Yes, I'm raising mob hitmen.

I told you we were going to smash our pumpkins. I think this is going to become a tradition. We tossed them, stabbed them, dropped them from a ladder, and played batter up.

It was really fun! I'm sure my neighbors thought we were nutty unschoolers once again, but do I care? NO!

The boys were really good about cleaning it up. A few seeds remain but those will disappear in a few days as the critters find them.

When we were finished, DS12 said he felt relaxed now that he had gotten out all that aggression. So I guess it was a stress release as well.

The boys figured out the pumpkins had froze a little so it was more difficult to break them. DS12 experimented with making cuts to see if that assisted in how they fell apart. They also found the moldy parts broke apart more easily.

Of course someone brought up, "What if this was your head?!" Yes, that's why we wear helmets!

Sylvester Calzone

We're watching Jurassic Park last night and during the scene where Jeff Goldblum is in the back of Jeep with the T-Rex bearing down, DS8 says, "Is that Sylvester Calzone?" 

DH and I laughed so hard we couldn't breathe. I ended up with a headache, but it was worth it! Sylvester Stallone will forever be known in our house as Sylvester Calzone!

You've got to be kidding me!!

I rarely click on advertisements. My eyes are trained to avoid the annoying bars of ads, however I saw this ad and had to know more.

Would you pay hundreds of dollars for someone to help you collect and STORE your menstrual blood for the hope in the future, stem cells could be harvested from it?!!!!  Ummm... the only way I'd harvest my menstrual blood is if you PAID ME for it! I'm not about to give away my precious stem cells and then pay someone else for the privilege.

If this is for real, that someday they could harvest stem cells from your period, I hope this is set up like blood donations are. Its just not ethical to collect someone's stem cells for a profit.

Maybe in the future, women will be valued for their life giving stem cells. They will have posh spa centers where we show up once a month, vacuum out our donation and we're spared from 3-4 days of cramping and pain in the ass.

For now your option is to pay this company up to $1500 for them to send you a "collection kit" to FedEx your donation back to them for long term storage! I have no idea what this collection kit is, but I can only imagine.  (Do these FedEx drivers know what they are delivering?)  Check it out for yourself- http://www.celle.com/index.aspx

Bring it!

I want Christmas time! I know we haven't gotten through Thanksgiving yet, but I want Christmas!! Maybe I feel this way because of all the doom and gloom going on right now.  I just want peace and love to fill the planet- Baby! YEAH!

I have a goal to finish my shopping before Thanksgiving so I can spend the rest of the season baking, ringing Salvation Army bells, visiting with friends, sending cards, decorating, crafting, wrapping, singing and praising! I've been going through my recipes and collecting favorites. I've checked out several books from the library, and I'm pouring through, collecting Christmas ideas.

It helps me to get excited about Christmas season as the days grow shorter. Autumn goes by too quickly, and I'd get depressed as it got colder and darker if I didn't have Christmas spirit. Growing up, my family's Christmas season began after Turkey day, amped up at St. Lucia (Dec 13th), peaked on the 25th and lingered until the middle of January. Now that I have my own household, I say let's start November 1st and keep going until the end of January! Spending 3 months spreading love and joy helps to make the winter seem less brutal.

So today we are packing up Halloween decorations and DS8 is looking forward to smashing his pumpkin.

Investation Day

I really should be checking the public school calendar even though we do our own thing. Posse Rats rang the doorbell this morning. I'm heating up hotdogs right now. I could cop attitude that the boycave will be crazy today, but its Friday. Tonight I'm home with DH and we have lots of movies for the weekend.

He brought home from Blockbuster, Spiderman 3, Meet The Robinsons, Pulse (Japanese version),Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, 300, Night Watch, Fido, and Not Another Teen Movie. Obviously not all of these will be watched during our "Friday Family Fun Night". Can you guess which ones will? DH also wants to find time this weekend to see the Bee movie and overload on movie theater popcorn- (thanks Maija!)

Hotdogs are boiling. I'll be right back- I hope. When one enters the Boycave you never know!

I'm back. You bring them food and it gets a little scary, but I did get the standing on the couch, video game controller in hand, salute like you see in that commercial for what, pizza rolls or nuggets? How bad do you think apple juice stains?

Besides all the flicks, I do have hopes to get out and stretch my legs this weekend. I'm anxious to crunch leaves underfoot in the forest. This is my favorite time of year. I love pulling on a fleece jacket and hiking until your cheeks get rosy. Autumn moves through too quickly. Almost as fast as a tray of hotdogs in a room full of tween boys. Its time to bring them a garbage bag and see if anyone even touched the carrots.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Halloween 2007

Crab, Zombie Skateboarder and our cousin, the soccer player- Think grandma will like these?

Happy Halloween!

I had to post the boys in their costumes because they looked so good! I thought DS12 did an excellent job on his zombie makeup and even though we couldn't get the crab legs to stick out, DS8 still rocked it. Now we have way too much candy!!!!

Real life Halloween story

Wisconsin is famous for our creepiest of creeps- Ed Gein, Jeffery Dahmer. I read this news story and couldn't help but see life imitate art.  How fitting this is on Halloween, just like the movie with Jamie Lee Curtis. I feel for his family.

http://www.channel3000.com/news/14473535/detail.html

International Crane Foundation

From 22 to 500

Yesterday we had the pleasure of visiting the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, WI. It was a gorgeous day and we saw gorgeous birds! We learned there are only 15 species of crane left in the world and on our North American continent, only 2 species remain, Sandhill and Whoopping.

The ICF is trying to save these amazing birds and their efforts have helped the Whoopers grow from 22 to 500. But still, that's only 500 left in the entire world!! Yikes!!! The Whoopers have a beautiful habitat at ICF. You can observe them in a natural setting. It was very peaceful and moving for me, to be looking at 2 left of 500. My photo doesn't do them justice.

Most of the other species of crane are displayed in a fenced off enclosure. (Someday they hope to build more habitats.)  As we approached each species, they would come right up to us! I was surprised to see Sandhill cranes were gray not brown. I learned in the wild, Sandhills paint themselves with mud! Before they began building more homes next to us, we'd often see Sandhill cranes grazing on the left over grain. Since the homes went up, we've haven't seen the cranes anymore.

After our field trip, we enjoyed a picnic lunch and hiking at Mirror Lake State Park with our fellow homeschooling friends.

On our way home DS8 asked, "Mom, when are we going to see the cranes?"

"WHAT!!?? We just saw the cranes at the crane center!"

"No, when are we going to see the big, tall cranes that build buildings?"

DS8 actually had a great time at ICF for the most part. He kept our tour guide busy asking her all kinds of questions. At one point I was actually embarrassed, and I had to stop myself from stopping him. I'm still de-schooling myself. I was brought up to stay quiet and listen only. DS8 still has that desire to question everything. Thankfully our tour guide, Rita, was patient!

http://www.savingcranes.org/

Carving Jacks..

(Ok I can't figure out yet how to post more than one snap in a post. I tried to use photobucket but I'm getting a message I have to update and I'm too lazy right now to work through that. I'm going to just try this using Multiply.)

Except for me cutting the top off, the boys did everything themselves. In years past, I've got stuck scraping guts and making cuts. I think you can tell from the snaps, they had a great time. Give a boy a knife and how can they not have fun?!

 I love the picture of Yumi reaching out her paw to claw DS12. She thinks she's being sneaky, hiding behind the curtain! LOL!

Trick or Treat!

Here is DS8 trick or treating at Great Grandma's nursing home. It was very cute. They had many of the residents lined up, circling throughout the center.  The children paraded around in their costumes, stopping at each resident to get a smile and a piece of candy.  The staff  made sure each resident had candy and there was more than enough to go around. This was our first time trick or treating this way, and I'm regretting we hadn't tried this sooner. Of course this is our first Halloween with Grandma in a nursing home, but you didn't need to have family in the home to trick or treat there. The public was invited. It was such a great idea. If you have children and need a safe place to trick or treat, look into nursing homes in your area!

Thanks for accepting my invites!

I feel like the party's about to start! Thanks to everyone who's accepted my Multiply invites. Its great to see everyone here and to make new friends as well!

Last night we had our dress rehearsal. We discovered green is not the best color choice for zombie makeup. DS12 ended up looking like The Creature from The Black Lagoon. I'm sorry I didn't get a picture before he washed it off.

DS8's Lobster/crab suit needs some adjusting on claw length. They were dragging on the ground.  He still managed to crawl through the haunted maze at our friends' Karate school party. He really looked more like a crab when he was scurrying on all fours.

I headed into town once again to find blue and gray makeup so hopefully tomorrow DS12 will be more zombie like. I promise to take pictures this time.

We plan on watching monster movies, carving our pumpkins and popping corn tonight. I love fall!

Tomorrow its road trip time to K-town to say hello to Great Grandma in our costumes and trick or treat in her town.

Thankfully my sore throat has been chased away by all the fruits and veg I've eaten along with lots of fluid and sleeping in. I feel like I've won this first battle but the war isn't over. Flu season is just getting started.

Oh! I had another bad dream last night! I was riding in a car when we hit a traffic jam. A man walked up to the car with a gun. I jumped into the back of the car and grabbed DS8 into my arms. The man moved around to the rear window which was partially rolled down. He pointed the gun at me and I begged and pleaded for him not to shoot. He ended up throwing up on me!! Gross, but hey, I wasn't shot. He became embarrassed and ran away crying. I was grateful DS8 and I were safe. Very weird huh?!

Well, I better start my crab leg alterations so I can enjoy the night time fun. Hope your weekend is going great!

Yumi

My flowers...

Walks in the woods...

Jared at Magnolia Bluff 8/2/09

Hiking photos

Nightmare

Don't you hate when you have a nightmare and it sets the tone for your day?

I was dreaming my children were for some reason at school. (Wait it gets scarier!) An ice/snow storm of the century was blowing in, and while I had the opportunity, I wanted to find my children.

I was at the school and found DS8. I then went to a gym class to find DS12. The gym teacher yelled at me and began to punish DS12. I stopped and yelled back, "DS12, You don't have to listen to her. You are homeschooled! You can come home with me!"  When we turned to leave, I noticed DS8 was missing.

The nightmare goes on with me trying to find my children, outside in the blowing snow and sleet.  I eventually end up at home, finding DS8 hiding under DH's bed.

So you can tell I have deep seeded issues with gym teachers and unconscious fears of losing my children. What makes this nightmare linger even more is now I have a sore throat.  Not a great way to start a weekend, but I'm going to start brewing the tea and make the best of it.

My First Thursday 13 on Multiply!!

13 things occupying my mind
come on inside.....

1. I'm going through library withdrawal. Its been over 2 weeks since we've visited. We've been so busy.

2. The Posse Rats are on their way over. (No school in town for the next two days :()!!!!!  For my new Multiply friends, the "Posse Rats" are the group of neighborhood boys that hang out in our basement. Its a love/hate thing for me.

3. Why does listening to Japanese relax me? For the past 3 nights I've tried to watch a movie and I keep falling asleep. I hope I'm learning Japanese subliminally?

4. Yumi's doing very well on her diet. She is also exercising more. Why can't I be more like my cat?

5. My Christmas shopping has begun. I want to be done before December 1st so I can enjoy the season without shopping stress.

6. A great way to keep your house tidy is to invite friends over. This seems to be the only way to motivate me to clean my house!  At least I'm rewarded afterwards.

7. DS8 has a Pyogenic Granuloma. That sounds terrible but its not serious. I thought it was a mole growing on the back of his neck but it was blood red. We have to see a dermatologist, but we couldn't get an appointment until Nov 13th. They may not even remove it at that appointment. I hope we can take care of this before Christmas. Even though its nothing to worry about, he's still my baby!

8. I haven't eaten one piece of Halloween candy. HONEST! (Of course I have been sabotaging myself with hot chocolate.)

9. Wall paper may not be evil after all. You may remember when I tried to remove the wallpaper border in my kitchen. It turns out it was probably the way the previous owners pasted it. Yesterday I helped a friend remove wallpaper in her living room and we were done in less than 1 hour!! We only used water. The outer paper came off and then we simply sprayed the under layer with water. It scraped off in huge sheets. She told me she had pasted the paper decades ago and she had primed the surface after sanding the walls smooth. I couldn't believe the difference. I still will never hang wallpaper though.

10. I think I'm going to make an emergency backpack if we have to leave the house suddenly. My heart goes out to all those families in California. My gut instinct would be to grab photos and then I realized, I have uploaded most of our photos to Winkflash. I do need to scan baby photos though and get those uploaded as well. It would also take me about an hour to go through our stored paper mess to find important  documents.

11. I have to start work early today and I don't want to. Its my last night this week though so I have the weekend to look forward to.

12. I have to figure out how to make a zombie face out of oatmeal. I'm thinking we can use an oatmeal paste on DS12's face and then color it green. He's going to make fake blood too out of corn syrup and red food coloring.

13. The Posse Rat that's related to me by blood just called. I guess my "me" time is over and I better go pick him up to join the fun.

Have a great Thursday! Peace and blessings!

Mom vs. Dad style unschooling

We have been going along for years now, unschooling. Its working great. Why my DH has all of a sudden taken to giving the boys assignments is baffling me!

It started a few days ago when he asked DS12 to find out where the very first Burger King restaurant was. The next day he wanted the goods on Wendy's. Today DS12 has to report on the history of the french fry.

Inside I'm screaming, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!" As an unschooling mom, I don't give my children assignments. If they are interested in knowing who created the first french fry, I'd help them use the tools to find their answers.

I think DH may be doing this just to see if they can research and report. He is failing to realize DS12 does this everyday. He reads online and in magazines looking for gaming advice.

I also question why is fast food the hot topic? But that's really not the problem I'm having with these assignments. Of course how dare I get upset when I myself have been known to doubt the unschooling process. Although its been weeks since I've used the worksheet threat, I still worry sometimes when DS8 trips on the word, "that" but can correctly read the word, "operation."

Its natural to doubt unschooling when you were educated using the public school model. I will give my DH some slack and I'll probably ask him if he's gotten what he's wanted out of these assignments he's given the boys.  Its probably because he needs to feel involved in some way as well. 

I know. Its pathetic.

This is what you get when your mom sews only once a year on a machine built before she was born. I know he looks like a lobster rather than a crab. I can't get the legs to stand out. I'm using batting and newspaper since I don't have any wire hangers. Thankfully it gets dark around here shortly after we begin trick or treating.