goings on

I know I haven't updated daily but that is a whole lot better than MELISSA! She hasn't updated in months!! And she promised in her last update to do better!! shame on you! :-)

It has been very busy around here. School has started, I'm working one day a week, we're starting new ministries at church, we've had company etc... etc...

One of the most exciting things (which Bobby reprimaned me for not blogging about sooner) is that Annie won a 2nd place with some sewing at the Farmington fair and Lianna entered 2 paintings in 2 different categories and won 2 firsts! One of the paintings also won a Best In Show!! I think this is her 6th year winning the Best In Show!

Both girls had appts. in Portland last week, Lianna to see an orthopedic doctor and Annie to start the procedure for braces again. Lianna only needs to wear a lift in one of her shoes!! no more appts for that doctor which is a good thing because the appt. resembled the one Bobby blogged about! Annie's went well also except that I think she got fed up with them putting trays of plaster in her mouth and taking pictures and x-rays. The interesting thing was the trip down.

I got stopped by the state police! I was traveling south in the Subaru on RT 27 behind another car when a cruiser came screaming north with lights flashing and sirens going. We all pulled over for him to pass and then pulled out to continue. I looked in my rearview mirror to see him pull a"U-ey" ( how does one spell that?) and he pulled me over! I really wasn't speeding or anything! He came up to the car, gun drawn, bending a bit to look inside. When he got to the window it went like this:
"Good morning Ma'am"
"Good morning"
"Where are you coming from?"
"New Portland"
---he chuckles and smiles rather sheepishly--"We had an armed robbery in Waterville and your car matches the descriptionof the get-a-way car to a T! You're obviously not who we're looking for!Sorry to bother you."
He started to walk away but I was laughing at the thought of me pulling an armed robbery with the girls and the Lord hit me with the opportunity so I said:
"Excuse me, can I tell you something?"
"Sure"
"Well, I just wanted to thank you"
"For What?"
"Well you have a thankless and dangerous job and I wanted you to know that there are people out there that appreciate what you do and are praying for you, Keep safe today."
"Ah,,,,ah......ah....um.....ummmmm (mouth flapping) ahh well um thank you!"

I can only imagine what he was thinking!

In school we're studying The French Revolution and Napoleon. For the American part of that era in history we're looking at inventors, Eli Whitney and Robert Fulton. We made a working model of a cotton gin (okay, it's not an exact replica but it demonstrates the idea). Annie was supposed to make a model of the steam boat but said, "I'd really rather make a model of a guillotine!" Can you imagine? Sweet little Annie? ( I think Bobby and Dan Parrott) have had a negative influence here!!) So we now have a mini guillotine! Mike thought the idea was kind of gross but he was a trooper and helped her make it.

Both girls studied Bach for a composer during this Baroque Era study and then moved on to Beethoven. Lianna found it particularly interesting that Beethoven composed for Bonaparte and played for him until he became very pompous and crowned himself emporer at which time Beethoven removed the dedication on the concerto he had dedicated to Napoleone. (yes, that is actually the spelling. Lianna read that in her study and has corrected me many times!)

We are finishing this week with the French Revolution and reign of terror and moving our study more toward England and the Industrial Revolution. We're in the Romantic period continuing on with composers and artists of the time.

We changed quite a few of our curriculums this year and we're loving what we are using for Grammar!! The girls have commented that it is clearer and easier to understand. This is a good thing!

Italian is going well. Better for the girls than for me! I'm having trouble keeping up with it. We've also added Latin this year. They are also better at this than I am! I don't think I have a gift for languages! I am going to plug along though.

Math is going extremely well also except that Annie isn't impressed with geometry! Of course she has just been introduced to new concepts so maybe her impression will change. Lianna is doing so well that I've ordered the next level. It looks as though what I had bought for her was 85% review. She's still a little behind in math so I'm bumping her up. If she has difficulty we can go back to the concept and review it. She needed the challenge!

Annie is studying botany this year and is going to be classifying the house! Not really, just legos and currency. She'll soon be growing things and doing many experiments including making herbal soap out of some herbs she will grow!

Lianna is doing a heavy general science course that includes lots of experiments. I hope she doesn't blow up the house! Of course I can always use that explanation when the house is a wreck!

Mike is keeping busy on a new construction. We had to tear the existing house down before starting the new one. It is interesting but Maddy is doing a great job as foreman--- or is that foredog?

I think that is about it other than my baby boy is about to turn 24 !!!!!!!!Pretty impressive considering 20 years ago we weren't sure he would see 4 due to his severe asthma attacks!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIBBIT!!!!! WE LOVE YOU!! (now aren't you glad you told me to update?)

How time flies!

HEY BOBBY!! HAVE YOU NOTICED HOW LONG IT HAS BEEN SINCE YOUR SISTER BLOGGED???????

Before my son harrasses me about taking to long to blog I thought I'd best sit down and type an entry. Since I last made an entry a lot has happened. We've had our 28th (yes that is 28 Bobby not 30th) anniversary. We worked hard during the day having a wood bee and cookout/birthday party for some elderly neighbors. We asked their son and others from MA to come up as well as some neighbors to help cut their tree length firewood into stove length. There were only 4 show up but they got alot done. For coffee break the girls and I took treats down and the girls stayed to run the wood splitter and stack wood. They all, including the folks this was for, arrived here for lunch. We surprised the lady with cake and ice cream in celebration of her upcoming birthday.

Later Mike took me to Augusta to Home Depot where we picked out some lights for the porch. Augusta restaurants were VERY busy that night so Mike headed to Waterville for dinner at Ruby Tuesdays. Lianna and Annie are very creative! They wanted to do something for us but couldn't figure out how without asking me to take them to a specific place - then I'd know! They made a card and a 'gift certificate' to Olive Garden. The gift certificate was adorable and rather authentic looking right down to the UPC codes on the back (is that what they're called?). I think Olive Garden should have Lianna design theirs! Then they handed us cash. This didn't work out very well because there isn't an OG inWaterville. We called the girls and told them that we showed it to the manager of Ruby's and he said he'd take the gift card as long as he had their permission. There was dead silence on the other end then, "You mean you showed the gift card to him?" Lianna asked incredulously. We chuckled and told her we hadn't but explained the situation and she told us that, " You can go anywhere, we just wanted you to have a night off and be away from the worries and work at home to enjoy each other's company." Isn't that SOO thoughtful?

Sunday was Lianna and my first day at running jr. church. It was very interesting and we both learned and look forward to doing more. We were just getting the kids quiet and taking prayer requests when one pipes up and says, "Where's Tommy?" another replies, "With his Mom, he has diarrhea." !!!!! Lianna was trying not to bust a gut while explaining that we don't have to give all details.

Monday the 28th I worked. I leave at 5:15 a.m. to get there for a 6 hour shift. At 12:30 my replacement hadn't shown up and I was getting anxious to go. Come to find out there was a scheduling conflict and there wasn't a replacement. I have a few weeks off before filling 'snowbirds' shifts and I want to get my bill paid so I stayed for the second shift also. I was VERY tired that night.

Tuesday we started school and tried to get 3 good days under our belts. I said "tried" because we're using a whole new curriculum and style as well as adding Latin in. I usually don't start until after Labor Day but thought the 3 transition days would do us good. I'm very glad we did this. I think we're going to love this new process.

Friday our out of town guests arrived and we headed out for camping. One and a half hour drive, load canoes and kayak with all the gear and head for the island. It was a beautiful day and we got set up rather quickly. Mike was the first one off the rather weak looking rope swing. Someone had tied sticks into it to hold onto because the rope was so thin. One of them caught him just above the eye and there was blood everywhere. It didn't stop him though. The night air was quite chilly but we all kept warm. The weather Saturday was questionable and I resorted to---- I hate to admit this---but I used a cellphone and called Bobby to have him get the i'net forecast. He read that the hurricane that missed them would be hitting us, albeit weakly, Sunday morning. We decided to pack up Saturday evening and head home. We promised all the kids that if it were a nice day we'd take a day outing.

We woke Sunday to partly cloudy and headed to another lake and island where there is a great rope swing. Mike grabbed an older 'park canoe' (built like a kayak sized canoe but without any seat- you sit on the floor) to make sure we had enough watercraft. Bianca, the 17 year old wanted to try the park canoe. We didn't realize that it had sprung a leak and the further she got out the more water it took on. Lianna came along side in her kayak and was trying to play bilge pump with a water gun but couldn't keep up. That's when Bianca screamed! The very large spider family living in the tip of the canoe was getting wet and decided to crawl up her legs to safety! She's a lifeguard and doesn't mind the wet but the spiders were another story!
She was really taking on water and decided to hightail it out of the canoe entirely. She swam the rest of the way with us towing the canoe.

We were able to get a fire started in the firepit on the island for her. Did I mention she was dressed in capris and sweatshirt? She eventually changed into her bathing suit to be dry! Mike and Annie took turns using the rope swing and I took pictures. We hung around the fire for a while until the air changed and then headed back across the water. Lianna and Annie paddled together in a 1 man kayak and the other 4 of us went in the canoe and pulled the leaky canoe behind us. We almost made it! We were about 50 feet away when the skies opened up and let loose!

AFter that we all went for Pizza and then parted company as our friends headed back to MA. I was glad that I got to meet Bianca again. I had only met her once when she was about 2 weeks old. She's grown! She is a very sweet young lady and I hope we get to know her better in the future.

Back to school this week even though we found out Tuesday that we're housing the guest speaker and his wife for 6 days. We have teacher training sessions Saturday for a class our church is going to do. There will be 3 classes and Mike & I were asked to teach one. It's called "Set-Free" and is a program to deal with addictions. It looks to be a busy weekend!

So Bobby, how was that? Do you feel updated? The girls said yesterday that I was pulling a Bobby! Bianca left a couple things here and while I was grocery shopping I picked up some halloween decorations, a huge spider web and lots of little plastic spiders to put in her box before I send her stuff to her!!!

Enjoy your weekend everyone!