at their Tae Kwon Do testing. Evie tested for a green belt, Kenan a purple, and Ashton a red belt with two black tips. (that's one away from black).

(sorry about the sideways video, bad habit, and I can't figure out how to rotate it with Vista)

Free Stuff

This post is just what it says it is, free stuff.

Pandora Radio - I found this by accident and love it, it is a radio station online that lets you pick an artist or a song and then creates a station based on that selection. You can make as many stations as you like and I have never received any type of email or solicitation from them.

Freecycle - this an organization run by people in your community. You fill out a short questionnaire, it might even be just one question, about why you want to join, then when you are accepted you are connected to people who are giving things away. You can even request things that you need. It was started to keep things out of the landfills, the whole 'one man's trash is another's treasure' philosophy.

Game Goo, Poptropica, and Starfall - these are all sites that Ashton and I use for school. Game Goo provides help for him in reading, Ash and Evie both read by remembering, instead of phonetically, his therapist recommended this site for him. Poptropica is a fun interactive game, he has to problem solve in order to 'save the day' for his character. The only thing is you have to be able to read, while the character's 'talk' to you, they do it in a comic book form bubble. It's fun, I even enjoy sitting with him, trying to solve the clues. Starfall I have mentioned before, this is a great site for your beginning reader, they sound things out loud so if he is having trouble with a word he can just click on it, and they will say it for him. This has levels from pre-k to 1st/ 2nd grade. We also use a math site called Math Fact Cafe that has different grade levels going up to 4th grade. There are math worksheets you can print out, flashcards you can do online, or you can customize your own worksheets. One more, this site lets you make a wordsearch puzzle, you can customize it as well.

Now here are a few things I found in an article which inspired this post. I have checked each website, but haven't actually tried them yet.

Silver Jewelry - this looked interesting I went and checked the site, it looks like they offer things for about 15 minutes each, but you can visit the site and see a preview of what's to come and they will email you when what you like is available. We'll see, now that my kids are getting girlfriends and such, it seems like an inexpensive way to impress them ;) The only thing you pay for is the shipping and handling ($6.99) The woman who wrote the article said she is allergic to nickel silver and they were great.
p.s. I just ordered a necklace for Evie, for Xmas, you get the pendant free, but the chain cost me $4 for a 16 inch one, so in all I paid $10.99 I'll let you know if it was worth it or not.


Free language lessons - I just signed up to take french, they email you weekly lessons, and at the end of it they send you a certificate.

Directory assistance - the article says instead of paying to get a number from 411, dial 1-800-free-411. The reason it's free is you listen to a 10 second ad before getting the number.

There are tons of stuff online you just have to look for it, kind of like thrift store shopping. Whenever I am looking for something I always type free in the search box.

Bragging Rights

A new musical instrument has joined our family, so exciting! Kenan joined band, and is now learning how to play the saxophone. So he can play saxophone, organ (by ear), as well as the piano, and he plays guitar and can sing (he even has a song recorded.) Evie can play the drums like a genius, and tries hard to play the bass and guitar, she even sings. Chad plays bass, guitar, dabbles on the drums, and sings. Ashton and I, scream and warble, respectively, along with the rest of them. It's like a Partridge family extravaganza. Anyone want to donate a bus?

Games, Games, All Day Long!

narration:

So the movie starts with a typical day at school, it just happens to be at the beach.

Then we move on to a restaurant Ash likes called the Thirsty Turtle, it has a few games to be played, they have great chicken wings the kids love, Ash had a burger as well, the kid can eat. The next day, Monday, was his birthday.

The theme of the day was 'all day long we play games', that's what he wanted

to do. Chad and I bought him some darts, Kenan got him a comic called Magic Pickle (Ashton loooves pickles), and Evie some posters, grandma and poppa, and Uncle Jimbo gave him,

gift certificates from Game Stop.

Off we headed to enjoy the day, first a little bowling, where Ashton scored spares and a strike, but alas Dad was still the big winner of the day,then

the arcade, next to spend some dough at

Game Stop, and finally where he really wanted to be at Grandma's.

(I think it has to do with the fact that she lets him play games,

watch t.v., and drink soda all simultaneously) all things that are rare at our house,

but "that's what grandma's are for." Ashton and Kenan tried out all the games that he bought at Game Stop while

Chad decorated a Darth Vader birthday cake, and the rest of us made dinner and such. Then on to the traditional

face shoved in the cake, where the newly turned 15 year old was just a bit too big for the old guys.

All in all a great day, Ash is such a fun kid to be around.

Our girl turned 11!

and if you are interested in all the pictures and the story of our day

go here

Evie's bday pictures

Stuff

I have been in a shopping mood,

there are a billion birthdays for me to buy for right now, and back to school shopping, well it had me in a craze.We, as Americans, are conditioned to want things. If your sad, angry, upset, mad, well just do a little shop therapy.

The thing is, the amount of stuff we need doesn't come close to equaling the stuff we want. We are conditioned to think that we have to have these things. When in fact they are really just things. My wonderful husband taught me this lesson, oh, about 10 years ago. I, personally like to buy clothes. It's my weakness, I love fashion. Being in the position we are as a single income family, I can not reasonably go out and indulge this weakness. Oh yeah, every once in a while I break down and splurge on something, but not nearly as much as I want to. Sure I could go out and get a job then I would be a little more justified right? Wrong. In the end it's just stuff, and the time away from my family would not be worth the payoff. I had to put in order the things that were essential to our lives and the things that I just wanted to have. The list is a lot smaller than you might think. I see people in stores all the time promising to buy their child something if they just behave. First of all this is wrong on so many levels. Yoo hoo, your kid is supposed to behave!!!(-but that is another subject all together). What they are teaching their kids is that if you are good then you get a treat. That carries on into adulthood, how many times have you said to yourself "I deserve this." and follow with the excuse as to why. I've done it. The problem with this is, we don't need it.

***

"Earth provides enough to satisfy every mans need, but not every man's greed." -Gandhi

***

That's just it, we are too greedy. We are hurting our environment with our greed and want. We are using up resources that can not be replenished. We are not trying to figure out other options. We sit back with our tongues hanging out in the midst of our treasures hoping someone else will fix the problem. Wake up people, your knight in shining armor is not coming. We have to make conscious decisions and then face the consequences when we don't. The only thing is everyone is paying while we dilly-dally.

Do me a favor and take 20 minutes out of your day and check out this video (thanks Jenna).

It is called The Story of Stuff, it details where all of our stuff comes from and the why behind our economy. I found it interesting. I think you will too.

click here

the fourth

had a good time

went to the beach in the morning

(no pics of that seeing as how some people can't handle it)

left the beach and got supplies, i.e. a big ass bottle of vodka and an arsenal of fireworks

(do we know how to have a good time or what?)

our "adopted son" Joe was with us

stayed at home and blew stuff up

the end.

except for this: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5534913584395455608&hl=en