Sissy & Miky

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Today we had lots of company….well, let me back up a bit.  Hubs and I were up very early to take J1 and J2 to the Boy Scout cabin for a 5 mile hike.  J1 was NOT happy to be going – so our morning was NOT fun.  But we finally got them off.

Then we arranged to meet some friends at our local Farmer’s Market where we had breakfast – a burrito for me, bagels for everyone else.  I was finally able to meet Deborah and her partner -who’s name currently escapes me 🙁 – from Nevermore Farm, our CSA. I picked up some garlic, purple onions, sourdough round for dinner tonight and 2 grapefruit (to juice – yummy!).

Then our friends came over here for knitting and chatting and we put Sissy down for a nap.  Then my in-laws showed up to show us some of their yard sale finds – a dress and PJs for Sissy and some crib sheets.  After they left then my nieces dropped by!  Annika was visiting from Oakland and she brought Mikaela.  Sissy might like you – but she LOVES Mikaela.  If you are unfortunate enough to be visiting when Mikaela is here, you are nobody!  Mikaela is her favorite!

While Sissy is saying more and more things, she could not say Mikaela’s name…so now she is “Miky” lol  I love it!  Here are some pictures from their visit:

sissymikysissymiky2sissymiky4sissymiky3

Thrifty Thursday finds

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Today my mom and I (and J3) hit some thrift stores and here are my finds:

  • Purple measuring cups and spoons (new but cheap)
  • Salad spinner (new but cheap)
  • Pyrex casserole dish with lid
  • Frying pan with VERY deep sides – almost remind me of a wok
  • butter dish
  • citrus juicer (for my boy who is always sucking on a lemon or orange or whatever we have – this will be a better option)
  • Ice cream scoop

and most exciting…at the shop that was 50% off everything today…

Bernat - 100% cotton

Bernat - 100% cotton

12 skeins for…..do you want to guess?  Well forget it…it was $2.50 for all of it!!  That is $.21/skein!!  And I love using cotton yarns!

But that wasn’t all!

Tahki Donegal Tweed - Homespun

Tahki Donegal Tweed - Homespun

4 skeins! For $1.15!!  That is $.29/skein!

So I didn’t find everything I wanted, but I am excited about what I did find!!

Cell Phone Woes

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Do you all remember back to when I dropped my cell phone – a Palm Centro – in my cup of coffee?  Well, after much grieving I was able to replace it – thanks to my mom’s desire to never upgrade her phone.  Since she didn’t want to upgrade, she ordered me a new phone with her credit.

Well, poor Eric’s phone has a cracked screen.  He used it in the morning yesterday, put it in our room to charge and then that afternoon found it had a big crack in it.  As it is a touch screen (a Palm Treo I think?) – well, that doesn’t work any more.

He’s been spending all his free time trying to figure out what to do.  Should he downgrade his phone to something simple and start carrying a calendar again – circa 1980s? – or try to find an affordable refurbished Palm.  Well, affordable is relative – it’s way cheaper than new, but still outside our budget.

And, in the midst of this he found out we were out of minutes this month! Yikes!  So, he also changed our phone plan.

Let me backup a bit….when I activated my new Palm Centro, I was told I HAD to get a data plan. That it was now required for all smart phones.  Add $30 to our monthly bill.  Higher bills right now – not a good idea!

So, when he changed our phone plan – double the minutes for the same cost!! – he asked them to delete the data plan.  While I’ll miss the ability to check my email anywhere and other fun activities (Google Maps, Twitter, Facebook, my bank account) – it just isn’t worth the cost in this economy.

They made the new phone plan retroactive.  Yeah – we have more minutes for this month!  But BOO because they were going to charge me for the data I had used all month on my phone.  I had unlimited access, so I was using it where ever I wanted, whenever I wanted!  Fun, right?  Well, not when they told us it totaled up to $450!!!!

Melissa at Verizon saved the day by suggesting we pay $30 for this month’s data package and have it canceled next month instead of last! Whew!   So, while $30/mo isn’t great….it’s a WHOLE lot better than $450!!

Well, it’s done

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J1 is a card-carrying high school student.

Today Hubs, J1 and I went to Sacramento today to register him at the charter school Visions in Education in their 9-12 Independent Study program.  I’m super excited about this program as (1) it’s not the local high school, (2) he’ll have a teacher to work with him and I can just be Mom again, and most importantly, (3) he seems interested in this option.   I might be persona nongrata with my local homeschool group who don’t think too highly of public charter schools, but I’m praising God for this opportunity to still have him be with us most of the time while making sure he gets the education he needs.  I do wish it could have worked out to continue privately homeschooling him, but frankly he has some bigger issues that need to be dealt with right now.  This development will allow me to be nuturing mom full-time and someone else can be the teacher/nagger/etc.

He won’t start school until September, but today we were able to register him for his first semester of classes as a freshman.  He will be taking English 1A, Pre Algebra (a necessary repeat), PE 1, Earth Science.  Also he was able to choose two electives.  He chose Beginning Drawing and – after listening to his Dad’s counsel – Career Exploration.

I have no doubt this will be a hard transition for J1, but I’m confident he can do this.  WE can do this!

Bullet Points

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Today I only seem to be able to think in bullet points….so here we go!

  • Right now I’m looking for lapbook information for a geography study of the USA.  I’m finding some good resources and excited about what we might produce.
  • Here are two sites for lapbooks about US Geography that are really helpful: http://www.homeschoolshare.com/united_states_geography_resources.php and http://www.homeschoolhelperonline.com/lapbooks/state.htm
  • I’ve changed our homeschool schedule a bit.  We are now going year around with Mondays off.  This allows me a day for ‘office work’.  So far it is working great!
  • For awhile it looked like #1 son was going to be enrolled at the local public high school.  I was not happy about this.  We think we found a solution that we all can all live with and I’m really relieved.  He will be doing a independent study program with a local charter school.
  • Before we did all the work on our house, I had a box of curriculum I was going to sell….and now it’s missing! I suspect my Hubs sent it to Goodwill – if so I hope someone will be blessed by it.  Or I hope I find it soon!  There are only a couple of things I need for this coming school year – and one is $150 alone! Yikes!
  • I’m excited that my family has been invited to have lunch with my friend Theresa’s family on Friday! Both of our hubby’s are teachers, so they get to join us! 😀
  • Well, I have socks to finish and dinner to make!  Guess I’d better bring this to a close.  (I have been about 3 hours writing this due to so many interruptions! lol)