Freebies
I forgot to say that at Mom's Night Out they had a freebie table. What a great idea. I now can put things THERE when we move instead of sending them to Goodwill.
I picked up a set of an economics course from BJU (complete with 3 workbooks, teacher manual and tests), a book called "Webbing with Literature" that looks like it will easily integrate with TOG and two copies of Zoobook.
One of my greatest finds was a copy of *The Old Schoolhouse*. Being a visual- show me type person I have been wanting to see a copy of this magazine to decide if I want to subscribe. The last homeschool magazines I received were years and years ago. I quit getting them because they were ALWAYS late and saying "forgive us we're a homeschool family". I always wanted to write back and say "Money's short - we're a homeschool family - don't worry if my payment is 6 months late". :::snort::: That's sort of my pet peeve. I'm always willing to extend grace when situations are out of a persons control but these were two well-known business names, they took my money, and I felt that they should publish on time instead of sending little notes explaining why they never published on time. Both magazines were also from a very definite theological background - and it didn't really match mine. LOL This was so LONG ago that the internet was JUST getting popular and I decided that the internet would have support that I needed in a timely fashion. However, this magazine looks like it may be a fun one to have and at least it LOOKS very professional. If any of you have done business with them - feel free to warn me if they are late each month. LOL I'm excited to sit and wait somewhere and read this. Sitting and waiting time will not be hard to find....I still have to deal with Tri-care today in an attempt to make two appointments. LOL
My greatest find is another program I've been wanting to SEE. Jodi, I picked up the Yellow Book of Learning Language Arts through Literature for FREE. The lady who had it on the table said she's had it for free at three meetings and no one ever picked it up. She said that she didn't think people realized what it was. I agree. LOL I'm excited to check it out - but I'm not sure the level is one that "fits" for us this year.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Monday, August 28, 2006
A better Monday than last week!
God really loves Mike…it has been raining all day….in fact….there had to be 2 rescue attempts for cars on the main road that connects our street to others… Of course, I know that God loves us even when we don’t see tangible results to our prayers…but I can’t help taking all this rain as a sign. We were 4 days away from having NO rain in the entire month of August. It would have been a record for this area. I felt sort of “unscriptural” for letting the rain remind me that God loves Mike….but then I realized…hey God likes to give us SIGNS. Remember the rainbow to remind us that he’ll never flood the earth again? And all the feasts to remind the Israelites of His might work among them? And The Lords Supper? I guess He won’t mind if the rain from here on out reminds me that He cares about the things we care about and that He loves us. {G}
I moved the antique hope chest from the foot of our bed and moved Stacia’s crib from the middle of the room to the foot of the bed. Now I realize that it is directly under the ceiling fan – so this may not work. I wish I was the type that could visualize WITHOUT moving furniture. LOL
I spent quite a bit of time on the phone today. Anytime I have to call tri-care (handle medical appointments and such), I cringe. I had hoped to get an appointment for Josiah to get his acne meds refilled….but oh no….that is not to be. I’m not sure WHY but the girl didn’t want to give us an appointment. She then decided that she would talk to the doctor about simply refilling the med. That would be fine. I’m not sure what they decided!
We then called Walgreen’s to make sure that if we got Krista a prescription she would be able to have it refilled in Spokane. She had meds when she lived here but they had to be refilled at a base – and the base was 45 min across town. This doesn’t seem like too long of a drive every few months – but with their incredible schedule – it was. Walgreen’s is less than a block from the church where they host Master’s Commission. I figure they’ll give her time to walk a block. She is trying Proactive but seem to need the meds as well. Since Walgreen’s can do this, ALL that remained was getting an appointment for her to get the script. Locally the appointment line told me to call national. National they told me to call local. National was snippy and totally unhelpful – she couldn’t even give me the number of the local service center. I called the chapel and got a machine. I asked Mike to let me know if he had a number for the local tri-care service center. I hung up – BUT evidently our phone doesn’t’ always hang up. I mean you could hear the click on the machine. . . but then you could hear me turn to Bre and say, “every time you have to deal with tri-care it’s a pain in the butt” and I went on to detail my frustration. ::::blush::: I hesitated to share that – but I’ve asked God to forgive me and well…it was sort of funny and should remind you all that I don’t claim to be perfect...of course the fact that my tirade was caught on the chapel answering machine only made it more ironic. One of the chaplains did preach yesterday on humility and pride…I guess I was humbled. I called the patient advocate and left a message that I needed to talk to someone that would let me know if I could have my college-age dd who was home seen about moles and acne. I’ve not heard back on either Josiah or Krista’s appointments…which means tomorrow will be another day of dealing with tri-care.
We DID manage to get an appointment set up with our neighbor to go get facials and makeovers on Friday.
While Stacia napped, Krista and I ran to Sam’s club. I bought MILK (we are ALWAYS OUT!!!) and formula. I also ordered a cake, and lots of deli trays for Mike’s promotion reception on Thursday. Any of you local folks are welcome to attend in the base Fellowship Hall at 1:00 p.m.
Tonight was the first Mom’s Night Out of our homeschool support group. The night has been changed to Monday this year (last year it was on Tuesday and which is Ladies Bible Study night at the chapel).I look forward to attending. (Did you read that Adrienne? A is the director of MNO :::snort::J.) Tricia picked me up and it was fun to drive over with a friend. I enjoyed myself. Adrienne didn’t warn us that those who had been schooling a while would be leading small groups – and we’ll have to give her a hard time about that, but it was all fun.
Now – I’m ready to draw the day to a close.
God really loves Mike…it has been raining all day….in fact….there had to be 2 rescue attempts for cars on the main road that connects our street to others… Of course, I know that God loves us even when we don’t see tangible results to our prayers…but I can’t help taking all this rain as a sign. We were 4 days away from having NO rain in the entire month of August. It would have been a record for this area. I felt sort of “unscriptural” for letting the rain remind me that God loves Mike….but then I realized…hey God likes to give us SIGNS. Remember the rainbow to remind us that he’ll never flood the earth again? And all the feasts to remind the Israelites of His might work among them? And The Lords Supper? I guess He won’t mind if the rain from here on out reminds me that He cares about the things we care about and that He loves us. {G}
I moved the antique hope chest from the foot of our bed and moved Stacia’s crib from the middle of the room to the foot of the bed. Now I realize that it is directly under the ceiling fan – so this may not work. I wish I was the type that could visualize WITHOUT moving furniture. LOL
I spent quite a bit of time on the phone today. Anytime I have to call tri-care (handle medical appointments and such), I cringe. I had hoped to get an appointment for Josiah to get his acne meds refilled….but oh no….that is not to be. I’m not sure WHY but the girl didn’t want to give us an appointment. She then decided that she would talk to the doctor about simply refilling the med. That would be fine. I’m not sure what they decided!
We then called Walgreen’s to make sure that if we got Krista a prescription she would be able to have it refilled in Spokane. She had meds when she lived here but they had to be refilled at a base – and the base was 45 min across town. This doesn’t seem like too long of a drive every few months – but with their incredible schedule – it was. Walgreen’s is less than a block from the church where they host Master’s Commission. I figure they’ll give her time to walk a block. She is trying Proactive but seem to need the meds as well. Since Walgreen’s can do this, ALL that remained was getting an appointment for her to get the script. Locally the appointment line told me to call national. National they told me to call local. National was snippy and totally unhelpful – she couldn’t even give me the number of the local service center. I called the chapel and got a machine. I asked Mike to let me know if he had a number for the local tri-care service center. I hung up – BUT evidently our phone doesn’t’ always hang up. I mean you could hear the click on the machine. . . but then you could hear me turn to Bre and say, “every time you have to deal with tri-care it’s a pain in the butt” and I went on to detail my frustration. ::::blush::: I hesitated to share that – but I’ve asked God to forgive me and well…it was sort of funny and should remind you all that I don’t claim to be perfect...of course the fact that my tirade was caught on the chapel answering machine only made it more ironic. One of the chaplains did preach yesterday on humility and pride…I guess I was humbled. I called the patient advocate and left a message that I needed to talk to someone that would let me know if I could have my college-age dd who was home seen about moles and acne. I’ve not heard back on either Josiah or Krista’s appointments…which means tomorrow will be another day of dealing with tri-care.
We DID manage to get an appointment set up with our neighbor to go get facials and makeovers on Friday.
While Stacia napped, Krista and I ran to Sam’s club. I bought MILK (we are ALWAYS OUT!!!) and formula. I also ordered a cake, and lots of deli trays for Mike’s promotion reception on Thursday. Any of you local folks are welcome to attend in the base Fellowship Hall at 1:00 p.m.
Tonight was the first Mom’s Night Out of our homeschool support group. The night has been changed to Monday this year (last year it was on Tuesday and which is Ladies Bible Study night at the chapel).I look forward to attending. (Did you read that Adrienne? A is the director of MNO :::snort::J.) Tricia picked me up and it was fun to drive over with a friend. I enjoyed myself. Adrienne didn’t warn us that those who had been schooling a while would be leading small groups – and we’ll have to give her a hard time about that, but it was all fun.
Now – I’m ready to draw the day to a close.
Our BIG Project for the Day
This was our big project for the day: getting Tapestry of Grace manuals into page protectors. I thought we may get all 4 years into protectors…but decided to leave year 1 in 5 2” notebooks for the time being and to leave Year 2 still tightly shrink wrapped in it’s SMALL box. Here you see the kids as they started the project, shortly before noon.
Bre helped out of the goodness of her heart. She worked on year 4. She got the intro, unit one and unit two into protectors. Arielle completed unit 2. Nolan did about ½ of unit 3. Jared helped him finish. Jared slit all the protectors to allow the tabbed pages to fit inside. He did this for year 3 and 4. It took over 4 ½ hours. We decided to work on the rest later. This was much quicker than me trying to do both years alone. I paid the three children. They earned a penny a page and .15 for each tabbed page.
To think I thought I could fit it all in 2 3 inch notebooks. Here is all of year 3 in protected binders. Bre was impressed to see that each year plan has 12 years of school included in it. Maybe she was thinking I’ll pass it down to grandkids when I’m done…..
This was our big project for the day: getting Tapestry of Grace manuals into page protectors. I thought we may get all 4 years into protectors…but decided to leave year 1 in 5 2” notebooks for the time being and to leave Year 2 still tightly shrink wrapped in it’s SMALL box. Here you see the kids as they started the project, shortly before noon.
Bre helped out of the goodness of her heart. She worked on year 4. She got the intro, unit one and unit two into protectors. Arielle completed unit 2. Nolan did about ½ of unit 3. Jared helped him finish. Jared slit all the protectors to allow the tabbed pages to fit inside. He did this for year 3 and 4. It took over 4 ½ hours. We decided to work on the rest later. This was much quicker than me trying to do both years alone. I paid the three children. They earned a penny a page and .15 for each tabbed page.To think I thought I could fit it all in 2 3 inch notebooks. Here is all of year 3 in protected binders. Bre was impressed to see that each year plan has 12 years of school included in it. Maybe she was thinking I’ll pass it down to grandkids when I’m done…..
I’ve been trying to post this all day. Some days things simply don’t go as planned.
I awoke to discover that a cookie bandit had struck. You can’t really see the cookies well but this WAS full last night when I went to bed. This a.m. it was opened, ½ full, and there were two little cars parked next to cookie and brownie crumbs.
Nope – they don’t seem to feel to deprived with the rapadura and honey baking…..not if they still raid the cookie jar.
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Krista, Mike and I went to the traditional service this a.m.
Krista and I zipped home right after service. Mike stayed to visit with a few folks who needed to talk to him.
I got many comments on my new dress – I’m starting to look the part I suppose. ::snort::: I still prefer the jeans and tanks that I wore to the contemporary service tonight! BTW I figured out that if I wear the tanks that are to low BACKWARDS they are classy and modest. LOL
When we got home I was totally impressed at what the other kids had accomplished in the hour we were gone. Salads were made, living room was picked up….I made hamburger patties, roasted some veggies and made a sauce for fruit salad…..
Steve and Debby and their two boys (Steven and Michael) came over for the afternoon. The adults had a good time “fellowshipping” while the boys and our older ones Bre – Jared played monopoly. The storm began during the afternoon and Jared and Krista ran out to play in the rain! LOL
Service was great tonight. Things are really, really gelling in the service and it is awesome. Now here’s a funny…..Mike has been wondering who to assign to the service for the time he is deployed. They had requested a man be sent here who could do the student service....and got a wonderful new chaplain. The thing that made assigning services so challenging, however, is that the new chaplain is an Episcopalian priest. I told Mike that we’d prayed and to wait and see. Would you believe that the new chaplain was formerly Church of God before becoming Episcopalian and is comfortable in contemporary? He is going to be just fine in the service for 6 months…God has such a sense of humor because Mike was raised Episcopalian and is now Pentecostal. :::snort:::
Krista and I zipped home right after service. Mike stayed to visit with a few folks who needed to talk to him.
I got many comments on my new dress – I’m starting to look the part I suppose. ::snort::: I still prefer the jeans and tanks that I wore to the contemporary service tonight! BTW I figured out that if I wear the tanks that are to low BACKWARDS they are classy and modest. LOL
When we got home I was totally impressed at what the other kids had accomplished in the hour we were gone. Salads were made, living room was picked up….I made hamburger patties, roasted some veggies and made a sauce for fruit salad…..
Steve and Debby and their two boys (Steven and Michael) came over for the afternoon. The adults had a good time “fellowshipping” while the boys and our older ones Bre – Jared played monopoly. The storm began during the afternoon and Jared and Krista ran out to play in the rain! LOL
Service was great tonight. Things are really, really gelling in the service and it is awesome. Now here’s a funny…..Mike has been wondering who to assign to the service for the time he is deployed. They had requested a man be sent here who could do the student service....and got a wonderful new chaplain. The thing that made assigning services so challenging, however, is that the new chaplain is an Episcopalian priest. I told Mike that we’d prayed and to wait and see. Would you believe that the new chaplain was formerly Church of God before becoming Episcopalian and is comfortable in contemporary? He is going to be just fine in the service for 6 months…God has such a sense of humor because Mike was raised Episcopalian and is now Pentecostal. :::snort:::
Background: We’ve had no rain in the month of August. We’ve had very little rain in July. Mike loves big thunder storms. He has been asking God to let him see rain before he deploys to the desert.
Today it rained. It poured all afternoon. The streets flooded. There was lightening and big gray clouds all around. There was rolling thunder. And God reminded Mike that He has Mike is His sight and that He has his back…He cares even for the little things….
Here Zander watches the rain storm from the porch.
Today it rained. It poured all afternoon. The streets flooded. There was lightening and big gray clouds all around. There was rolling thunder. And God reminded Mike that He has Mike is His sight and that He has his back…He cares even for the little things….
Here Zander watches the rain storm from the porch.
Saturday, August 26, 2006
SHOPPING SPREE
I finally got Stacia back to bed at about 5:30 this morning. I slept in until 8:30. When I got up Mike said, grab a shower and let’s go to J. C. Penney. Folks who know me, know that I HATE hanging out at the mall. I don’t shop at the mall. BUT there was a sale on luggage and running shoes and he wanted to check it out. We headed to the mall, and I must admit I was NOT happy at the prices of luggage – even on SALE. I was bored sitting around and watching Mike check the things out. I half-heartedly began to check out the other sales. I found a couple of shirts for the boys….but I was still bored….UNTIL….I noted the women’s department had some clearance racks. ::::snort:::
I have 3 denim jumpers. I have them because they are GREAT after you have a baby…..but the thing is that by this time I should be back into the right side of my closet…and I’m not. I really like vivid, rich colors…and the jumper thing is getting old. I tried to find a nice dress before we went to WA for the girl’s graduation; but I couldn’t find any that were bright and cheerful….and anything I found was more $ than I wanted to spend. It was with interest that I glimpsed a second sign that said “take an additional 50% off clearance…75% off”. This held promise. I told Mike I was going to check out the ladies department. I found 4 dresses that fit, that I like, that were $17 each…down from $80 each. HOOT HOOT! I also found a pant suit…that I may wear to something sort of “official” or not…..I really haven’t had to make any command performances at the spouses club on base….but if necessary; I’m set. {bg}
Mike came back from checking the entire mall for luggage and noted my good finds. He then suggested that we zip over to Sam’s to see what sort of luggage they had. I called the girls and told them to get over to Penneys and that we’d be back from Sam’s to pay for whatever they found. Bre needed more time to gussy up. Krista hopped in the car. We found nothing that would work for luggage at Sam’s. I did buy groceries for dinner tomorrow. We are having some friends over after chapel. Anyway, back at Penneys: Mike continued to check out the luggage at Penneys while Krista and I checked out the Jr dept this time. She found some really cute things…skirts, dresses, jeans, shirts…all on sale. She’s set for under $80. Mike surfaced with two 30” samsonites. He was a bit taken aback that we had another huge bag and were ready to move on.
After our mad shopping spree Mike wanted to take me to lunch. Krista took the van home and we took her car out for lunch. Eating out is always nice. Then we stopped at Office Depot so that Mike could buy a jump drive for the trip. I was very frustrated when the salesmen told me that I CANNOT buy the HP battery I need for my IPAQ. Less than a year ago THEY were the ones that told me if I had an IPAQ I could buy the battery right off the shelf. Not so – now they carry PALM! Which is what I had and the battery went out - I didn’t want to mess with sending it away for a new battery. ARGH. I’m not happy about this.
Steve and Debby dropped by. Steve fixed Krista’s laptop. Somehow her password got changed and she couldn’t get into it – but we all attended hacker 101 and learned how to get around such things. Steve also tried to figure out what is wrong with our network. He is doing some more studying on that and may try to fix it tomorrow at lunch.
I made brownies and home made ice cream for tomorrow. As soon as the ice cream started churning I headed BACK to the mall with Bre. Bre found some capris, jeans, skirts, tops and such…..also for about $80. All in all we saved :::drum roll please:::: $875 today at the mall (Mike’s suitcases were $129 off - each). I doubt that Mike will suggest taking me to the mall again anytime soon…but now the MONSTER has been reawakened. Last time I was a mall rat was when Karen and I would hang out there during the time we lived in San Antonio. She always said to wait for the sales and then the mall was just as cheap or cheaper than Wal-Mart…today proved that…so I’ll begin to pay more attention to the sales flyers…but really I need to probably stay out of the mall….unless…like today, I have specific things I’m looking for. I know I need to find some pants for the boys that have the adjustable waists…..
I finally got Stacia back to bed at about 5:30 this morning. I slept in until 8:30. When I got up Mike said, grab a shower and let’s go to J. C. Penney. Folks who know me, know that I HATE hanging out at the mall. I don’t shop at the mall. BUT there was a sale on luggage and running shoes and he wanted to check it out. We headed to the mall, and I must admit I was NOT happy at the prices of luggage – even on SALE. I was bored sitting around and watching Mike check the things out. I half-heartedly began to check out the other sales. I found a couple of shirts for the boys….but I was still bored….UNTIL….I noted the women’s department had some clearance racks. ::::snort:::
I have 3 denim jumpers. I have them because they are GREAT after you have a baby…..but the thing is that by this time I should be back into the right side of my closet…and I’m not. I really like vivid, rich colors…and the jumper thing is getting old. I tried to find a nice dress before we went to WA for the girl’s graduation; but I couldn’t find any that were bright and cheerful….and anything I found was more $ than I wanted to spend. It was with interest that I glimpsed a second sign that said “take an additional 50% off clearance…75% off”. This held promise. I told Mike I was going to check out the ladies department. I found 4 dresses that fit, that I like, that were $17 each…down from $80 each. HOOT HOOT! I also found a pant suit…that I may wear to something sort of “official” or not…..I really haven’t had to make any command performances at the spouses club on base….but if necessary; I’m set. {bg}
Mike came back from checking the entire mall for luggage and noted my good finds. He then suggested that we zip over to Sam’s to see what sort of luggage they had. I called the girls and told them to get over to Penneys and that we’d be back from Sam’s to pay for whatever they found. Bre needed more time to gussy up. Krista hopped in the car. We found nothing that would work for luggage at Sam’s. I did buy groceries for dinner tomorrow. We are having some friends over after chapel. Anyway, back at Penneys: Mike continued to check out the luggage at Penneys while Krista and I checked out the Jr dept this time. She found some really cute things…skirts, dresses, jeans, shirts…all on sale. She’s set for under $80. Mike surfaced with two 30” samsonites. He was a bit taken aback that we had another huge bag and were ready to move on.
After our mad shopping spree Mike wanted to take me to lunch. Krista took the van home and we took her car out for lunch. Eating out is always nice. Then we stopped at Office Depot so that Mike could buy a jump drive for the trip. I was very frustrated when the salesmen told me that I CANNOT buy the HP battery I need for my IPAQ. Less than a year ago THEY were the ones that told me if I had an IPAQ I could buy the battery right off the shelf. Not so – now they carry PALM! Which is what I had and the battery went out - I didn’t want to mess with sending it away for a new battery. ARGH. I’m not happy about this.
Steve and Debby dropped by. Steve fixed Krista’s laptop. Somehow her password got changed and she couldn’t get into it – but we all attended hacker 101 and learned how to get around such things. Steve also tried to figure out what is wrong with our network. He is doing some more studying on that and may try to fix it tomorrow at lunch.
I made brownies and home made ice cream for tomorrow. As soon as the ice cream started churning I headed BACK to the mall with Bre. Bre found some capris, jeans, skirts, tops and such…..also for about $80. All in all we saved :::drum roll please:::: $875 today at the mall (Mike’s suitcases were $129 off - each). I doubt that Mike will suggest taking me to the mall again anytime soon…but now the MONSTER has been reawakened. Last time I was a mall rat was when Karen and I would hang out there during the time we lived in San Antonio. She always said to wait for the sales and then the mall was just as cheap or cheaper than Wal-Mart…today proved that…so I’ll begin to pay more attention to the sales flyers…but really I need to probably stay out of the mall….unless…like today, I have specific things I’m looking for. I know I need to find some pants for the boys that have the adjustable waists…..
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