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10/16/2003 Entry: "How do the days pass so quickly?"
I'm continually amazed at the time that seems to so quickly lapse between when I get here and when I don't. It seems to go so FAST! Seems to me time is going much faster these days and I have such a great desire to just S--L--O--W everything down. Shoot, I even type at warp speed so who am I kidding?
Today was filled with errands, but unfortunately the one I was so bent on getting done DIDN'T. ~sigh~ Nothing like that to make you want to go curl up into the fetal postition and wait until the dawn brings a new day lol
At any rate, we HAVE been exceptionally busy. Our schedule right now has us having one BUSY week and then one home week. The busy week has all of our Scout meetings and this week was it. The girls had their meeting on Tuesday--they are doing so great...both are working on memorizing the Girl Scout Promise right now and have done so great! R is just BLOSSOMING into the most amazing little Brownie ever and her Leader even commented on what a fantastic young lady she is and what a wonderful loving girl she is. =o) (proud Mommy moment in case you missed it!) And of course there is C who has been slowly working her way into this whole thing and I think now has decided that it is worth her time and effort. You know...she wasn't going to "join" Scouts...they were going to "have" her. lol Don't know if that makes sense or not but she's they type to just wait to make sure she is going to like something BEFORE she fully commits herself to it. This has been no exception. She has REALLY been enjoying it so much and yesterday she asked me when her next meeting was! lol she was disappointed when I said two weeks. That's a sure sign she is loving it totally!
B had Scouts yesterday and they worked on their physical fitness badge. He is doing really great and has finally found his place among the boys which brings me a big heap of relief. On the one hand B is a very social kid, he likes to meet new people and enjoys good friends, and once you are his friend, that's it...your friends forever...on the other hand, he is NOT like most boys his age who are constantly in that "boy" mode where they harass, yell, fight, and see who can be the grossest. Now, he *can* be gross...lol just ask his sisters HAHA but he isn't the type to act out like that in a Boy Scout meeting or anything...only with people he trusts I guess. Anyway, this year seems to have brought him to his place among the group as more of the boys are maturing...where they see that he gets a lot of respect for his attitudes and willingness...and instead of thinking "eww" they are all thinking "cool" and want to be more like him. I am happy that he is happy and that's all I really care about. He is having the best experiences with Scouting. Of course our popcorn sales didn't go as great this year and I really doubt he will be 1st in the pack this time...as they raised their prices and most people just didn't want to spend so much money. We are going to consider a different fundraiser next year...I mean, I know that we have to do SOMETHING to help...but shoot, this year was like pulling teeth and people really DO want to support the Scouts but feel overwhelmed by the prices.
Let's see where am I with everything else? School is going great! We are busy with our Creation unit study...B is doing a study on the Eagle right now, he is reading CONSTANTLY (just finished his second Star Wars book), has been trudging through his math...but understands WHY he is doing math which is more than I had this time LAST year lol His handwriting is better than mine which really is kinda embarrassing to say...he is working on a fantastic art program and is so talented. He has also been outlining his Scout book to set a path that will assure him his Arrow of Light award. He has totally committed to doing it which I am very happy about. I work his projects for Scouts in with our curriculum as much as I can so it doesn't feel like he's doing a hundred different things...so far it has been pretty painless lol The girls are doing all sorts of activities...I am working on phonics with Ray and she is doing SO GREAT! Of course, I think I know the vision most people get in their minds when they think of "working on phonics"--so lest I give anyone the wrong impression--I am not a drill sargeant and we don't do a whole lot of "program" but more hands on and "life" drills as it were. For example, we are working on A...as such we have made a poster that we have been actively adding pictures of all things that start with the sound of A (either aaah, AYE, or ahhh--c'mon say it out loud...aaah in cat, AYE in cave, ahhh in all), then we play games like "I spy" except we have to use things that start with our letter sound...we eat as many things as we can that start with our sound...like apples, apricots...etc. We also do a different "feature" each day so we have done or will be doing fingerprint apple trees, studying the alligator, making heavenly anchor paper chains, learning about the armadillo, the ant, the anteater...in addition R does an art program which is fantastic. C listens in on most anything but is able to leave anytime she wants. I give her tons of fun cut/paste activities (I put them in R's folder too because she still totally enjoys them in her spare time)...B has been reading out loud to the girls from a book about ocean mammals, and as a family we have been reading "The Magician's Nephew" by CS Lewis. Let's see...what else? rofl I could list a whole ton more but the point is...we don't just "do" we live and that's the beauty of it. The neatest thing we are working on this year so far though has to be the kids "scrapbooks" that they are putting all of their work into. I can't describe how totally cool these are right now but I promise I will.
Dh has been underway since Monday and comes home tomorrow...SO you know what I am off to do--the quick before he comes home tidy so that I don't have to worry about a bit of it when he gets home!
Oh...and I just have to share this little tidbit...anyone who has followed our life will laugh at the irony here. We got a letter from the Coast Guard last week...well, it was the CG but also "Homeland Security"--to which I was ACTUALLY thinking--cool that's the first time I'd seen that--very nice looking seal and whatnot on the envelope. Trust me that magical moment was fleeting at best!
Inside we found a $900 bill from the Coast Guard for our move from CT to here. As it turns out we went over our weight limit and they have FINALLY now...two years later...TWO YEARS after our move finally gotten around to finding out how much over we were and billing us. The ironic thing???? They took two years to bill us...and yet...the bill said that it was due within 30 days of the date of the letter, not when you receive it mind you, when it was MAILED. They really are nice aren't they?? (hey if you are wondering if that was sincere or not ask my Mom...she'll give ya an ear full) Dh called me today and let me know that the finance center has been "kind" enough to allow us to make payment on their stupid $900 bill so we will see $100 less a month for the next 9 months because why??? BECAUSE THEY SUCK. That's about the most foul word anyone would ever hear out of my mouth but hey...the shoe fits...and all those other over used cliches here. I "get" the logistics of the whole thing...I even "get" that they have the limits but the problem is they are not based on how many people are in your family or whatnot, they are based on RANK. Well, I also "get" the whole "rank has it's privledges" thing too...but guess what? I'm not in the CG. My dh is and I guess it's their full expectation that if we were going to go over that we'd just stay behind or deal with paying outrageous bills from the CG for moving across the country so my dh could fullfill his duty to our nation. The really interesting thing? How in the world would anyone know BEFORE how much their household goods weigh? Well, geegolly, I guess there really IS no way to know...so what happens? They put your stuff on that truck because I don't care what they want to believe you really don't have a whole lotta choice in the matter--and THEN they tell you that you have went over your weight...and that is THAT. You don't have any option of unloading anything and paying $85 to rent a U-haul so you can carry the extra weight down yourself...nope...you can't do ANYTHING about it at all. And they sit and charge me $900. Well, after having realized what the letter was I wasn't nearly as impressed with their new, bright, shiny stationary that says "Department of Homeland Security, United States Coast Guard"...because of course I realized *I* am paying to change it over from the normal USCG envelopes and letter head they used before. Yup...there ya have it.
whew...I feel better. The other major frustration I have experienced is with our Dish Network. We have that PVR that you can record movies on. We had about 32 of our 36 hours used up with movies we had recorded and kept...we had the following recorded: "101 Dalmations: Patch's London Adventure", "Stuart Little 2", "The Wild Thornberry's Movie", "Piglet's BIG Movie", "Hey Arnold: The Movie"--golly, I know there were more of these--all of which were recorded from PPV which we paid $3.99 for each movie...then the ones we recorded for the kids off of HBO and such like "Cadet Kelly", and "Jimmy Neutron: The Movie", "The Extremely Goofy Movie", "The Even Stevens Movie (if you have never watched that show you are MISSING OUT!)", and several more that added up to 32 movie hours!! Well, the day before yesterday they all disappeared. POOF! Gone!! They were ALL protected movies, and they disappeared while we were out...when we came home the power had went off and the movies were all gone. DN trouble shot the issue and told us a few things to try and have decided that it was a "bad drive" and are sending us a replacement PVR. My issue?? Great that they are replacing the faulty equipment but what about all of my MOVIES?? Well, apparently they are beyond gone, they are GONE...there is NO way to recover any of them...so what does that mean to me? I just lost a bunch of MONEY...that's what. Well, apparently they have to get the "defective" PVR to their "technical" people who will verify that the diagnosis was correct to verify the product was under warrenty...I suppose THEN they will be willing to talk about giving me some kind of compensation for the money I just lost because of their faulty product. ERRGGHHH...I wouldn't care if they were MY movies, but they were some of the kids favorite movies! Some we had on there for TWO years...they were so upset when they found them gone because there are ALOT of times I won't let them watch TV but will OK them watching one of the movies I trust...poor kids. Makes me mad...and today is Thursday and I got my WEDNESDAY sale ads in my box TODAY. hmmph.
Well, better get to doing my ten minute tidy (ala Big Comfy Couch...I loved that show...PBS should be shut down for taking it off)...I love you all so very much and hope that everyone is so blessed!!!! I have a gift waiting at my parents house from my Mamaw Moreland and I am SO excited about it!! She has made these scrapbooks for me and all of my cousins. They have tons of pictures of all of us, our families and all of our relatives...some I have never even met. Pictures of my Mom and her sisters and brother when they were younger and of my Mamaw & Papaw when they were just babies and everything! I am just beside myself about getting my hands on it!!! She even wrote in it about the pictures and everything. Talk about a TREASURE. Words could never EVER express my gratitude for such a thoughtful, loving, and simply perfect gift. She's just that special though...a blessing to anyone who has the chance to meet her...and shoot...she taught me and my daughters how to can pickles that turned out so good I have people offering me MONEY to make them for them!! (REALLY!)
I really am going. However, one should understand that once you start writing it IS rather hard to stop.
--me...
tearing
myself
aaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyy....
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