Nature Journals

I'm trying to find a fun way to journal for our Nature Journals. We have so much wildlife around here that nature journals are going to be even better than past years. So I'm going to try letting the kids blog their nature journals since they don't really like the drawing portion of nature journals (there are exceptions, like Bailey).
I'll even be posting my own nature journal comments. It's one of my ways to remember Aunt Doris.

First Snow

Well believe it or not we woke up to snow and went to sleep to snow yesterday! I've been saying since this summer we were going to have a colder than what we're used to winter. I certainly didn't expect snow on December 1st!
I didn't really notice it as I drove the kids to school. Terry had called and said to be careful because there was ice on the roads so that's about all I paid attention to. When I pulled back in the driveway I noticed accumulated snow on the roof and thought to myself that that wasn't ice cause ice doesn't accumulate like that, it had to be snow... I remained somewhat baffled believing I was just ignorant in the ways of ice. But as I sat there listening to the song that was still playing I noticed flakes coming down here and there. I felt validated about the snow on the roof but didn't think not one lick of how long that had to be coming down like that in order to accumulate so much til later.
Around lunch time Terry calls and asks if it is snowing here because Hunter had called and said it was there at the school. I confirmed it was. Still not even enough to call a dusting but enough to see coming down regularly. As I went back to the school for a meeting it really started coming down in big flakes. At first I thought it was that optical illusion caused by going by fast in your car (not that I was going more than 35 mph mind you on those curvy icy roads)... but no, it remained the same when I was stopped at stop signs all the way there. Terry called to tell me that some schools in North Georgia had been closed due to snow.
The kids were thrilled to see it snowing but were less than thrilled that it had almost quit by the time we got out of the meeting. Only it never did quit. We went on to gymnastics, the library, ballet, back home, and to pick up Toree from chorus rehearsal with it coming down in varying degrees.
Later that night as everyone was getting into bed, Terry called on his way home from the gym with Hunter that a portion of Hwy 9 had been shut down in Dawsonville (just north of us) due to the ice.

Anyway, that's our little first snow of the year story! Not much to it but it's ours :-) ... Oh and I got up this morning to a little dusting on snow on the back deck. It's melted now but it was there!

Stuff n Thangs

Well, I've been kinda focused on school and our activities here lately and now add the move in there and well, the blog gets thrown by the wayside *sigh*

So anyway, just a wee update on things...
I'm about to start my very last quarter of college in October. I'm very disappointed to find out that it will be online - as these online classes leave a lot to be desired and certainly DO NOT TEACH ANYTHING! Of course, I've been complaining for quite sometime that even my on-ground courses have not been teaching for the last two years. It's rather disappointing. And you wonder why our police forces and criminal justice system are filled with idiots - now you know, it's because the educational system stinks! Ok, mini-rant over ....

Christian just turned 16 and was running cross-country but has quit because he didn't have time to keep his grades up. I'll keep my opinions and comments on that to myself. Feel free to comment to me all you want about it though.

Toree of course has been a JV cheerleader here at the local high school. The original intent was to allow her to finish out the seasons and then move but she is more than happy to quit due to moving and move now. Considering the team and coaching staff, I can't blame her one iota! I'd quit too if I had a legitimate excuse that wouldn't hurt me later on down the road. Now she can try out at her new school (where Hunter attends and is Quarterback for the football team) and be done with the antics of her squad now. (((One of her cheer mates decided to bring tequila to class and have 4 shots in class where she got drunk and started puking. Nice job there numbskull. This is the type of behavior we commonly put up with here in this neck of the woods.)))

Madison is actually looking forward to moving even though she was the most emotional about it. She asked me yesterday why couldn't we just start school and stuff there now instead of waiting two weeks. It was sweet. She has reason to look forward to moving ... a new ballet school in which she didn't think she would want to attend at first. Saturday after soccer she had auditions for Nutcracker which is performed at South's auditorium instead of the Gwinnett Performing Arts Theatre. From what I can tell, it is just as swanky as GBT's. Also we learned that this school doesn't just accept anybody off the street into classes like GBT but you must audition to be accepted into the school. Madison was accepted because she has great potential but it has been discovered that she has not been being taught correctly nor as thoroughly as she should have been up to this point. She completely understood and accepted that she will be in a younger class until she can catch up to the girls her age. She told me that she thinks it will be good for her. For now soccer will remain here with Paul. Until soccer season is over he will be getting the kids every Friday night and I will be getting them every Saturday night, so that they may finish out the soccer season ... practice is Friday nights and games Saturday mornings and afternoons, so this will work out alright. After that we will go to every other weekend once again. OH I know I put it in Madi's blog but she scored the first goal of the season for her team on Saturday! Very exciting stuff!

Bailey is playing soccer and doing gymnastics this year. He didn't play on Saturday as his first game is next week. He just started gymnastics where Morgan Haley takes and is loving it. So I'm trying to get the gym where we are moving to give me solid answers to get them signed up there. Bailey shouldn't be an issue but Morgan Haley may be... more on that in a minute. Bailey is sort of looking forward to moving ... well, more like he has accepted it. He told Connie he doesn't want to move but he guesses he will.

Morgan Haley is in gymnastics of course and on the team. Now I have to get the other gym to test her and see if they will accept her onto their pre-team. As long as they take her then all will be well! Otherwise she is enjoying Kindergarten. She started out in one class and then was moved to another class - which turns out to be the class we wanted her in in the first place, Bailey's former teacher! Yippee! Too bad it was for only three weeks :-(

I am really looking forward to the new school system we are going into. It just seems so much more friendly than the one we are in right now. I don't feel like I'm going to have to fight to get things done at this school like I do our current one. That will be a relief. OH and the number one language at this school is actually ENGLISH!!! What a change for us!!!!

Moving

Just a quick note to everyone that we will be moving from our current abode to a much safer home in a neighboring county ... I will send out the snail mail address via email here soon.

The kids and I will be moving in with my boyfriend, Terry, and his daughter, Tabitha (Tabi - 13 in October), whom he has full-time and his son, Hunter (17 in October), who is there about 50% of the time. Terry also has an older son, Taylor, who is 20 (in May) and lives in Valdosta where he attends college.

January

Happy Birthday to all my Family and Friends! Love to all <3

9 - Tristin (9)

10 - Justin (12)

12 - Michael (10)

29 - Aunt Sylvia

30 - Lesa

Prayers for those we've lost

31 - Christie Coleman (1974 - 1996)

Happy New Year!!!

We spent the night with Connie and Edwin like we do every year. We spend it building bonfires in the backyard and roasting marshmellows and doing something silly for the kids. This year it was blow horns and bubbles. One year it was sparklers, another year it was silly string ... you get the drift. I really wish I could have taken a picture that was sweet as pie so as to share with you all, but it will be forever locked in my head. The kids had their own little campfire beside ours and it was just the sweetest thing to see five little kids (my youngest three plus Madison and Landon) sitting around it in little beach lounge chairs roasting marshmellows. Those are memories that will follow them forever (not to mention their misty eyed mommas!).

I called Christian right after midnight and he was like, "Um, Mom, it's only 9:00 here." Gee, thanks son. :\ You should have seen us trying to take a New Year's picture! Eventually we finally got three pictures with three different cameras taken! We tried to figure out why we were all semi-squatting and leaning down for this picture ... then we realized it was because children were taking the pictures and well, we were a little slow to figure out that we can still stand up ... :o

Anyway, that is Daniel, Lesa, Connie, Me, and Edwin in the picture above!

I zonked out on the couch not long after Robbie Maddison made his world-record motocycle jump. Madison and Madison were trying to figure out why he spelled his name with two D's - lol.

I woke up here and there throughout the night since I was on the couch and the TV was still going, playing Law & Order: Criminal Intent marathon and eventually MONK marathon. After 8:30am or so I couldn't sleep anymore so I got up and started getting our stuff together and started getting stuff ready to make for breakfast. Little Haley was up and moving early with me. She was up before I was in fact! When I woke up she was laying in the floor by the heater playing with Cleo the dog :)

The kids all slowly rolled out of bed and then the adults! Around 11:30 we got a phone call telling us that the high school football coach at Central died unexpectedly within the last half hour. He had cancer but he wasn't expected to die or anything. Still finding out details. The kids and I headed back to our house around noon.

Once home we scrubbed and scrubbed inside the house, then we went outside and started doing some yard work. The kids were so good that I packed them up and headed to the park at their request! The wind was really blowing and we each had on three coats, gloves, and boggins ... I think the kids played all of 20 minutes before deciding it was time to go back home!

Then we came home, made dinner, and had a comical time at dinner going over the night's devotion about thinking before you speak and if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all. Now we've had dinner time chores for each person for a really long time now. No one is exempt from them providing they are home for dinner. Little miss Haley decided that tonight she just didn't feel like cleaning off the table after dinner. It was absolutely so funny to watch this little four year old come up with every excuse as to why she couldn't do something! Things like, "Mom, I just don't know where this (the oven mitt) goes, so I can't put it up." As if that oven mitt hasn't been around not only since she was born but definitely since she has been in the dinner time chore rotation! It's also been in the same place since we moved into the house! Of course, I pointed out the fact she could ask me where anything goes if she doens't know - lol. You had to have seen it for it to be truly appreciated :-D

While dinner was cooking the three youngest took baths so I didn't have to worry about that after dinner - we could go straight to bed and read stories!! We have finally gotten around to reading "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever." We got halfway through it tonight and will finish it tomorrow.

Anyway, that was our last twenty-four plus hours! Hope you have enjoyed yours as much as we have enjoyed ours!

Asthma & Headaches

Just wanted to share a little something I just learned from my girlfriend that is a nurse.

Here it is New Year's Eve and we are suppose to be going over to my girlfriend's house like we do every year when I get a headache that makes me want to puke but I'm not light nor sound sensitive. My friend, Lesa, calls about the time I was going to go lay down and starts asking me all sorts of questions about my headache. As it turns out I was having an asthma attack unbeknownst to me (because I went so many years undiagnosed I have trouble knowing what is normal and what isn't). She told me that the majority of migraine sufferers are asthmatics because of the lack of oxygen to the brain ... it is one of the first things the brain will do when it has a lack of oxygen - give you a headache. So she had me take my inhaler and lay down. I went right to sleep and woke up on my own thirty minutes later with barely a residual effect of the headache.

So now I know, take my inhaler first as it should clear up the majority of my headaches!

December

Happy Birthday to all my Family and Friends! Love to all <3

3 - Clay (10)
6 - (Aunt Doris)
7 - Zander (1)
10 - Morgi (34)
12 - Tiffiany (32)
15 - Elizabeth (10)
18 - Eric (26)
23 - Connie (37)
25 - Teddy (5)
26 - Lori
28 - Chandler (9)
28 - Adam and Aaron (5)

Happy Anniversary to my Family and Friends!

2 - Aunt Sheila and Uncle Grant
26 - (Aunt Doris and Uncle Dean)