Back for a Day

Yes, we did have Valentine's Day here in NC. It was even cold and snowy for the occasion. We have had more snow this year than any other since being here. Of course that is what most of the country is saying these days. I gave Hubby a box of chocolates and told him he could wear his fish tie. I hate that fish tie and always have. He has had it since we were dating. Though I threatened many times to get rid of it, I have let him hang on to it, but he never wears it. It isn't so much that he never wears "it" as much as it is that he never wears ties anymore. I know that shocks some of his old friends. I guess I have been a bad influence on the daily tie wearer. Anyway, he wore the tie to church and it was the talk of the congregation. You either really love the tie or really hate it. One woman said she couldn't pay attention to the sermon since she kept looking at the dead fish hanging around the preacher's neck! Anyway, it was a fun day, and I still am greatly in love with my Valentine.

#1 wanted to try a recipe from his cookbook that he received for his birthday. He made Chinese New Year Skillet...a sort of sweet and sour pork with rice. It turned out well, but is a bit sweeter than we like our food. I have been the only one to eat the leftovers.

Tuesday we went ice skating with our 4H club. The kids had a good time skating and hanging out with each other for a couple of hours. The moms stayed in the warm cafe area and played Phase 10 cards. It was good to slow down with friends for a little while.

Now we get ready for Winterfest in Gatlinburg. I am one of the chaperones and we have asked a friend to accompany #1. He will be here in a couple of hours to spend the night, since we leave pretty early in the morning. Tomorrow is a 9 hour drive followed by a late night with a bunch of teenagers. Maybe I better go grab a nap!

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#1, I am sure, would love me to let everyone know that he got a 96.77% on his science test today. We are starting to see improvement!

Lessons for the Teacher-Student

4 inches of snow have fallen on our little farmette. Last night we went outside about 8:30 to unload animal feed, and there was no precipitation then. I went to bed at 10:30 and would guess there was an inch then. It was coming down fast. #2's Best Buddy is over now and they are throwing snowballs fast and furious. Writing class was interesting Thursday. Home schoolers often get chided for not having enough "socialization" opportunities for the children. I have NEVER found that to be true for my family, but I guess there have been a few families that have caused me concern. I have to say though that they are few and far between, definitely not the norm. But what I have noticed about this writing class is that the kids have profited from knowing that others struggle as well. I had hoped that would be the case, and was my initiative in starting the class. Thursday one of the students was complaining about the amount of work he had to do and there was just no way he could get it all done and he was dumb, dumb, dumb...on it went. That was when #1 stepped in and said, "You're not dumb, so suck it up and get your work done." Wow. I wish I had recorded it so I could play it back to him when I hear the same words come out of his mouth! I suppose the same holds true for myself. I have enjoyed the great flexibility of this online class, but it has made me feel a bit isolated. When other students finally put their two cents worth online I feel better. It seems that I am not the only one struggling with the class and concepts. Having that connection to people definitely changes my attitude. I will have to remember that for my boys.

Last of Great Wolf

There is an arcade in the lodge, and we enjoyed playing some games. Hubby always likes the skeet ball throw. This time, though, I put him to shame: 21,000 to 14,000! Public humiliation is what he gets for trying to take over my Sudoku puzzle this morning!! Love you, Honey!

The lobby is very pretty and busy. The kids like playing the MagiQuest game and it goes through the lobby. So we sat in the lobby and let them run through getting their points and quests. The fireplace was real and very nice to sit beside. I wonder what it will be like in May when we make a return trip with some other kids for the boys to play with.

This is us on the hearth by the fireplace.

=============== I was irritated by my class last night. I made a 70 on the quiz. I can read what the chapter says, and it seems to make some sense at the time, but then I put it all together and it gets very cloudy. I guess I am relearning what it is like for my students. Perhaps it will me a better teacher, empathetic.

Back to Great Wolf

I never finished my story of our time at Great Wolf Lodge. Here are some of the birthday dinner pictures. My cousin and her husband live in Charlotte and came up to visit us for dinner at Olive Garden. We saw them for about 2 hours at Christmas, so it was good to have some time to catch up. Her parents are moving from NC back to WV this spring, as all true West Virginians should. I guess that means I have to move back at some point.

Here are the in-laws. Thanks for dinner, Pappy.

#1 was a bit excited to have the waiters sing to him. He was a little embarrassed, but mostly I think he liked the attention. Below is a picture of him trying to smile. You really have to catch him smiling; he can't just "make it look good".

Off to teach a writing class. You really can't do anything to make writing a research paper fun. Two more weeks and then we move on to poetry.

Boring Post Meant for Family Members

I went to the podiatrist this morning, and it appears I was close to correct. I most likely did slip my ankle out of joint, though not break it, this past summer. Then I compensated for it by walking differently on the left foot. He gave me a prescription for anti-inflammatory and I go back in three weeks to see if it is getting any better. I also am to go to a certain shoestore this weekend and ask for the manager and get good shoes. The wind is blowing badly today. I guess that is ok since we aren't getting any of the snow that the northern states are getting. I am sure my family is ready to be done with winter though. They had 18 inches of snow and are expecting another 12 in the next couple of days. I took #1 to play practice yesterday, and I was to be the monitor. When we got there we found out that he wasn't scheduled for then, and they told me I could leave as well since there were only 4 kids in practice for the evening. So #1 and I came on back home. We had a nice conversation in the van while we traveled back and forth though. I have been enjoying talking with him lately. He's a smart kid and growing up so fast. In History now he is studying WW2. Currently he is reading a biography of Hitler, and I asked him what he learned about being a leader from it. He said that a leader is a good speaker, and just by his words a good leader can get lots of people to do what he wants. He didn't pick up on the fact that I have been grooming him to be a good speaker. I have high expectations for both of my sons, but this one in particular will be a leader and I want him to be a good one. Definitely NOT a Hitler. Since we were able to be home a little earlier than expected, Hubby and I were able to celebrate our Valentine together. The rest of the week looks horrendous, so we went to Olive Garden for dinner and then to Baskin-Robbins for dessert. It was enjoyable to sit and visit with each other. Then when we got back, I started working on taxes and finished watching Anne Frank with #1. We need to get taxes done quickly so I can get the FAFSA in by the 15th. This post sounds very boring. Sorry.

Fast

Look who turned TWO yesterday!! No more babies in our family. I called to talk to my nephew and he spoke right up. "Hello Aunt Angel. It's my birthday. I am two." How he has changed just since Christmas. Happy Birthday, Big Boy!

I guess you can always tell when my life gets busy; I don't post often. Friday I spent the day learning about Mathematics and new ways to teach it. I enjoyed being with other moms and learning together. Then Saturday I went to a 4-H Volunteer Leaders' Conference. I learned several things about the Forestry Program and Target Shooting Sports that I think will help my club members. I also helped our Extension Agent teach a class on Citizenship, and it was very well received. Of course, Sunday was the big game and we went to a gathering for that. Yesterday was an Envirothon training, and now here we are a week later. Whew!

Our training yesterday was interesting. The ranger had lots of footprints on a power point for us to identify. Then she brought out the skulls, real ones! The boys were counting teeth on skulls and identifying critters like crazy. One interesting fact to me was that the gray fox is indigenous to North America, not the red fox. The red fox was brought here by the Brits so they could have fox hunts. Why couldn't they hunt the gray fox? It is the only dog that can climb a tree, and it was ruining their fox hunts. Crazy.

Another thought came to me yesterday...If you have a louse and it multiplies, you have lice. So if you have a spouse and get more, do you have spice? I decided it would be the spice that causes indigestion. That is how my mind works when it is overloaded with traveling, workshops, and statistics. Look Out!

Rain or Reign

The Queen with her Princes

Club of the year...They were so excited we couldn't get a good picture of everyone.

The rain just keeps coming. I guess the prayers of a couple of years ago are being answered now. It would be good if we had a prayer strength monitor, so we would know when to stop praying for things like rain! I was out driving yesterday and saw how much ice and slush were still left around town. It didn't look so bad out here, so I was wondering why school had a delay yesterday. Now I know why. All of that melt plus the rain is going to make a really big mess. Our driveway is already having a hard time of it. The traction control system on the van turns on when I enter our driveway now!

Last night went very well. Both of my boys achieved the Silver Award Level in 4-H. #1 was County Champion in 5 out of 6 project books, and #2 was County Champion in 6 out of 7 books. Our club won Community Service Award for the fifth year in a row, and FINALLY! we won Club of the Year. We actually won it the last two years, but had to share the title with another club. Sharing the title sort of makes it illegitimate; this was much nicer. Many of our club members won their Achievement levels as well as County Champion for their books.

Now they all have to make decisions about which books they want to go on to District Level Judging. Each child can only send two books to District, so out of all of those County Champions we have to choose. #1 wants to send his books on Puppeteering and Videography. #2 has a tougher decision and we will have to get some more info before deciding. The prize is different for each book, and of course he wants the best prize! So it will either be Electricity and 4-H Discovery or Science and Technology and Discovering Plants.

Today I meet with the Extension Agent to discuss a workshop we are teaching together this weekend in Raleigh. The workshop is on Citizenship. I find this topic very interesting. I guess that is part of the reason I considered Law School before deciding on Education. Lately I have been disappointed in our President and his Citizenship Behavior. I know he planned on breaking traditions once in office, but some traditions are important to maintain the respect of the office. The gifts that he gave to the Prime Minister of Great Britain and having guys over for beer at the White House are just two examples of his lack of protocol. Last week's rebuff of the Supreme Court Justices was another lowering of the bar. To maintain the respect of our government officials in all branches of the government, a good presidential role model is needed. I hope the next year will bring some more responsible behavior on the part of our President.

Winners

#2 entered the Unnatural resources Fair again this year. He made this recycling bin out of, what else?, egg cartons! It is to hold the newspapers, since they now ask us to separate the newspapers from other recycling products. He won fourth place for his age division. Also notice his new glasses. I got ones without nose pads this time, since that seems to be where he breaks them most. This is pair #5 since August.

#1 got a part in the play, Scheherazade. It is an Arabian story from long ago. He will be the Captain of the Guard, Hussain. One of these pictures is the head shot we used for his audition. We went to the first practice last night and discovered our lives are about to get very, very busy. He has practice several times a week. The play is at the end of March.

And I am a winner of sorts as well. I received a 90% on my first quiz. Go Me!

Tonight is the Achievement Night for 4-H and I expect there will be many winners from our club as well. We are a bit intense.

Ice Skating

We went out in the goat field yesterday to ice skate. Of course, we don't have skates, so we just shoe skated. Above you can see part of my fancy pirouette! Look out, Dorothy Hamill!!

It was fun to run and skid across the field.

I was able to stand on our little pond. You can see the water starting to come to the surface near my boots. It didn't feel too stable.

Kelly thinks we are insane, but I think she really enjoyed getting out of the house for a while. I know I found it refreshing.

More Ice

This is a picture of #2's indian tipi that he built last month. he still has some work to do, but I

thought it was a good start.

I thought some of the ice pictures were interesting. It is a beautiful thing, but I think I have had enough of it. #2 is still wanting to ice skate though. Public schools were closed today, but my "extra kids" only had a delay. My boys are glad so that they can have some friends over to play.

The icicles are the most interesting. There was one hanging from the electric wire outside our bedroom this morning. It was evidently hanging by a drip, and it looked like it was floating mid-air.

But bad weather or not, a chicken has to do what a chicken has to do. I caught this one just as she laid the egg that is behind her.