Well, this gets kind of addicting. I may just forsake all emailing and correspondance just to write on here every chance I get.
But, I may have finally mastered the art of rounding out my abilities on the home front. Feeding our crew of 6 rivals feeding a small army at meal times. They consume large amounts of food. So, I needed to come up with a plan...more of a plan than looking at the clock at 4 and wondering what I had on hand for dinner. Planning got a little better and then once the children were in school I really discovered the joy and logic of planning meals a month at a time. Evye didn't buck the system or sigh over what would face her on the plate since she knew going into it what would be there waiting for her. In order to save on the grocery bill and eating out I began to plan breakfasts and dinners a month at a time. I can make and freeze everything from waffles to pancakes to muffins to casseroles and great main dishes like lazagna, chicken spaghetti and already seasoned taco meat just needing to be thawed for tacos. We even make homemade pizzas now.
The point to all of that is that I then expanded into the whole Vita Mix, grinding our own wheat and making our own bread thing. I actually really really love it. I've found it kind of difficult to make the amount of bread we need to keep up with it all but I'm getting there. I was able to get some great recipes for homemade wheat rolls, biscuits and muffins so that limits considerably the amount of a bread loaf everyone consumes and makes it last longer for sandwich use. Who would've thought after all of those years ago that I'd be getting back down to the basics we were raised with and grew up joking about? We are now part of a farm food co-op and are getting fresh eggs and milk weekly along with vast amounts of produce and mill wheat. They have chickens and until we are able to take our's (still waiting on the ever elusive chicken coop to be built) they are giving us eggs and even offered up some chickens when we are ready for some fresh chicken on the table. Ummmmm......not sure about that one yet. I love chicken right now and I'm not sure it'd ever be the same once I called it by name before I chopped it's head off and plucked every feather out.
Now that the cooking part of me is well underway I have a great desire and am fully ready to move on to tackle other things...specifically sewing. After all of the dress hunting I have done for the girls I am fully convinced I can make some adorable stuff for them. So, in preparation I have already begun collecting patterns and the needed fabric. Evye is so excited she is able to pick out what kinds of dresses and fabric she wears. Aubrey's just excited to have something just like Evye. I have cut out numerous patterns in my life in my younger years but only ever got around to actually sewing up a few of them. I am very confident in my ability to cut out everything but the sewing part is still waiting to be mastered. The budget will not allow for a sewing machine right now so I'm spending the time between now and a machine reading all I can and preparing myself for what I need to know before I launch into this. But the more I look at patterns, fabric and read up on it all the more excited I get. So, I'm off to conquer sewing and dress the girls like I see them in my head.
I was also readying everything to start our big garden project. We talked about the location and where deer and animals (skunks come to mind???) wouldn't bother it and then watering issues and stuff. I finally decided up close to the house was the best spot. There is already a partially planted garden there that is much overgrown. I figured if we could start fresh in it and lay it out like we want it'd be perfect. But then, as always, reality seemed to make itself known. We planted flower seeds a few weeks ago and Garrison and Grant are entirely incapable of leaving any living growing thing alone. We check on the flowers everyday and once they began to pop up the boys were taken. They dig them up no less than 50 times a day to inspect the root system and make sure all is intact and growing before roughly sticking it back in the ground. And then I began to see in my head our future little garden lovingly trampled to death by small feet and tiny growth stunted carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, green beans and everything else strewn haphazardly everywhere. The orginal plan was to plow up the middle pasture and plant a huge garden there....enough to feed us all summer and winter long but we have to 1st work on getting water out there to it. Brad's going to build a rain water tank and install a gutter system that will feed into it so that we can store our rain water and irrigate with that. But until then I'll have to figure out a way to fence off our miniature garden before I begin the planting process.
On another note, Grayson and Evye both made 100's on their spelling tests today. Grayson only has 5 more lessons left in his 3rd grade spelling book and Evye is now on her 3rd lesson in her 2nd grade book. I still continue to fly through the 1st grade all-encompassing book with her to keep boredom at bay but when it came to spelling she was so far past it that we just went ahead and started the 2nd grade spelling book. She finally began to hit words she actually had to study instead of rattling off the top of her head perfectly. We will begin all of her 2nd grade work in the fall. Grayson continues to do really well at home and keep up with everything. I have to battle them wanting to be done in 2 hrs but other than that all is going really well. After being in school 9 hrs a day and then coming home and being able to work at their own pace and get done so much earlier it is a constant battle trying to keep them seated and not rushing through it all just to be free for the day. Grayson is now a full grade above where he left his 3rd grade class in math. They were still on beginning fact memorization and he has not only mastered that but has moved on to double digit division. I am just so amazed by both of them and have never felt so blessed to be teaching them myself. I love watching them succeed and feeling like they have the best of all worlds. They are here loving life with the family and loving on the younger ones, who missed them constantly, and discovering everything in their world and they are excelling spiritually, emotionally and academically too. If nothing else I love how we are able to work so much on character and how much I am able to teach them scripturally.....as I sit and learn with them. In planning this all out I won a door prize that is a book called "Parenting with Scripture". It is nothing but a bunch of versus that pertain to certain problem areas. I look up what we have dealt with in the past week and then have them memorize the following week a verse that is directly related to that issue. And I add to their spelling word lists words from that verse. At the end of the week part of their spelling test is being able to write that scripture from memory and spell it correctly. That's definitely not exactly what the public school is at liberty to carry out.
Oh.......and the other thing......
I was definitely 25 wks at my sono a week and a half ago, he is definitely a boy and there is definitely only 1. My official EDD is 7/7 so I guess I can really say I am due 7/7/07. I made SURE to tell everybody that I have yet to have a kid on my actual due date. Knowing how mine like to camp out for months on end he'll probably come more like the 17th! So, though I know he won't make his debut on the 7th, it's fun saying he's due 7/7/07 and he's baby #7. Oh well. Whatever.
The placenta is anterior so that is the reason I cannot feel him. He did all kinds of flips, flops and funny antics during the u/s and I couldn't feel a thing. I full well expected to go in and have her say I am only 21 or so wks. It really was shocking to hear I really was 25. And we solved the neg tests mystery. We got the little EDD dial out and with an EDD of the 7th I conceived around Oct 13th (the 13th was an A shift so Brad said he's going to have to wait and see what baby looks like once he gets here to determine if he's the milkman's or his!!!! LOL!!!!!). The tests I took were on Oct 6th and Oct 19th......way too early for a pos result. I didn't test again until Nov 19th and by then I was already a good 7, almost 8 wks along. So, the tests didn't lie. I just timed them all really wrong.
We took the older 3 with us and they loved seeing the u/s. It was worth it all just to have Evye fall as in love as she did with him. She's continued to be skeptical due to the fact he's a boy but after seeing him move she fell head over heels and has talked non stop about being the 1st to hold him and how she will do everything for him. Aubrey was quite convinced his heart sounded like a galloping horse and was forever asking to hear it again. She kept asking the tech (an older lady that I love!!!) to please do the horse again. Aubrey finally informed everyone that Baby "Gabin" has a horse heart. LOL! We spent 30 minutes in there talking and laughing with the tech and she gave each of the children 2 sono pics each to keep as their own. All 3 have treasured them and slept with them every night. Pretty funny. I had no clue pics would matter so much or be such a huge hit. Grayson has finally pinned his on the frig and the girls still sleep with their's and then put them in their purses and carry them around for the day. Pretty sweet.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Laughable moments with the children
I've been ordering the girls a few dresses off of Ebay since we don't have the finances right now to cover any major clothing trips for them. They are both very into wearing dresses and, though Aubrey has inherited many from Emilee and Evye, Evye doesn't have but 1 really nice one. Evye has fallen in love with The Sound of Music movie and is begging for some flowy overly feminine dresses. Of course, she pairs them up with her pink boots and looks like a cross between a 1930's magazine cover and a prairie girl advertisement. LOL!
Anyway, Mother heard of their desires to dress in dresses and picked the 2 of them up a few matching sundresses at Sam's. She brought them last night when she came in to stay for the weekend. The girls were thrilled they could match and immediately put them on for the trip into town last night. Well, and let me back up a minute too. Evye's been begging for a twin and doesn't understand why God didn't give her one too. So, she pretends she has a twin all the time. So, overjoyed at the fact the 2 of them matched Evye stated numerous times on the way in that if anyone asked if she and Aubrey are twins just to tell them yes. We get asked ALL the time if the 2 of them are twins too so this question is not unexpected to any of us anymore. So, I didn't reply to her when she repeatedly told me how she wanted me to answer. I was too busy trying to think of an answer to give her about the importance of being honest. Finally she persisted with, "Ok, mom??? Ok???" I said distractedly, "Alright". Grayson, in horror, spoke up saying, "Why would you tell them that, Mom?" I said, "Well, they do match like twins". Without missing a beat he said in his ever blunt, forthright, practical manner, "Well, sometimes Garrison, Grant and I all match but that doesn't make us triplets." I couldn't help but laugh for the next few miles.
So, a little on down the way we pass the Kickapoo ranch. A few weeks ago a young buck tried jumping the game ranch's high fence and got his antlers hung on his way down and hung himself. We discovered him hanging there just after it happened so we took pics with my camera phone and it's been a big deal every since. With it being a very well maintained ranch I expected they would get it down pretty immediately......but, no. It's still hanging there weeks later and it's the most disgusting thing around. So, every trip into town they all have to bring attention to the ever decaying deer. And you can only imagine the state it is now in. So, as we pass it last night they're all going into the details about how much worse it looks then the last time we passed it. In all of the chatter Evye speaks up in a shocked voice above it all, " MOM!!!! His neck grew! How'd it do that??!!! He's still dead!!!!!!" Looking at the horrific deer I just laughed. The sight of him nearly touching the ground with a leg now missing, compared to how we 1st found him completely in tact and up high on the fence, was completely nasty to me but so entirely exciting...and puzzling.......to her.
And on the way home we saw a group of 5 deer, our 1st in a very long while. We, of course, had to turn around to get a good look at them all. We all counted them , including the boys, and were able to shine the headlights on one of them while he stood still checking us out too. Then we headed on down to the river crossing and checked out how full it is and if the fish were jumping. Grayson and Mother were able to get out and toss jumping fish back into the river as we watched them all swim back and forth over the crossing. It was so much fun....though a little humbling at the power of the river, especially sitting there watching and listening to it in the dark. After arriving home Grayson said in such a heartfelt way that it made me want to melt,
"Mom.....I don't need anything else in life. I have everything I could ever want. I don't need a 4 wheeler or go cart or motorcycle and I don't need a basketball goal or other stuff. I've got everything I need right here. I have a river and a fishing pole and a bike to get to it and I have skunks I can shoot and snakes....(laughingly) I have all kind of snakes that are even poisenous too!!! I have 2 guns and a cotton gin and all of these mud puddles and dirt and 2 big rowdy dogs. And I even have a store and the post office that I can walk or ride my bike to. And I have Evye to do it all with. I just don't need anything else. I'm so happy."
I wrote it all down afterwards simply because it made me want to cry. Here I sit lamenting that we cannot buy them the world, or least what I think they ought to be able to have out here, and he sees and lives the joy of what life really is. It really is looking at life through the eyes of a child. It isn't about the money and things we can or cannot get them or about what I think they should have to enjoy it all.....it's about what is around us and the fact we have each other to do it all with. I do love the fact that being as extremely limited as we are it is teaching them what it is to truly value life and soak it all in no matter what they have in order to enjoy it. It really is the most incredible thing in the world to love your children so much and know that they are living and experiencing life to its fullest...not because of what we have lavished them with in a material way but because of how we have loved them and because of what we ourselves have been blessed with and they in turn are receiving it too. I can only hope that they all grow up and remember these values...not lacking in anything but not wanting for anything either......even when their world is so much smaller compared to others.......or so much larger compared to some.
Anyway, Mother heard of their desires to dress in dresses and picked the 2 of them up a few matching sundresses at Sam's. She brought them last night when she came in to stay for the weekend. The girls were thrilled they could match and immediately put them on for the trip into town last night. Well, and let me back up a minute too. Evye's been begging for a twin and doesn't understand why God didn't give her one too. So, she pretends she has a twin all the time. So, overjoyed at the fact the 2 of them matched Evye stated numerous times on the way in that if anyone asked if she and Aubrey are twins just to tell them yes. We get asked ALL the time if the 2 of them are twins too so this question is not unexpected to any of us anymore. So, I didn't reply to her when she repeatedly told me how she wanted me to answer. I was too busy trying to think of an answer to give her about the importance of being honest. Finally she persisted with, "Ok, mom??? Ok???" I said distractedly, "Alright". Grayson, in horror, spoke up saying, "Why would you tell them that, Mom?" I said, "Well, they do match like twins". Without missing a beat he said in his ever blunt, forthright, practical manner, "Well, sometimes Garrison, Grant and I all match but that doesn't make us triplets." I couldn't help but laugh for the next few miles.
So, a little on down the way we pass the Kickapoo ranch. A few weeks ago a young buck tried jumping the game ranch's high fence and got his antlers hung on his way down and hung himself. We discovered him hanging there just after it happened so we took pics with my camera phone and it's been a big deal every since. With it being a very well maintained ranch I expected they would get it down pretty immediately......but, no. It's still hanging there weeks later and it's the most disgusting thing around. So, every trip into town they all have to bring attention to the ever decaying deer. And you can only imagine the state it is now in. So, as we pass it last night they're all going into the details about how much worse it looks then the last time we passed it. In all of the chatter Evye speaks up in a shocked voice above it all, " MOM!!!! His neck grew! How'd it do that??!!! He's still dead!!!!!!" Looking at the horrific deer I just laughed. The sight of him nearly touching the ground with a leg now missing, compared to how we 1st found him completely in tact and up high on the fence, was completely nasty to me but so entirely exciting...and puzzling.......to her.
And on the way home we saw a group of 5 deer, our 1st in a very long while. We, of course, had to turn around to get a good look at them all. We all counted them , including the boys, and were able to shine the headlights on one of them while he stood still checking us out too. Then we headed on down to the river crossing and checked out how full it is and if the fish were jumping. Grayson and Mother were able to get out and toss jumping fish back into the river as we watched them all swim back and forth over the crossing. It was so much fun....though a little humbling at the power of the river, especially sitting there watching and listening to it in the dark. After arriving home Grayson said in such a heartfelt way that it made me want to melt,
"Mom.....I don't need anything else in life. I have everything I could ever want. I don't need a 4 wheeler or go cart or motorcycle and I don't need a basketball goal or other stuff. I've got everything I need right here. I have a river and a fishing pole and a bike to get to it and I have skunks I can shoot and snakes....(laughingly) I have all kind of snakes that are even poisenous too!!! I have 2 guns and a cotton gin and all of these mud puddles and dirt and 2 big rowdy dogs. And I even have a store and the post office that I can walk or ride my bike to. And I have Evye to do it all with. I just don't need anything else. I'm so happy."
I wrote it all down afterwards simply because it made me want to cry. Here I sit lamenting that we cannot buy them the world, or least what I think they ought to be able to have out here, and he sees and lives the joy of what life really is. It really is looking at life through the eyes of a child. It isn't about the money and things we can or cannot get them or about what I think they should have to enjoy it all.....it's about what is around us and the fact we have each other to do it all with. I do love the fact that being as extremely limited as we are it is teaching them what it is to truly value life and soak it all in no matter what they have in order to enjoy it. It really is the most incredible thing in the world to love your children so much and know that they are living and experiencing life to its fullest...not because of what we have lavished them with in a material way but because of how we have loved them and because of what we ourselves have been blessed with and they in turn are receiving it too. I can only hope that they all grow up and remember these values...not lacking in anything but not wanting for anything either......even when their world is so much smaller compared to others.......or so much larger compared to some.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
More epic tales in our wildlife adventures
Alright, so there are a million things I should be doing this moment but I have to catch this quiet moment while I can. Clean laundry and dirty dishes will undoubtedly not have done themselves by the time the children awake from naps.
So, we can now add skunk to the ever growing list of abnoxious animals living peaceably, or not so peaceably, amongst us. Last night AFTER Brad leaves to get groceries in Ballinger we are headed into our evening routine........clean up outside, clean up inside, feed all animals, showers, gowns and pj's and so on. While Evye cleans their room she starts screaming that there's a skunk in the yard. I didn't believe too much of it and thought she was seeing the black and white cat that has now taken up residence with us....in addition to the black cat we've already adopted as our's. So, I walk in there leaving Garrett screaming in the highchair for more food (heaven forbid you actually pause from shoveling mouthfuls in one on top of another!!!). And to my absolute horror and dismay there is a real live skunk waddling slowly along below the windows of the vacant house next to us. I then screamed with her. ALL of the windows in the entire house were open and I just envisioned reaking stink in our house for days. So, like any fool would do, I ran outside to scare the freakin thing away. Ummmm........so what exactly was the logic in that???!!!! Grayson, pumped full of adrenaline at the thought of actually shooting a real live something, runs for his gun. He takes off after the skunk......chasing him into OUR carport! So, now he's at our house where the Suburban had been parked with windows down all day so the children could play on the paved carport. All I hear is Grayson's gun being shot 50 million times and then the skunk waddles out hurriedly back into our driveway....where I'm standing! If Grayson might have stood still for 1/2 a second I'm sure he might have stood a chance at actually hitting the thing. But, no, he just runs around in excitement just shooting. The house started leaking carefully pent up kids and so I ran around trying to get them back inside, as Grant is very near catching up to the slowly moving skunk. He laughed in the chaos of it all just repeating the word "kitty" and chasing it full speed. Oh....and I did learn skunks are not known by any means for their speed....just accuracy for hitting their fast moving targets. Grayson shot again as the skunk stopped all movement and lifted his tail at Grant. As Grayson's bullet flew past the skunk he put him on the move again and kept Grant from reaking for hours....or even days. I swept Grant up and chased the others into the house carrying Grant like a sack of potatoes. Grayson took off across the fields and pastures chasing the now petrified skunk. I called Brad asking why in the world the various species of dangerous and just plain nasty wildlife have to show up when he's not home. It's like they all have the same internal body clock that the roaches in Hurst had....we call them the A shift creatures....cause inevitably they're all going to show up on A shift. Brad called Russ, the constable, who then flew from his house over to our's and I pointed him the general direction that Grayson had taken off in. By the time he arrived to aid Grayson in his shooting endeavors the skunk was long gone into the fields behind town. He patted Grayson and said to call him 1st thing next time. I laughed since, had Russ actually gotten a chance to hit the skunk with the shotgun he took out of his truck, he would have blown it from here to San Angelo. And then he tells Grayson to come home and tell me to call him if we see it again since skunks are territorial once they find a good source of food......like our front porch cat food!!!! Ugh!!!!!!
Oh...and in the choas of children laughing and screaming, Grayson's gun continually being fired, me yelling at him and Garrett crying in the house for more food.....the dogs wouldn't stop barking at the freakin thing! They barked incessantly the entire time our little rodeo lasted. I thought about turning them loose on the skunk but they undoubtedly would have caught up to it and then stunk for months. So, I decided against trying to aid our wildlife riddance efforts with dogs.
So, now I can really say I have seen and dealt with more wild things in the last 6 months then in my entire life. I don't think I was really up for earning this bragging right.......that is, if one would ever consider it that.
So, we can now add skunk to the ever growing list of abnoxious animals living peaceably, or not so peaceably, amongst us. Last night AFTER Brad leaves to get groceries in Ballinger we are headed into our evening routine........clean up outside, clean up inside, feed all animals, showers, gowns and pj's and so on. While Evye cleans their room she starts screaming that there's a skunk in the yard. I didn't believe too much of it and thought she was seeing the black and white cat that has now taken up residence with us....in addition to the black cat we've already adopted as our's. So, I walk in there leaving Garrett screaming in the highchair for more food (heaven forbid you actually pause from shoveling mouthfuls in one on top of another!!!). And to my absolute horror and dismay there is a real live skunk waddling slowly along below the windows of the vacant house next to us. I then screamed with her. ALL of the windows in the entire house were open and I just envisioned reaking stink in our house for days. So, like any fool would do, I ran outside to scare the freakin thing away. Ummmm........so what exactly was the logic in that???!!!! Grayson, pumped full of adrenaline at the thought of actually shooting a real live something, runs for his gun. He takes off after the skunk......chasing him into OUR carport! So, now he's at our house where the Suburban had been parked with windows down all day so the children could play on the paved carport. All I hear is Grayson's gun being shot 50 million times and then the skunk waddles out hurriedly back into our driveway....where I'm standing! If Grayson might have stood still for 1/2 a second I'm sure he might have stood a chance at actually hitting the thing. But, no, he just runs around in excitement just shooting. The house started leaking carefully pent up kids and so I ran around trying to get them back inside, as Grant is very near catching up to the slowly moving skunk. He laughed in the chaos of it all just repeating the word "kitty" and chasing it full speed. Oh....and I did learn skunks are not known by any means for their speed....just accuracy for hitting their fast moving targets. Grayson shot again as the skunk stopped all movement and lifted his tail at Grant. As Grayson's bullet flew past the skunk he put him on the move again and kept Grant from reaking for hours....or even days. I swept Grant up and chased the others into the house carrying Grant like a sack of potatoes. Grayson took off across the fields and pastures chasing the now petrified skunk. I called Brad asking why in the world the various species of dangerous and just plain nasty wildlife have to show up when he's not home. It's like they all have the same internal body clock that the roaches in Hurst had....we call them the A shift creatures....cause inevitably they're all going to show up on A shift. Brad called Russ, the constable, who then flew from his house over to our's and I pointed him the general direction that Grayson had taken off in. By the time he arrived to aid Grayson in his shooting endeavors the skunk was long gone into the fields behind town. He patted Grayson and said to call him 1st thing next time. I laughed since, had Russ actually gotten a chance to hit the skunk with the shotgun he took out of his truck, he would have blown it from here to San Angelo. And then he tells Grayson to come home and tell me to call him if we see it again since skunks are territorial once they find a good source of food......like our front porch cat food!!!! Ugh!!!!!!
Oh...and in the choas of children laughing and screaming, Grayson's gun continually being fired, me yelling at him and Garrett crying in the house for more food.....the dogs wouldn't stop barking at the freakin thing! They barked incessantly the entire time our little rodeo lasted. I thought about turning them loose on the skunk but they undoubtedly would have caught up to it and then stunk for months. So, I decided against trying to aid our wildlife riddance efforts with dogs.
So, now I can really say I have seen and dealt with more wild things in the last 6 months then in my entire life. I don't think I was really up for earning this bragging right.......that is, if one would ever consider it that.
Friday, March 23, 2007
A little off humor for the day
written Mar 17, 2007
A little off humor for the day.Today Grayson, Evye, and Aubrey were playing outside in the farthest carport. They wanted in the trailer to play house so I let them unlock it and play in and around that area as usual. Evye was barefooted and Aubrey had on flip flops while Grayson had on sandals. He came in yelling about finding a snake. Mother has been here for the weekend so we both put our boots on and took our time getting out there. There, curled up next to a board, was a decent sized baby snake. After not really being at a good angle to see it I finally just got a stick and flicked it in a deep bucket Grayson had gotten. We messed with it in the bucket and got it to strike a few times at the stick trying to decide what kind it was. After seeing so many rat snakes now I just figured the likelihood of a real rattlesnake is nearly non existent.....especially for it to be the 1st snake spotted of the season. So, after getting it kind of rowdy I told Grayson to let it go in the pasture since it was, afterall, a rat snake and we needed it for the rats. Grayson, after begging to kill it and being told repeatedly by me that it was NOT a rattlesnake, finally gave up trying to convince me. He asked that instead of dumping it if we could keep it until it got a little bigger so that the owls wouldn't eat it. I said "sure" that was fine with me. When Brad got home they could decide what to do with it and how to keep it. I thought about it a little longer and then realized Brad would probably want pics since there's nothing better to do at the station on a slow Sat. So, I figured it'd cheer his day up...though by now we've seen many rat snakes. We couldn't get any good pics in the bucket so finally I just decided to dump him out in the middle of the driveway in the sunlight to see if we could warm him up and get him a little more active. Rat snakes are fun to play with since they're so aggressive. We dumped him out and got some good pics after poking and prodding him and then warming him up to snake along the rocks. Once moving he moved much quicker then we all gave him credit for and he took shelter under Mother's boot. Not typical for a rat snake who chooses to stay and fight with you! The tail to me was no great indicator of what kind of snake it was since every rat snake I've seen I've been absolutely convinced was a real rattlesnake. So, everything that should've been an indicator I just dismissed since every time we've seen a snake I've been told that it's NOT a rattlesnake. Anyway, he completely crawled under Mother's boot from one side to the other and then decided he'd take shelter under it and proceeded to coil up completely under it. The pic is of him backing up under her boot to hide! HA! Anyway, she picked her boot up and exposed him again once he was completely under it and we'd had about all of the fun we wanted with him so I tried getting him back in the bucket. I finally got him back in there and Grayson made a nice cozy habitat for him. We lowered a big rock down there for him to coil up under and then Grayson put all kinds of vegetation in for him. I downloaded the pics and sent them to Brad for him to get a look at and then called him to go see our new friend. It took too long and we both wanted to lay down so he gave up and went to take a nap and I laid down on the couch. Grayson kept coming in saying the snake was climbing out due to all of the tree branches and in my irritation of continually being awakened I just said irritably "Go stick him back in there!" So, he did. As I'm finally drifting off again the phone starts ringing incessantly. Frustrated, I just tuned it out. It kept ringing and Brad kept calling back. Finally I had Evye answer it and Brad, in a more than alarmed voice ,asked where the snake was. I told him he was out in the bucket in the carport up close and Grayson was playing with him! HA! Brad about had a fit. So, as we all know by now.....I was then enlightened to the fact that it was indeed the real thing this time. Not really knowing exactly how easy it is to kill it I asked Brad what to do with it. We debated on who to call since there's a million people that would come over. We finally decided on the neighbors so he called the preacher who then came over with his wife and smashed it with the handle end of the hoe! I could've done that much!!!! I figured he was going to chop his head off or something and shoot it.......like Grayson was begging to do. Anyway, we all stood staring at it and I asked him to please share with me the difference between a rat snake and a real rattlesnake. So, we got an in depth lesson today on the differences. I felt bad for Grayson since he tried and tried to tell me and I kept telling him he was wrong and to be quiet. Apparently each grade had a little lesson about them after having found that one on the school sidewalk. So, he did know. Anyway, after being told over and over again that he was wrong he finally gave up trying to convince me! So sad. And, yes, I had to apologize afterward. So, now we sit with a dead rattlesnake on top of our garage freezer as it awaits target practice for Grayson once Brad gets off shift Mon morning. He was on shift yesterday, he's overtime today and is on shift again tomorrow so he'll be gone a full 72 hrs. It was kind of sad and funny how upset it made him. Talk about a nervous wreck! I guess it is a little alarming that we actually played with one. But, I guess I can really say now that my fear of them has dwindled considerably. At least I can say I've messed with one now and it's not quite as big a deal as I thought it would be. Now, my biggest concern is the children playing. But, after having seen one, he was incredibly afraid and only looked to get away. He only struck when provoked. He was too afraid of Grayson and the stick to challenge him so that wasn't too bad. Mother's only seen bigger ones while out hunting so she wasn't familiar with what a baby looks like. This one was guessed to be 2 yrs old and the ones she has seen have been about 4 based on the differences between the 2. Apparently we all got a good lesson today!
A little off humor for the day.Today Grayson, Evye, and Aubrey were playing outside in the farthest carport. They wanted in the trailer to play house so I let them unlock it and play in and around that area as usual. Evye was barefooted and Aubrey had on flip flops while Grayson had on sandals. He came in yelling about finding a snake. Mother has been here for the weekend so we both put our boots on and took our time getting out there. There, curled up next to a board, was a decent sized baby snake. After not really being at a good angle to see it I finally just got a stick and flicked it in a deep bucket Grayson had gotten. We messed with it in the bucket and got it to strike a few times at the stick trying to decide what kind it was. After seeing so many rat snakes now I just figured the likelihood of a real rattlesnake is nearly non existent.....especially for it to be the 1st snake spotted of the season. So, after getting it kind of rowdy I told Grayson to let it go in the pasture since it was, afterall, a rat snake and we needed it for the rats. Grayson, after begging to kill it and being told repeatedly by me that it was NOT a rattlesnake, finally gave up trying to convince me. He asked that instead of dumping it if we could keep it until it got a little bigger so that the owls wouldn't eat it. I said "sure" that was fine with me. When Brad got home they could decide what to do with it and how to keep it. I thought about it a little longer and then realized Brad would probably want pics since there's nothing better to do at the station on a slow Sat. So, I figured it'd cheer his day up...though by now we've seen many rat snakes. We couldn't get any good pics in the bucket so finally I just decided to dump him out in the middle of the driveway in the sunlight to see if we could warm him up and get him a little more active. Rat snakes are fun to play with since they're so aggressive. We dumped him out and got some good pics after poking and prodding him and then warming him up to snake along the rocks. Once moving he moved much quicker then we all gave him credit for and he took shelter under Mother's boot. Not typical for a rat snake who chooses to stay and fight with you! The tail to me was no great indicator of what kind of snake it was since every rat snake I've seen I've been absolutely convinced was a real rattlesnake. So, everything that should've been an indicator I just dismissed since every time we've seen a snake I've been told that it's NOT a rattlesnake. Anyway, he completely crawled under Mother's boot from one side to the other and then decided he'd take shelter under it and proceeded to coil up completely under it. The pic is of him backing up under her boot to hide! HA! Anyway, she picked her boot up and exposed him again once he was completely under it and we'd had about all of the fun we wanted with him so I tried getting him back in the bucket. I finally got him back in there and Grayson made a nice cozy habitat for him. We lowered a big rock down there for him to coil up under and then Grayson put all kinds of vegetation in for him. I downloaded the pics and sent them to Brad for him to get a look at and then called him to go see our new friend. It took too long and we both wanted to lay down so he gave up and went to take a nap and I laid down on the couch. Grayson kept coming in saying the snake was climbing out due to all of the tree branches and in my irritation of continually being awakened I just said irritably "Go stick him back in there!" So, he did. As I'm finally drifting off again the phone starts ringing incessantly. Frustrated, I just tuned it out. It kept ringing and Brad kept calling back. Finally I had Evye answer it and Brad, in a more than alarmed voice ,asked where the snake was. I told him he was out in the bucket in the carport up close and Grayson was playing with him! HA! Brad about had a fit. So, as we all know by now.....I was then enlightened to the fact that it was indeed the real thing this time. Not really knowing exactly how easy it is to kill it I asked Brad what to do with it. We debated on who to call since there's a million people that would come over. We finally decided on the neighbors so he called the preacher who then came over with his wife and smashed it with the handle end of the hoe! I could've done that much!!!! I figured he was going to chop his head off or something and shoot it.......like Grayson was begging to do. Anyway, we all stood staring at it and I asked him to please share with me the difference between a rat snake and a real rattlesnake. So, we got an in depth lesson today on the differences. I felt bad for Grayson since he tried and tried to tell me and I kept telling him he was wrong and to be quiet. Apparently each grade had a little lesson about them after having found that one on the school sidewalk. So, he did know. Anyway, after being told over and over again that he was wrong he finally gave up trying to convince me! So sad. And, yes, I had to apologize afterward. So, now we sit with a dead rattlesnake on top of our garage freezer as it awaits target practice for Grayson once Brad gets off shift Mon morning. He was on shift yesterday, he's overtime today and is on shift again tomorrow so he'll be gone a full 72 hrs. It was kind of sad and funny how upset it made him. Talk about a nervous wreck! I guess it is a little alarming that we actually played with one. But, I guess I can really say now that my fear of them has dwindled considerably. At least I can say I've messed with one now and it's not quite as big a deal as I thought it would be. Now, my biggest concern is the children playing. But, after having seen one, he was incredibly afraid and only looked to get away. He only struck when provoked. He was too afraid of Grayson and the stick to challenge him so that wasn't too bad. Mother's only seen bigger ones while out hunting so she wasn't familiar with what a baby looks like. This one was guessed to be 2 yrs old and the ones she has seen have been about 4 based on the differences between the 2. Apparently we all got a good lesson today!
Just to make you smile
written Mar 16, 2007
Just to make you smile......
The children have been living outside. And we have all of these incredibly beautiful spring bulbs popping up everywhere. There are some beautiful white lilies that Garrison, Grant and Aubrey particularly fell in love with.........so they started collecting them yesterday. Garrison just kept bringing in more and more and giving me "bouquets" of roughly picked flowers. Most were just huge buds that hadn't even bloomed yet, though they were on the verge. WERE is the key word there. Anyway, I finally had the heart to really get on to him and tell him to quit picking the flowers. I took my ever growing bouquet of them and put them in a little cup of water on the kitchen cabinet. Garrison started crying uncontrollably and it eventually turned into a fit. I told him that we had to leave them in the water so they would be pretty and maybe possibly bloom. His fit continued until he was sobbing in the kitchen floor. I finally thought it was really trivial to be making such a huge deal out of flowers and if he thought they were pretty he could have them back to enjoy. He was awfully proud of them. So, I took a bud out and handed it over. He looked at it and said angrily that he didn't want it. So, I put it back and gave him the one in full bloom. Again, he was not to be comforted. So, I finally figured it was stupid to be so anal about it and I just gave him the whole cup with all of the flowers in it since he apparently wanted them all. He started laughing and clapping as soon as I put my hand on the cup and lowered it down to him. As soon as I handed it over he pushed all of the flowers aside and drank the entire cup of water....flowers and all in it!
So much for really being attentive to your kids and knowing what they need! Needless to say, they all got (I guess what was a much needed) clean cup of water after that. Really gross but really funny.
Just to make you smile......
The children have been living outside. And we have all of these incredibly beautiful spring bulbs popping up everywhere. There are some beautiful white lilies that Garrison, Grant and Aubrey particularly fell in love with.........so they started collecting them yesterday. Garrison just kept bringing in more and more and giving me "bouquets" of roughly picked flowers. Most were just huge buds that hadn't even bloomed yet, though they were on the verge. WERE is the key word there. Anyway, I finally had the heart to really get on to him and tell him to quit picking the flowers. I took my ever growing bouquet of them and put them in a little cup of water on the kitchen cabinet. Garrison started crying uncontrollably and it eventually turned into a fit. I told him that we had to leave them in the water so they would be pretty and maybe possibly bloom. His fit continued until he was sobbing in the kitchen floor. I finally thought it was really trivial to be making such a huge deal out of flowers and if he thought they were pretty he could have them back to enjoy. He was awfully proud of them. So, I took a bud out and handed it over. He looked at it and said angrily that he didn't want it. So, I put it back and gave him the one in full bloom. Again, he was not to be comforted. So, I finally figured it was stupid to be so anal about it and I just gave him the whole cup with all of the flowers in it since he apparently wanted them all. He started laughing and clapping as soon as I put my hand on the cup and lowered it down to him. As soon as I handed it over he pushed all of the flowers aside and drank the entire cup of water....flowers and all in it!
So much for really being attentive to your kids and knowing what they need! Needless to say, they all got (I guess what was a much needed) clean cup of water after that. Really gross but really funny.
We are home schoolers again...I am so blessed
written Feb 27, 2007
As of 10 am this morning the children are now legally withdrawn from the school. After much debate and having only 3 months left of the school year and then even more prayer and conviction we contemplated it heavily over the weekend. They missed school Fri to go to Abilene on a field trip with the homeschoolers here and then we kept them out yesterday due to Grayson and Garrett now being sick. Grayson was diagnosed with allergy induced asthma. They've been gone so much that the school called yesterday while we were in town to see where they are. So, we knew it was time to make up our minds for good. We drew up the withdrawal letter yesterday after returning home and doing some major research on the TX Home School Coalition's website about our legal rights and what is required to take them out. Following their legal advice we sent the letter via certified mail. But get this! HA! This is small town mail for you. I told the post master it was imperative that the letter get there today and I asked if there was any way that he could do same day service since it was from our home to the school 2 doors down. He said slowly, "Well, I'm just going to take this from you and walk over there to the school's PO box and stick it in there. They come and get their mail at 10." That was at 9 am. HA!
Anyway, I was able to talk to Grayson's teacher tonight since we fell in love with her. We knew better than to tell anyone what we were doing until after it was said and done so not even she knew before it all took place today. But, I was able to get feedback from her and, to put it mildly, the school is in an uproar about us taking them out. They're up there saying that this is the worst thing all year that could've happened to the school. We've seen kids come and go every month since we've had them in so I'm honestly not sure why our family made such a huge difference.....other then the fact they put Grayson in sooooo many special ed classes so it'd help their cause with the state. The school decided not to pursue the dyslexia stuff since the more stuff they could get away with like speech, handwriting, phonics, etc, made them look like a mighty school to the state that had a whole bunch of special ed classes going. If they'd gone through with the dyslexia stuff like they planned on it would've taken out all of those except the one specific class since the dyslexia class covers all of those things. Anyway, they're pitching quite a fit about it. Kind of funny.
But I get to go have a potential show down with them tomorrow if they dare attempt it since I have to go up there and return books that Grayson had as homework and they both have stuff in their desk they want to bring home. I'm hoping to avoid the office but I'm not afraid of them either. Anyway, seems we've turned this little tiny town upside down! Grayson's teacher said just to expect no less then the cold shoulder. I just said I expected as much. There's nothing quite like telling an entire town that you've been convicted about teaching your children Godly principles and telling them they cannot be expected to build their lives on a strong Biblical foundation based in truth and God when the only knowledge they have been given for 12 years came out of state regulated textbooks that do not allow even the slightest mention of God or anything remotely from the Bible........And that they've spent more then 3/4 of their lives in an environment that has forbidden prayer within its walls. Yep, there's nothing quite like telling that to a bunch of people who have never known what it is to hear God speak! We have learned that in this tiny town God is something you do on Sun and leave at the door until you reappear the following week.........except when praying for rain. Everybody here prays for rain every day of the week.
So, we shall see what happens. Hopefully they don't get too irritated and start calling in truancy officers. They can still do that. It doesn't hold water anymore in the state of TX as long as we have sufficient evidence that we supplied them with a letter of withdrawal that they will be schooled at home. The worst it could get is that we would have to call in lawyers from the coalition to defend what is already state law and perfectly within our rights as parents to do. Anyway, we'll see.
But......as of today they are homeschooled!
As of 10 am this morning the children are now legally withdrawn from the school. After much debate and having only 3 months left of the school year and then even more prayer and conviction we contemplated it heavily over the weekend. They missed school Fri to go to Abilene on a field trip with the homeschoolers here and then we kept them out yesterday due to Grayson and Garrett now being sick. Grayson was diagnosed with allergy induced asthma. They've been gone so much that the school called yesterday while we were in town to see where they are. So, we knew it was time to make up our minds for good. We drew up the withdrawal letter yesterday after returning home and doing some major research on the TX Home School Coalition's website about our legal rights and what is required to take them out. Following their legal advice we sent the letter via certified mail. But get this! HA! This is small town mail for you. I told the post master it was imperative that the letter get there today and I asked if there was any way that he could do same day service since it was from our home to the school 2 doors down. He said slowly, "Well, I'm just going to take this from you and walk over there to the school's PO box and stick it in there. They come and get their mail at 10." That was at 9 am. HA!
Anyway, I was able to talk to Grayson's teacher tonight since we fell in love with her. We knew better than to tell anyone what we were doing until after it was said and done so not even she knew before it all took place today. But, I was able to get feedback from her and, to put it mildly, the school is in an uproar about us taking them out. They're up there saying that this is the worst thing all year that could've happened to the school. We've seen kids come and go every month since we've had them in so I'm honestly not sure why our family made such a huge difference.....other then the fact they put Grayson in sooooo many special ed classes so it'd help their cause with the state. The school decided not to pursue the dyslexia stuff since the more stuff they could get away with like speech, handwriting, phonics, etc, made them look like a mighty school to the state that had a whole bunch of special ed classes going. If they'd gone through with the dyslexia stuff like they planned on it would've taken out all of those except the one specific class since the dyslexia class covers all of those things. Anyway, they're pitching quite a fit about it. Kind of funny.
But I get to go have a potential show down with them tomorrow if they dare attempt it since I have to go up there and return books that Grayson had as homework and they both have stuff in their desk they want to bring home. I'm hoping to avoid the office but I'm not afraid of them either. Anyway, seems we've turned this little tiny town upside down! Grayson's teacher said just to expect no less then the cold shoulder. I just said I expected as much. There's nothing quite like telling an entire town that you've been convicted about teaching your children Godly principles and telling them they cannot be expected to build their lives on a strong Biblical foundation based in truth and God when the only knowledge they have been given for 12 years came out of state regulated textbooks that do not allow even the slightest mention of God or anything remotely from the Bible........And that they've spent more then 3/4 of their lives in an environment that has forbidden prayer within its walls. Yep, there's nothing quite like telling that to a bunch of people who have never known what it is to hear God speak! We have learned that in this tiny town God is something you do on Sun and leave at the door until you reappear the following week.........except when praying for rain. Everybody here prays for rain every day of the week.
So, we shall see what happens. Hopefully they don't get too irritated and start calling in truancy officers. They can still do that. It doesn't hold water anymore in the state of TX as long as we have sufficient evidence that we supplied them with a letter of withdrawal that they will be schooled at home. The worst it could get is that we would have to call in lawyers from the coalition to defend what is already state law and perfectly within our rights as parents to do. Anyway, we'll see.
But......as of today they are homeschooled!
An Aubrey moment
written Feb 27, 2007
Alright, so we're all in Wal Mart yesterday early afternoon with Brad. I'm beginning to think it's easier when it's just me with them since I know I am the sole one responsible for their whereabouts. But when with Brad it's always this thing of him assuming I know where they are and I'm thinking he's got them in his view. Communication at it's best! LOL! So, we're over on the fan isle and then wander over to the water filters and stuff. We then make our way through toys and over to the hygiene area where toothpaste and stuff is. He starts looking at humidifiers as we near the front of the store when I causally look around for Aubrey. I then ask Grayson where she is. It didn't take long to figure out things had been way too peaceful for quite some time.......like many isles ago. So, with tons of people around him on the humidifier isle I just mouthed the words that we're missing Aubrey. He was already irritated and said an even more irritated "What?" since he had no clue what I just said. I casually walked over to him and repeated it quietly but out loud. Of course he freakin panics. So much for the take charge fireman in him. He told the rest of us to stay put and not move so we didn't all end up lost. HA! So, on his own he begins his search....to no avail. He comes back 5 minutes later empty handed! So, I then overrule and send Grayson with him in his search endeavors. Many minutes later they'd covered all of Wal Mart and still had no sign of her. I then begin to wonder if I should tell somebody but knew that they'd then call a code red on the store and shut down all of the exits. That seemed a little drastic to me. So, while I'm trying to get his attention to see if he wanted me to flag down an employee to tell them our predicament one of them happens to walk by and ask if we are missing a little girl. I casually said "As a matter of fact......yes, we are." She said she was over in customer service. I caught Brad's attention and off we went to customer service. And, of course, there she sat all prim and proper not saying a word to any of the 5 girls that were falling all over her. After not telling them anything, not even her name or age, they asked her if I was her mommy. She shook her head NO!!!!!!!! So, of course, they don't know whether to turn her over to me or not! When I started talking to them telling them how independent she is and what a firecracker she can be she suddenly just chimes in as I'm talking and says "That's not my mommy........she's my mama." HA! Nothing like being a little literal about it. So, the employees with her finally said somebody that was shopping found her in electronics but she wouldn't go with them to an employee. That person ended up asking an employee to come over there and get her since she refused to budge so they could get her help. They reported to the employee that she didn't have an adult with her. Anyway, all in all she'd been missing about 8-10 minutes or so. It was a weird feeling but kind of funny. Once we walked out of the store and Brad calmed down, since by that time the relief of finding her became overshadowed with anger, he just asked after several minutes of silence........."Is it always like this when y'all go shopping?" LOL! I said it was actually because he was with me that we lost her!
Only Aubrey would do that and have a grand old time in the process. Needless to say, she had to sit in the cart for the remaining 5 minutes we stayed in the store. As she sat she happily told us her story about how "I was just lost and then I went right there" pointing expertly over to customer service and then excitedly telling us how she saw Dora over in the dvd's. Brad seemed to be a little skeptical of how I can regularly take them all to Wal Mart with me on my own and not lose her on a regular basis. I had to convince him that
really was a 1st. HA!
Alright, so we're all in Wal Mart yesterday early afternoon with Brad. I'm beginning to think it's easier when it's just me with them since I know I am the sole one responsible for their whereabouts. But when with Brad it's always this thing of him assuming I know where they are and I'm thinking he's got them in his view. Communication at it's best! LOL! So, we're over on the fan isle and then wander over to the water filters and stuff. We then make our way through toys and over to the hygiene area where toothpaste and stuff is. He starts looking at humidifiers as we near the front of the store when I causally look around for Aubrey. I then ask Grayson where she is. It didn't take long to figure out things had been way too peaceful for quite some time.......like many isles ago. So, with tons of people around him on the humidifier isle I just mouthed the words that we're missing Aubrey. He was already irritated and said an even more irritated "What?" since he had no clue what I just said. I casually walked over to him and repeated it quietly but out loud. Of course he freakin panics. So much for the take charge fireman in him. He told the rest of us to stay put and not move so we didn't all end up lost. HA! So, on his own he begins his search....to no avail. He comes back 5 minutes later empty handed! So, I then overrule and send Grayson with him in his search endeavors. Many minutes later they'd covered all of Wal Mart and still had no sign of her. I then begin to wonder if I should tell somebody but knew that they'd then call a code red on the store and shut down all of the exits. That seemed a little drastic to me. So, while I'm trying to get his attention to see if he wanted me to flag down an employee to tell them our predicament one of them happens to walk by and ask if we are missing a little girl. I casually said "As a matter of fact......yes, we are." She said she was over in customer service. I caught Brad's attention and off we went to customer service. And, of course, there she sat all prim and proper not saying a word to any of the 5 girls that were falling all over her. After not telling them anything, not even her name or age, they asked her if I was her mommy. She shook her head NO!!!!!!!! So, of course, they don't know whether to turn her over to me or not! When I started talking to them telling them how independent she is and what a firecracker she can be she suddenly just chimes in as I'm talking and says "That's not my mommy........she's my mama." HA! Nothing like being a little literal about it. So, the employees with her finally said somebody that was shopping found her in electronics but she wouldn't go with them to an employee. That person ended up asking an employee to come over there and get her since she refused to budge so they could get her help. They reported to the employee that she didn't have an adult with her. Anyway, all in all she'd been missing about 8-10 minutes or so. It was a weird feeling but kind of funny. Once we walked out of the store and Brad calmed down, since by that time the relief of finding her became overshadowed with anger, he just asked after several minutes of silence........."Is it always like this when y'all go shopping?" LOL! I said it was actually because he was with me that we lost her!
Only Aubrey would do that and have a grand old time in the process. Needless to say, she had to sit in the cart for the remaining 5 minutes we stayed in the store. As she sat she happily told us her story about how "I was just lost and then I went right there" pointing expertly over to customer service and then excitedly telling us how she saw Dora over in the dvd's. Brad seemed to be a little skeptical of how I can regularly take them all to Wal Mart with me on my own and not lose her on a regular basis. I had to convince him that
really was a 1st. HA!Sonogram reveals.......
written Jan 22, 2007
Well, we're both still very much in shock at the results we were given over the weekend. I had my prenatal appt before the sono so we talked through the whole timing thing and then confirmed by measurements and prenatal stuff that I am around 12-13 wks....exactly where I thought I was. So, we went on over for the sono to confirm those findings..........and our biggest joke of the pregnancy came true. Instead of a big 12 wk uterus and the possibility of another set of twins like everyone was thinking the tech said.........Well, definitely just one baby and you're AT LEAST 16 wks and probably around 17. By the end of the sono and baby's measurements, which are probably small for it's age at this point, (which would mean I'm probably even farther along than 16 wks) it said I am 16 wks and 1 day. Accuracy is probably not great at this point so he said that there's a possibility I could be as far as 18 wks. Bone measurements gave a 16 wk date and weight est gave an 18 wk date. The baby weighs 5 oz which is standard for an 18 wk baby. It came in as 16 wks in bone measurements, which are the more inaccurate of the two, but a 16 wk baby is only around 3 oz. After talking it over with the tech and midwife they said it is probably very accurate to date the pregnancy at 17 wks. So, that gives me the due date of somewhere between June 30th-July 5th. It blew me away. He said he could definitely tell gender on a 16-18 wk baby and asked if we wanted to know. The whole plan was to have our 1st surprise baby but with the shock of being so much farther along than either of us thought, I'd had enough shock for the day. Twins would have been easier to fathom than already being 1/2 way done. I looked over at Brad and said that to be that far along and not know means it's definitely a boy. There's no way a pregnancy would be this easy with a girl. I freakin didn't even know I was pregnant and am already 1/2 done with the entire pregnancy. So, he said sure, go ahead and let us in on the secret. So..........much to Brad's dismay......
It's yet another BOY!!!!!!
hahahaha! Though he wasn't laughing at the moment! So, #5 boy it is. Girls are definitely on a losing streak here.
So, here I am pregnant and really truly 1/2 way done with the pregnancy. And for the fun of it.......this baby may just be baby #7 born on 7/7/07! I'd gladly wait around for that! Watch me go until the 17th! HA! That'd be about par for this pregnancy!!!
And to top it all off......my lack of weight gain had concerned me when I was thinking I was only 12 wks. I've now lost a total of 2 pds with absolutely no weight gain at all since becoming pregnant and am this far along. They said not to worry. Baby looks good and is developing great. The only reason the baby may appear smaller and actually be even farther along than the 16 it measured in the sono is due to variations in growth as the bigger they get and being unable to get good solid measurements due to the baby already being a larger size. They've all said the earlier the sono is done the more accurate they are. But he said I am definitely not any less than 16 wks....but no farther than 18. Wow! Now this is the way to be pregnant! HA! So, everyone decided to date it at 17 wks.
Well, as far as the children's thoughts on a baby boy go.......it's taken Evye a little longer to get used to the idea. Her 1st words were, "But I didn't want a boy." LOL! The thought of yet another boy even took Grayson by surprise, I think. The Chinese baby predictor calendar thing that they say is 98% accurate said girl for us. So, when I told Grayson his 1st words were "Well, the computer was just wrong!" HA! I then had to explain, not realizing how seriously he took the computer and a fun prediction for its word!!! The excitement has started to kick in for him though and he's talking non stop about how he can teach them all to ride bikes without training wheels since he's a pro at it, since he started when he was 4! LOL! And how he can teach them the difference between rattlesnakes and rat snakes! I told him that was more than fine with me and he could easily take over that part of their early childhood education! After all, he's got a small army under him that will be willing and ready, not to mention eager, to learn! Evye's still getting used to the idea. I just said lovingly, "Evye, you know how much you love Garrett. You're a little mother to him and he loves you to pieces. How can you say you don't want another boy? Think of what you would've missed out on had we not had Garrett!!!" She just looked at me and said matter of factly "Well, Garrett's ok and I like him but I don't know about this baby." I had to laugh then. Aubrey's still so carefree it doesn't even register with her. She just said "It's a boy???!!!! Yea!!!!" and started jumping up and down. She would've done the same with a girl! Evye stood there dismayed by Aubrey's response and said "No Aubrey......it's a BOY!!!!!" like she didn't understand the full impact of it. HA!
We decided to go ahead and come up with a name as soon as we could for the children to start seeing it as a baby instead of a "boy" since everybody expected girl. We thought it would help, which it has. All of the older 5 are already calling him by name, which gets them all excited and starts the questions of what he will look like and and if he'll have red hair like Grant or blond like everybody else. It seems like a name suddenly makes the baby a person to them instead of an unwanted gender! HA! So, on the name thing, I thought it would take forever since Garrett was supposedly the last G name Brad liked. He could not stand Gavin last time around. But this time suddenly he has declared that this baby is already our Gavin. Too funny! I'm fine with that since I like the name. He says Gage is still out since it makes him want to go look at the pressure stuff on his truck. I forgot that everything on the side of a firetruck is a gauge for every kind of pressure they have on there!!! But, if Gavin was so out last time and it's suddenly the name this time then I have no doubt that our next baby boy is probably going to be Gage! LOL! So, for whatever reason, Brad is obsessed with having a name immediately after we find out what each baby is. So, the lack of a middle name was driving him crazy! LOL! It's been an ongoing debate since we walked out of the sono office! Anyway, after going through tons of random names that we just pulled out of the air and seemed to sound good it ended in this. Last night we were laying in bed and in the dark I just said "What about Gavin Quint since he's our 5th boy? That'd have some great meaning behind it and it sounds really great and strong." It was quiet for a minute and then suddenly he said "That's it!!!" I laughed thinking he was being funny and he said he was serious and that it is definitely the name this baby is supposed to have. I was just joking because they call the ladder trucks quints........and I knew he'd blow it off with some smart comment....especially knowing what he thinks of Gage and what it makes him think of!!! LOL! I love the fact that it means he's our 5th and I love the name itself. But, seeing as how I love the name and he blew me away with his love for it too we now have a baby boy named.........
Gavin Quint
So, that's the latest on us. So, by the end of it we may have a baby on Brad's birthday, possibly the 4th or baby #7 on 7/7/07......or we could've missed it again and end up not having the kid until the end of July!! hahahaha!!!! Who knows! Anyway, the boys are on a winning streak for now! One more and we'll have our own 6 man team!
Well, we're both still very much in shock at the results we were given over the weekend. I had my prenatal appt before the sono so we talked through the whole timing thing and then confirmed by measurements and prenatal stuff that I am around 12-13 wks....exactly where I thought I was. So, we went on over for the sono to confirm those findings..........and our biggest joke of the pregnancy came true. Instead of a big 12 wk uterus and the possibility of another set of twins like everyone was thinking the tech said.........Well, definitely just one baby and you're AT LEAST 16 wks and probably around 17. By the end of the sono and baby's measurements, which are probably small for it's age at this point, (which would mean I'm probably even farther along than 16 wks) it said I am 16 wks and 1 day. Accuracy is probably not great at this point so he said that there's a possibility I could be as far as 18 wks. Bone measurements gave a 16 wk date and weight est gave an 18 wk date. The baby weighs 5 oz which is standard for an 18 wk baby. It came in as 16 wks in bone measurements, which are the more inaccurate of the two, but a 16 wk baby is only around 3 oz. After talking it over with the tech and midwife they said it is probably very accurate to date the pregnancy at 17 wks. So, that gives me the due date of somewhere between June 30th-July 5th. It blew me away. He said he could definitely tell gender on a 16-18 wk baby and asked if we wanted to know. The whole plan was to have our 1st surprise baby but with the shock of being so much farther along than either of us thought, I'd had enough shock for the day. Twins would have been easier to fathom than already being 1/2 way done. I looked over at Brad and said that to be that far along and not know means it's definitely a boy. There's no way a pregnancy would be this easy with a girl. I freakin didn't even know I was pregnant and am already 1/2 done with the entire pregnancy. So, he said sure, go ahead and let us in on the secret. So..........much to Brad's dismay......
It's yet another BOY!!!!!!
hahahaha! Though he wasn't laughing at the moment! So, #5 boy it is. Girls are definitely on a losing streak here.
So, here I am pregnant and really truly 1/2 way done with the pregnancy. And for the fun of it.......this baby may just be baby #7 born on 7/7/07! I'd gladly wait around for that! Watch me go until the 17th! HA! That'd be about par for this pregnancy!!!
And to top it all off......my lack of weight gain had concerned me when I was thinking I was only 12 wks. I've now lost a total of 2 pds with absolutely no weight gain at all since becoming pregnant and am this far along. They said not to worry. Baby looks good and is developing great. The only reason the baby may appear smaller and actually be even farther along than the 16 it measured in the sono is due to variations in growth as the bigger they get and being unable to get good solid measurements due to the baby already being a larger size. They've all said the earlier the sono is done the more accurate they are. But he said I am definitely not any less than 16 wks....but no farther than 18. Wow! Now this is the way to be pregnant! HA! So, everyone decided to date it at 17 wks.
Well, as far as the children's thoughts on a baby boy go.......it's taken Evye a little longer to get used to the idea. Her 1st words were, "But I didn't want a boy." LOL! The thought of yet another boy even took Grayson by surprise, I think. The Chinese baby predictor calendar thing that they say is 98% accurate said girl for us. So, when I told Grayson his 1st words were "Well, the computer was just wrong!" HA! I then had to explain, not realizing how seriously he took the computer and a fun prediction for its word!!! The excitement has started to kick in for him though and he's talking non stop about how he can teach them all to ride bikes without training wheels since he's a pro at it, since he started when he was 4! LOL! And how he can teach them the difference between rattlesnakes and rat snakes! I told him that was more than fine with me and he could easily take over that part of their early childhood education! After all, he's got a small army under him that will be willing and ready, not to mention eager, to learn! Evye's still getting used to the idea. I just said lovingly, "Evye, you know how much you love Garrett. You're a little mother to him and he loves you to pieces. How can you say you don't want another boy? Think of what you would've missed out on had we not had Garrett!!!" She just looked at me and said matter of factly "Well, Garrett's ok and I like him but I don't know about this baby." I had to laugh then. Aubrey's still so carefree it doesn't even register with her. She just said "It's a boy???!!!! Yea!!!!" and started jumping up and down. She would've done the same with a girl! Evye stood there dismayed by Aubrey's response and said "No Aubrey......it's a BOY!!!!!" like she didn't understand the full impact of it. HA!
We decided to go ahead and come up with a name as soon as we could for the children to start seeing it as a baby instead of a "boy" since everybody expected girl. We thought it would help, which it has. All of the older 5 are already calling him by name, which gets them all excited and starts the questions of what he will look like and and if he'll have red hair like Grant or blond like everybody else. It seems like a name suddenly makes the baby a person to them instead of an unwanted gender! HA! So, on the name thing, I thought it would take forever since Garrett was supposedly the last G name Brad liked. He could not stand Gavin last time around. But this time suddenly he has declared that this baby is already our Gavin. Too funny! I'm fine with that since I like the name. He says Gage is still out since it makes him want to go look at the pressure stuff on his truck. I forgot that everything on the side of a firetruck is a gauge for every kind of pressure they have on there!!! But, if Gavin was so out last time and it's suddenly the name this time then I have no doubt that our next baby boy is probably going to be Gage! LOL! So, for whatever reason, Brad is obsessed with having a name immediately after we find out what each baby is. So, the lack of a middle name was driving him crazy! LOL! It's been an ongoing debate since we walked out of the sono office! Anyway, after going through tons of random names that we just pulled out of the air and seemed to sound good it ended in this. Last night we were laying in bed and in the dark I just said "What about Gavin Quint since he's our 5th boy? That'd have some great meaning behind it and it sounds really great and strong." It was quiet for a minute and then suddenly he said "That's it!!!" I laughed thinking he was being funny and he said he was serious and that it is definitely the name this baby is supposed to have. I was just joking because they call the ladder trucks quints........and I knew he'd blow it off with some smart comment....especially knowing what he thinks of Gage and what it makes him think of!!! LOL! I love the fact that it means he's our 5th and I love the name itself. But, seeing as how I love the name and he blew me away with his love for it too we now have a baby boy named.........
Gavin Quint
So, that's the latest on us. So, by the end of it we may have a baby on Brad's birthday, possibly the 4th or baby #7 on 7/7/07......or we could've missed it again and end up not having the kid until the end of July!! hahahaha!!!! Who knows! Anyway, the boys are on a winning streak for now! One more and we'll have our own 6 man team!
A quick...or not so quick...overview of recent happenings
written Jan 5, 2007...letter to a friend
Man........it's been chaos here. Everytime I get to a point where I can sit down and think something else happens that I have to deal with. Whatever happened to moving out to nowhere and living the relaxing do-nothing life??!! The house still hasn't sold so money wise we got ourselves in a really not so great situation. Isn't that the story of our lives? Things are looking up though and the dude next door has a friend that Brad used to ride bikes with and his realtor knows Brad and used to ride bikes with that whole crew too. So, the bike dude really wants the house but made an offer 15 grand below what we were asking. I think he thought it was a friend to friend sale so we'd go easy on him. Brad talked to him and told him there's no way in hell we could get away with that. We're breaking even as it is. So, he likes the house so much he's having it appraised. The appraisal will come back above our asking price and he said as long as he knows it's a fair price then he wants to do it. So, we'll see. We're waiting on all the appraisal stuff now.
But in the meantime, Brad went and got a 2nd job. He's welding now at a steel company on his days off. His hours are 6a-6p 6 days a week. On his days coming off shift they let him arrive at 8. But, it's in the industrial part of SA so it takes about an hour to get there. So, he leaves at 4:30 in the morning when he's home and doesn't return until about 7:15 each night. On the days he's coming off shift he just goes straight there so we don't see him from 5:30 one morning until 7:30 the next night. It sucks. Kind of feels like what we just came out of. But, on a good note, the money is great and he's making more then we've had in our entire marriage. So, we've decided he'll do this for a year or year and a 1/2 and that'll give us enough time to do what we need to do on this end so far as big stuff we need and can never afford. Everybody's skin is dying out here due to how rough the water is. The chlorine in it is outrageous since we're the 1st stop from the water plant on it's way into SA. It's ruined many loads of dark laundry already. So, we have to get a filter for that, water softener, bigger hot water heater and a bunch of other big ticket items we'll never get otherwise. After his year and 1/2 at the steel place the town has offered for him to get on with the water dept part time. So, he'll work for the water dept on his days off after that, if all goes as planned.
So, that's the story there. On the pregnant note, I still have yet to have a sono. It's so screwed up. We finally decided on a midwife in Abilene that's delivered a few of the guys' babies at the station and I really do like her. She comes here for all of my appts and she'll do a homebirth, which I really really want. But she has her quirks too, as all lay midwives do. She won't take a patient that drinks Aspartame. Uh, what? And then she doesn't believe in sonograms at all. So, she wants to date the pregnancy by "natural" ways. Sorry, but that boat doesn't float with me. She said baby will come when baby is ready and since I've never been overly late we'll just see when the kid gets here.....sometime in June or July. I at least wants a general idea of a MONTH the kid's coming in! She doesn't believe my dates at all and said there was no way I was only around 8 or 9 wks at my 1st appt at the beginning of Dec. Her theory is that I took 3 bad tests in Oct and have really been pregnant the whole time. She's dating the pregnancy based on the period I had over Labor Day.......which makes me due June 12th???!!!! That means I'm currently 16 or 17 freakin wks along! There's no way. Because we were able to hear a heartbeat she said I was definitely no less then 12 wks at that appt we had since hearing the heartbeat before 12 wks is impossible. I got news, that's not all entirely true. So, I did a ton of research and it is possible to hear a heartbeat as early as 8 or 9 wks, though it's not the norm. 9-10 wks seems to be not so abnormal so I could've easily been around 9 wks. There's no way I took 3 bad tests. And I know my own body well enough now to know when I feel pregnant. I got the pos. test on Nov 19th and I wasn't even really feeling all that pregnant yet. A week after I took the test is when everything set in. I think I might could've gotten a pos a few days before that since I had an awful headache earlier in the week, which is typical for a pregnant me. But, that would've only been 4 days before I took it on the 19th. So, she said we'd meet in the middle and figure my due date as June 30th, which dated the pregnancy at 12 wks at my appt. She thinks I was as far long as 14 or 15 wks at my appt but settled with 12 for me. I asked her just how in the world she thought we would ever know if there were 2 in there or if I'd ever have an accurate due date and she said we'd go based on feeling movement. I'm supposed to freakin put a check on the calendar each day I feel movement and when it becomes consistent and I feel it everyday then we'll for sure know I'm right at 16 wks. What??? And she said there's no reason to think there's 2 in there at this point since I was measuring exactly right for 12 wks. Well, if I was only 8 or 9 wks wouldn't I be measuring ahead in that case? She said we'd definitely know by Feb if there's 2 or not. It's not at all accurate to go based on whether you can hear 2 heartbeats or not since it is common in a twin pregnancy to never hear a 2nd baby's heartbeat. There was a lady in Dec that gave birth to 5 and 3 pd twins at 35 wks and never knew she was pregnant with 2. She thought it was just 1 big baby and they never heard a 2nd heartbeat, though they both had kind of suspected twins. Ok, that's just not me. I'd dearly love to have twins at home.....but not going down this road. So, Brad and I agreed to go to the college in Midland, a 2 hr drive, to get a free sono by the tech school there. I had an appt set up on Dec 15th and we had to cancel. We had no money for gas and Grant had an ear infection that had to be seen that day before we headed into the weekend and Brad wouldn't budge on it. So, I got really mad and then chilled out about it. So, that was the last day of the school semester for them and she said to call back on Jan 2nd when they reopened!!! The 2nd???!!!! So, Mother came for a little over a week after Christmas and because of Brad's job he couldn't go so she was now going to go with me. We figured we'd make a road trip out of it and have some fun. The children were out of school so we were going to load the whole crew up and go. I called every hour on the 2nd and they finally informed me that she was out for the "presidential holiday" and didn't know when she'd return. They didn't think she'd be back in until school started on the 16th!!!! So, after getting up at the crack of dawn and having everybody ready to leave that morning we didn't go and are now waiting for the 16th. And to make it even more complicated, Brad and I don't want to decide for good on a midwife until we have the sonogram done. Neither one of us feel comfortable with her delivering twins so if there is, by some slim chance, more than 1 we'll definitely go back to Denton. If there's just 1 then I'll just get an estimated due date at the sono and go with the midwife here since she is the most experienced in this area and has done tons of single births. I honestly, at this point, don't have a clue as to what to think. I'm so confused at to how any there are in there, how far along I am and when I'm really due. I know I'm freakin huge, which could be due to the fact it is, afterall, kid #7 or it could be more than 1 or it could be that I am actually 1/2 way through the pregnancy and don't even know it. Ugh! Whatever. I'm kind of to the point now where it's like...well, I can't stay pregnant forever and so at some point 1 or 2 or 3 kids will eventually pop out sometime in the summer. HA! Oh, the joy. So, that's where we are on that. No real news......just mass confusion, I guess. Although Brad and I have decided that this baby will be a surprise baby since we're to the point now where we have more than a few of each gender and we've always found out so we both think it'd be fun to be surprised. But now the joke is that I'll go in for the sonogram and I'll be so far along that they'll go "Oh.........it's a .......!!!!" and it'll all be blown. Brad thinks the whole thing is really funny and he gets a kick out of seeing how many more wrenches can be thrown into the process to delay finding out anything. I cried on the 2nd when the sono got postponed until the 16th and then got it all out of my system and think I finally don't care anymore. I mean, in all reality, we will undoubtedly know at some point in the summer. I like to be spontaneous but I like doing it on my own terms when I decide to be spontaneous and not when it's out of my control.. HA!
So, on another note, we're really praying about what to do with the children and schooling next fall. I really really want to bring them home. My heart will always be to homeschool. But in order to pull it off Ive got to get my shit together. So, for the last few weeks I've done nothing but research and put together a program that'll work. The school's ok and they are both honor students and making more headway then I ever thought possible. BUT, they dropped the ball on the dyslexia program for him and he could be doing so much more. Evye's gotten caught up in all these little girly cat fights and who's looking at who and who's wearing what. I know it'll come at some point.........but when she's freakin 6???!!!! We'd have to order the dyslexia program which in itself if 2,500 bucks. There's no quality friends either of them have made. The majority of the kids here are white trash in a big way. So, on the social end not much is beneficial other then learning how to make good choices. I really don't want to interfere with a good thing but then again my heart longs to bring them back home. So, we're praying. We'll use a curriculum that'll keep both me and the children accountable and I'll send in everything so that the academy will issue report cards and they'll be tested at the end of every year like they are in school. I've got everything lined out mentally and am working on getting it all organized to pull it all together by the time we start but the only thing still left in question is what to do with all of the toddlers.........cause there's a lot of them! HA! Garrison and Grant will be close to 3, and Garrett will be about 16 months when we start. And then the new baby will be fairly easy since I can nurse and meet it's needs while we school. That's the least of the issues. If we do it I'll just integrate Aubrey into school. If we kept them in public school Aubrey would be starting Pre-K in the fall anyway. She'd freakin go from 7:30-4 everyday just like every other grade in the school. I just don't get that. When I was little kindergarten was a 1/2 day. Now even Pre-K goes 7:30-4! What in the world do they do all day???!!!! I do know Pre-K takes a nap up there which to me is just ridiculous. I might as well put her in daycare. Anyway, it's all still very much in the prayer process right now. I just want guidance and wisdom to make the best decision. Part of the "large purchase plan" is to do a massive swingset for us since this town has absolutely nothing to offer on that end and that'd at least give our little ones somewhere to go. So, that'd be used as part of school too if we bring them home. We want to put in a small running track on the acre attached to the backyard. One of the neighbors has a John Deere that we could easily do an oval layout for a track. But if we choose to bring them home it will be somewhat of a large affair getting stuff ready here so we can do it the right way instead of hitting and missing it when we're in the mood to actually sit down and work. And, get this! Mother's agreed to come the last weekend of every month or the 1st weekend of the month and have a cooking weekend in which we'll cook the entire month's worth of breakfasts and dinners. I figure if I can get in the habit before the baby comes that'll take off a bunch of the load here since there's NO where to go for food that's close and then if we end up homeschooling again it'll greatly ease the meal burden. I'm just making a monthly menu and we cook it all at one time and I can unfreeze the next day's the night before. I figure that'll cut down on Evye's pickiness too since I've got it printed out and there's no choice or question about what the meal consists of. So, that'll help with everything on that end.
Anyway, that's about all of the new stuff going on on our end. The water guy apparently has a thing going for me......or our entire family. Not sure which. Maybe a little of both. Anyway, it's like "Dude.....do you freakin see all the kids that swarm the door when you come over and are you blind to the belly that proceeds me to the door to greet you???!!!!!" Anyway, he comes over ALL the time so that's a pain in the butt sometimes. After showing up unexpected as much as he has I'm amazed he ever comes back. So far, he's seen me from absolutely no make-up to no bra and Brad's jogging suit pants that inevitably slide down so that the crotch ends up around my knees. Why he finds us so appealing I'll never know. But he's over all the time. I guess when you're used to a quiet somewhat private life and then you move here where the door is always considered open it's kind of culture shock for me.
Oh, and the church here is screwed up! It makes me miss home. So, we gave up on the little Baptist one across the street and are trying ones out in town. The one here is so dead. There is nothing here at all and I'm past the point of wanting the fellowship. I really want to get something out of it...instead of putting so much into it. I think it's more of a ministry for us to go to that church then it is to be ministered to when we go. Because we hadn't gone in 6 wks due to Brad being on shift and then everybody being sick forever they quit calling for nursery workers. We are the reason they need a nursery. So, when I showed up on Christmas Eve they told me just to bring them all up to the service. Brad was on shift and I looked at them and then looked at my crew. Um........no. So, we just went home. Anyway, that was the last straw for me with all of the other stuff going on over there so we're visiting around in SA.
Man........it's been chaos here. Everytime I get to a point where I can sit down and think something else happens that I have to deal with. Whatever happened to moving out to nowhere and living the relaxing do-nothing life??!! The house still hasn't sold so money wise we got ourselves in a really not so great situation. Isn't that the story of our lives? Things are looking up though and the dude next door has a friend that Brad used to ride bikes with and his realtor knows Brad and used to ride bikes with that whole crew too. So, the bike dude really wants the house but made an offer 15 grand below what we were asking. I think he thought it was a friend to friend sale so we'd go easy on him. Brad talked to him and told him there's no way in hell we could get away with that. We're breaking even as it is. So, he likes the house so much he's having it appraised. The appraisal will come back above our asking price and he said as long as he knows it's a fair price then he wants to do it. So, we'll see. We're waiting on all the appraisal stuff now.
But in the meantime, Brad went and got a 2nd job. He's welding now at a steel company on his days off. His hours are 6a-6p 6 days a week. On his days coming off shift they let him arrive at 8. But, it's in the industrial part of SA so it takes about an hour to get there. So, he leaves at 4:30 in the morning when he's home and doesn't return until about 7:15 each night. On the days he's coming off shift he just goes straight there so we don't see him from 5:30 one morning until 7:30 the next night. It sucks. Kind of feels like what we just came out of. But, on a good note, the money is great and he's making more then we've had in our entire marriage. So, we've decided he'll do this for a year or year and a 1/2 and that'll give us enough time to do what we need to do on this end so far as big stuff we need and can never afford. Everybody's skin is dying out here due to how rough the water is. The chlorine in it is outrageous since we're the 1st stop from the water plant on it's way into SA. It's ruined many loads of dark laundry already. So, we have to get a filter for that, water softener, bigger hot water heater and a bunch of other big ticket items we'll never get otherwise. After his year and 1/2 at the steel place the town has offered for him to get on with the water dept part time. So, he'll work for the water dept on his days off after that, if all goes as planned.
So, that's the story there. On the pregnant note, I still have yet to have a sono. It's so screwed up. We finally decided on a midwife in Abilene that's delivered a few of the guys' babies at the station and I really do like her. She comes here for all of my appts and she'll do a homebirth, which I really really want. But she has her quirks too, as all lay midwives do. She won't take a patient that drinks Aspartame. Uh, what? And then she doesn't believe in sonograms at all. So, she wants to date the pregnancy by "natural" ways. Sorry, but that boat doesn't float with me. She said baby will come when baby is ready and since I've never been overly late we'll just see when the kid gets here.....sometime in June or July. I at least wants a general idea of a MONTH the kid's coming in! She doesn't believe my dates at all and said there was no way I was only around 8 or 9 wks at my 1st appt at the beginning of Dec. Her theory is that I took 3 bad tests in Oct and have really been pregnant the whole time. She's dating the pregnancy based on the period I had over Labor Day.......which makes me due June 12th???!!!! That means I'm currently 16 or 17 freakin wks along! There's no way. Because we were able to hear a heartbeat she said I was definitely no less then 12 wks at that appt we had since hearing the heartbeat before 12 wks is impossible. I got news, that's not all entirely true. So, I did a ton of research and it is possible to hear a heartbeat as early as 8 or 9 wks, though it's not the norm. 9-10 wks seems to be not so abnormal so I could've easily been around 9 wks. There's no way I took 3 bad tests. And I know my own body well enough now to know when I feel pregnant. I got the pos. test on Nov 19th and I wasn't even really feeling all that pregnant yet. A week after I took the test is when everything set in. I think I might could've gotten a pos a few days before that since I had an awful headache earlier in the week, which is typical for a pregnant me. But, that would've only been 4 days before I took it on the 19th. So, she said we'd meet in the middle and figure my due date as June 30th, which dated the pregnancy at 12 wks at my appt. She thinks I was as far long as 14 or 15 wks at my appt but settled with 12 for me. I asked her just how in the world she thought we would ever know if there were 2 in there or if I'd ever have an accurate due date and she said we'd go based on feeling movement. I'm supposed to freakin put a check on the calendar each day I feel movement and when it becomes consistent and I feel it everyday then we'll for sure know I'm right at 16 wks. What??? And she said there's no reason to think there's 2 in there at this point since I was measuring exactly right for 12 wks. Well, if I was only 8 or 9 wks wouldn't I be measuring ahead in that case? She said we'd definitely know by Feb if there's 2 or not. It's not at all accurate to go based on whether you can hear 2 heartbeats or not since it is common in a twin pregnancy to never hear a 2nd baby's heartbeat. There was a lady in Dec that gave birth to 5 and 3 pd twins at 35 wks and never knew she was pregnant with 2. She thought it was just 1 big baby and they never heard a 2nd heartbeat, though they both had kind of suspected twins. Ok, that's just not me. I'd dearly love to have twins at home.....but not going down this road. So, Brad and I agreed to go to the college in Midland, a 2 hr drive, to get a free sono by the tech school there. I had an appt set up on Dec 15th and we had to cancel. We had no money for gas and Grant had an ear infection that had to be seen that day before we headed into the weekend and Brad wouldn't budge on it. So, I got really mad and then chilled out about it. So, that was the last day of the school semester for them and she said to call back on Jan 2nd when they reopened!!! The 2nd???!!!! So, Mother came for a little over a week after Christmas and because of Brad's job he couldn't go so she was now going to go with me. We figured we'd make a road trip out of it and have some fun. The children were out of school so we were going to load the whole crew up and go. I called every hour on the 2nd and they finally informed me that she was out for the "presidential holiday" and didn't know when she'd return. They didn't think she'd be back in until school started on the 16th!!!! So, after getting up at the crack of dawn and having everybody ready to leave that morning we didn't go and are now waiting for the 16th. And to make it even more complicated, Brad and I don't want to decide for good on a midwife until we have the sonogram done. Neither one of us feel comfortable with her delivering twins so if there is, by some slim chance, more than 1 we'll definitely go back to Denton. If there's just 1 then I'll just get an estimated due date at the sono and go with the midwife here since she is the most experienced in this area and has done tons of single births. I honestly, at this point, don't have a clue as to what to think. I'm so confused at to how any there are in there, how far along I am and when I'm really due. I know I'm freakin huge, which could be due to the fact it is, afterall, kid #7 or it could be more than 1 or it could be that I am actually 1/2 way through the pregnancy and don't even know it. Ugh! Whatever. I'm kind of to the point now where it's like...well, I can't stay pregnant forever and so at some point 1 or 2 or 3 kids will eventually pop out sometime in the summer. HA! Oh, the joy. So, that's where we are on that. No real news......just mass confusion, I guess. Although Brad and I have decided that this baby will be a surprise baby since we're to the point now where we have more than a few of each gender and we've always found out so we both think it'd be fun to be surprised. But now the joke is that I'll go in for the sonogram and I'll be so far along that they'll go "Oh.........it's a .......!!!!" and it'll all be blown. Brad thinks the whole thing is really funny and he gets a kick out of seeing how many more wrenches can be thrown into the process to delay finding out anything. I cried on the 2nd when the sono got postponed until the 16th and then got it all out of my system and think I finally don't care anymore. I mean, in all reality, we will undoubtedly know at some point in the summer. I like to be spontaneous but I like doing it on my own terms when I decide to be spontaneous and not when it's out of my control.. HA!
So, on another note, we're really praying about what to do with the children and schooling next fall. I really really want to bring them home. My heart will always be to homeschool. But in order to pull it off Ive got to get my shit together. So, for the last few weeks I've done nothing but research and put together a program that'll work. The school's ok and they are both honor students and making more headway then I ever thought possible. BUT, they dropped the ball on the dyslexia program for him and he could be doing so much more. Evye's gotten caught up in all these little girly cat fights and who's looking at who and who's wearing what. I know it'll come at some point.........but when she's freakin 6???!!!! We'd have to order the dyslexia program which in itself if 2,500 bucks. There's no quality friends either of them have made. The majority of the kids here are white trash in a big way. So, on the social end not much is beneficial other then learning how to make good choices. I really don't want to interfere with a good thing but then again my heart longs to bring them back home. So, we're praying. We'll use a curriculum that'll keep both me and the children accountable and I'll send in everything so that the academy will issue report cards and they'll be tested at the end of every year like they are in school. I've got everything lined out mentally and am working on getting it all organized to pull it all together by the time we start but the only thing still left in question is what to do with all of the toddlers.........cause there's a lot of them! HA! Garrison and Grant will be close to 3, and Garrett will be about 16 months when we start. And then the new baby will be fairly easy since I can nurse and meet it's needs while we school. That's the least of the issues. If we do it I'll just integrate Aubrey into school. If we kept them in public school Aubrey would be starting Pre-K in the fall anyway. She'd freakin go from 7:30-4 everyday just like every other grade in the school. I just don't get that. When I was little kindergarten was a 1/2 day. Now even Pre-K goes 7:30-4! What in the world do they do all day???!!!! I do know Pre-K takes a nap up there which to me is just ridiculous. I might as well put her in daycare. Anyway, it's all still very much in the prayer process right now. I just want guidance and wisdom to make the best decision. Part of the "large purchase plan" is to do a massive swingset for us since this town has absolutely nothing to offer on that end and that'd at least give our little ones somewhere to go. So, that'd be used as part of school too if we bring them home. We want to put in a small running track on the acre attached to the backyard. One of the neighbors has a John Deere that we could easily do an oval layout for a track. But if we choose to bring them home it will be somewhat of a large affair getting stuff ready here so we can do it the right way instead of hitting and missing it when we're in the mood to actually sit down and work. And, get this! Mother's agreed to come the last weekend of every month or the 1st weekend of the month and have a cooking weekend in which we'll cook the entire month's worth of breakfasts and dinners. I figure if I can get in the habit before the baby comes that'll take off a bunch of the load here since there's NO where to go for food that's close and then if we end up homeschooling again it'll greatly ease the meal burden. I'm just making a monthly menu and we cook it all at one time and I can unfreeze the next day's the night before. I figure that'll cut down on Evye's pickiness too since I've got it printed out and there's no choice or question about what the meal consists of. So, that'll help with everything on that end.
Anyway, that's about all of the new stuff going on on our end. The water guy apparently has a thing going for me......or our entire family. Not sure which. Maybe a little of both. Anyway, it's like "Dude.....do you freakin see all the kids that swarm the door when you come over and are you blind to the belly that proceeds me to the door to greet you???!!!!!" Anyway, he comes over ALL the time so that's a pain in the butt sometimes. After showing up unexpected as much as he has I'm amazed he ever comes back. So far, he's seen me from absolutely no make-up to no bra and Brad's jogging suit pants that inevitably slide down so that the crotch ends up around my knees. Why he finds us so appealing I'll never know. But he's over all the time. I guess when you're used to a quiet somewhat private life and then you move here where the door is always considered open it's kind of culture shock for me.
Oh, and the church here is screwed up! It makes me miss home. So, we gave up on the little Baptist one across the street and are trying ones out in town. The one here is so dead. There is nothing here at all and I'm past the point of wanting the fellowship. I really want to get something out of it...instead of putting so much into it. I think it's more of a ministry for us to go to that church then it is to be ministered to when we go. Because we hadn't gone in 6 wks due to Brad being on shift and then everybody being sick forever they quit calling for nursery workers. We are the reason they need a nursery. So, when I showed up on Christmas Eve they told me just to bring them all up to the service. Brad was on shift and I looked at them and then looked at my crew. Um........no. So, we just went home. Anyway, that was the last straw for me with all of the other stuff going on over there so we're visiting around in SA.
14 or 15 wks pregnant???!!!!!!
written Dec 15, 2006
Let me start with saying I just tested 3 1/2 wks ago and so was thinking I'm about 8 wks along. So, Carol, our midwife, came today and as soon as the doppler hit my stomach there was a booming heartbeat very loud and clear. She said right then that I'm at least an easy 12 wks. I"m measuring right at 12 wks too for the average mom. I usually measure 2 wks smaller than norm though so that makes me 14 or 15 wks????!!!! She listened all over and we heard the placenta, cord, my femoral artery (or some artery of some sort) and she is 99% sure it's just one. She said going based on just 1 heartbeat is not reliable since at this very early stage they can very easily drown the other out and one can be deeper than the one that is being heard so well. But based on the fact that I am measuring right where I should be that we are going based on 1 baby....especially since I've now lost 2 pds from starting weight. I thought I'd gained 2 but when I got on the scale this morning I'm lower than I when I even got pregnant. She said I'm definitely due in June....not July. My due date as of now is the 30th, but very well could be the 12th of June!! If it is truly the 30th of June I may go a few days late and I can still have baby #7 in 7/07! LOL! I can't freakin believe I'm this pregnant! I'm still kind of in shock and still taking it all in. How I could have been pregnant for 2 1/2 months, maybe even longer, and not have known is really foreign to me. I just don't get it. And I know I can't be measuring farther ahead for twins and us mistaking it for me being farther along since we heard a very clear distinct heartbeat so immediate and so well. So, there's no arguing that I'm at least 12 wks. Unless, it's possible to hear the heartbeat before 12 wks....which she said rarely ever happens. We weren't able to hear it with Garrett until rigth at 12. We tried at 10 and it just wasn't audible.
So, she said at the end of the appt that we'll keep an eye out for another baby but we're going based on 1 until I can get in at the college for a sonogram, which opens back on the 2nd. But, I know now even more that there's just 1. There's no way there's 2 in there with all of that info I was handed today. I'm still just in absolute shock that I've been pregnant for a little over 3 months, probably around 3 1/2 and maybe even 4!!! She said I'm at least 12 wks and very possibly could be more like 15. If we go based on my last period on Labor Day that'd make me 15 wks! I told her there's no way in the world I'm that pregnant. I KNOW I'm not that far along. She said she didn't think so either due to my measurements but I always measure about 2 cm smaller than average with a single baby. I measured 12 cm today which would put me at 14 or 15 wks with a single baby. So, she reached a guesstimate of 12 wks based on average women's measurements. She said we'd leave it at 12 wks right now until we have a better idea by the beginning of me feeling baby's movement.
Wow! What a day! How can you just not know you're pregnant......after you've been pregnant as many times as I have????!!!!!! I thought those were just stories people told you about. So, 1 baby it is and I'm due sometime between June 12 and the 30th........as opposed to July 26th like I thought!!! I'm still in shock. Does that really happen? 3 neg tests and to not even feel pregnant???!!!! Oh well. I guess I got really blessed this go round!!! LOL! I'm either 1/3 or as much as almost 1/2 way through the pregnancy!!!
Love,
Nikki
Let me start with saying I just tested 3 1/2 wks ago and so was thinking I'm about 8 wks along. So, Carol, our midwife, came today and as soon as the doppler hit my stomach there was a booming heartbeat very loud and clear. She said right then that I'm at least an easy 12 wks. I"m measuring right at 12 wks too for the average mom. I usually measure 2 wks smaller than norm though so that makes me 14 or 15 wks????!!!! She listened all over and we heard the placenta, cord, my femoral artery (or some artery of some sort) and she is 99% sure it's just one. She said going based on just 1 heartbeat is not reliable since at this very early stage they can very easily drown the other out and one can be deeper than the one that is being heard so well. But based on the fact that I am measuring right where I should be that we are going based on 1 baby....especially since I've now lost 2 pds from starting weight. I thought I'd gained 2 but when I got on the scale this morning I'm lower than I when I even got pregnant. She said I'm definitely due in June....not July. My due date as of now is the 30th, but very well could be the 12th of June!! If it is truly the 30th of June I may go a few days late and I can still have baby #7 in 7/07! LOL! I can't freakin believe I'm this pregnant! I'm still kind of in shock and still taking it all in. How I could have been pregnant for 2 1/2 months, maybe even longer, and not have known is really foreign to me. I just don't get it. And I know I can't be measuring farther ahead for twins and us mistaking it for me being farther along since we heard a very clear distinct heartbeat so immediate and so well. So, there's no arguing that I'm at least 12 wks. Unless, it's possible to hear the heartbeat before 12 wks....which she said rarely ever happens. We weren't able to hear it with Garrett until rigth at 12. We tried at 10 and it just wasn't audible.
So, she said at the end of the appt that we'll keep an eye out for another baby but we're going based on 1 until I can get in at the college for a sonogram, which opens back on the 2nd. But, I know now even more that there's just 1. There's no way there's 2 in there with all of that info I was handed today. I'm still just in absolute shock that I've been pregnant for a little over 3 months, probably around 3 1/2 and maybe even 4!!! She said I'm at least 12 wks and very possibly could be more like 15. If we go based on my last period on Labor Day that'd make me 15 wks! I told her there's no way in the world I'm that pregnant. I KNOW I'm not that far along. She said she didn't think so either due to my measurements but I always measure about 2 cm smaller than average with a single baby. I measured 12 cm today which would put me at 14 or 15 wks with a single baby. So, she reached a guesstimate of 12 wks based on average women's measurements. She said we'd leave it at 12 wks right now until we have a better idea by the beginning of me feeling baby's movement.
Wow! What a day! How can you just not know you're pregnant......after you've been pregnant as many times as I have????!!!!!! I thought those were just stories people told you about. So, 1 baby it is and I'm due sometime between June 12 and the 30th........as opposed to July 26th like I thought!!! I'm still in shock. Does that really happen? 3 neg tests and to not even feel pregnant???!!!! Oh well. I guess I got really blessed this go round!!! LOL! I'm either 1/3 or as much as almost 1/2 way through the pregnancy!!!
Love,
Nikki
The children are now in public school
written Sept 22, 2006
Well, after much prayer and many deep deep discussions Brad and I decided to put the children in school. It was a very hard decision to make but in the end we had a total peace and knew God has placed us here for a very special reason and that we've been truly blessed. That's definitely not to say it hasn't been hard, especially on me, but the more we walk this out the more incredible it is. They have only ever had 1 student with dyslexia that they knew of and never even seen a student with it as severe as Grayson and are doing absolutely everything they can for him. They are working with us intently so that we can all watch him succeed. They have resources and funds that we haven't had and probably won't ever have. They have ordered Grayson a laptop to do both his classroom and homework on so that the empty piece of paper is no longer such a barrier for him resulting in breakdowns where he can't even process anything due to his fear of it. The school is also paying for the principle, his teacher and me to go to the Scottish Rite Dyslexia Conference at the end of Oct. so that we can all learn how to better help him. His teacher is absolutely incredible and is so greatly appreciated. She has assigned a different student to him everyday as his aide. It has only helped her classroom and everyone thinks it's fun. The students strive to do well so that they might be his aide for the following day and he doesn't get tired of any one particular student and having to worry about personality clashes or resenting anyone. The students read and write for him and basically take the fear out of learning. And the teacher takes him to the back of the class and listens to him do his reading to her instead of making him do it in front of the class. She has been full of praise and he comes home everyday more and more confident saying the teacher said he reads so good that he will be reading with the class in not long at all. He is absolutely flourishing and loving everything about it. It keeps him challenged and has taken the boredom out of his days. His attitude has improved dramatically and when he is home he is so grateful for the time off and that he can play that he doesn't bother griping about anything.
The school is going far above and beyond what any school I have ever known would do. His teacher is amazed at his mathematical abilities. I tried to really explain everything I could to them about him before he started school but it still amazed them. I told them he is way ahead in math but cannot spell at all and can only read on a 1st grade level. They have all been blown away by his precision in math. And for his tests today his teacher modified them for him so that the barriers were removed and allowed him to truly test instead of being inhibited by the fact he cannot read the tests or write answers. I was so impressed. I have never given him a test before due to how volatile he is if it is anything less than perfect, so I was very unsure as to how he would handle tests in a public school system with real grades. He made 100 on math and did pretty well in spelling too......which is a huge, huge thing. He reversed his "d" to a "b" in the word "hard" so when she asked him to spell it verbally and he did it correctly she allowed him to change it on the test and patted him saying that those letters are confusing and we all get them mixed up sometimes. Because his handwriting is only barely legible, another huge characteristic of dyslexia, she asked him to spell audibly a few more words that appeared misspelled on his test. When he did it correctly she allowed him to erase his test words and write them better so that they could be read, saying to just try and write as best he could so that she didn't mistake them and mark them wrong by accident. He said she patted his back and told him that his letters are looking better and better everyday. So, he is surrounded by affirmation and it makes a huge difference that it's from someone who teaches kids his age and not his own mom. She also has modified schooling for him and has given him 1st grade words and 1st grade level books as reading assignments as she assesses and gets a feel for where he is. The whole experience has been positive and has put him at complete ease. I think he has completely smitten his teacher and she is head over heels for him. It's hard not to love him though when you see him striving so hard to do well and then struggling so hard and beating himself up over it.
Today he had 3 tests and made 100 on both geography and math and came in really well in spelling, though he wasn't sure of what his grade ended up being on that. He said they were given a blank map and a list of the states and needed to put the state names on the states. The class studied it last week before he was enrolled and hasn't been over it but once since he's been there. The teacher was so shocked that he got all but 2 right that she gave him a 100 on it since he did better than anyone in the class. I have to admit that though we may not have been too great at homeschooling I loved geography and we were constantly going over states and countries. We have map placemats, globes everywhere, and maps on the walls so he had a huge headstart. Evye can even point out accurately almost every state. And Grayson can precisely place almost every country in the continent of Africa. But it was so gratifying for me and such an ego booster for Grayson to blow his teacher's mind with that. So, he is doing very well in every area. I thought it was so great. His little aide read off the state names to him, he pointed out where they went and then she wrote them in for him, according to Grayson. It was a sweet mental picture of him working together with another student and feeling so successful. And he LOVES science! I knew he would. We just couldn't ever get past reading and writing to ever make it to the fun stuff so we had just kind of integrated that in with Scouts. He has a real science book now and just eats it up and amazes me with how much he retains from it.
And Evye started the week in 1st grade and by the end of the week we had a parent/ teacher conference to discuss the fact that she was not ready at all for 1st grade. Her teacher's words were that she was lost and overwhelmed and Brad and I watched each day as she grew more and more depressed and finally by Wed didn't want to go back to school at all because she was the only one in her class that couldn't do anything. She was feeling very beaten down. So, she was moved to kindergarten and she is thriving. I was having a pretty hard time with it and beating myself up over it since I was the one that was so inconsistent with her last year as I struggled to help Grayson along. But the principle and teacher both said that she is by far the youngest in kindergarten and was not even 6 yet when classes began for 1st grade on Aug 16th. So, technically, had the state dates changed as school has been moved up over the years she wouldn't have even been eligible for 1st. The cut off birth date for an age for a grade level is still Sept 1st like it was when I was starting school. But since then school's starting date has been consistently moved up over the years and is now starting in early to mid Aug. So, after a heart to heart talk with the 1st grade teacher and the principle we decided it would be best to put her in kindergarten. It made a ton of difference and she is now flourishing too. All that she's concerned with is the fact that she FINALLY got to use her new glue and scissors.........and she got to paint too! HA! She came home today all smiles.
My only gripe right now is how long they are gone. I think I've cried more over that than anything. I think I bordered on co-dependency. The house is so quiet and vacant, and strangely and hauntingly peaceful without them home. The 3 younger ones are usually out in the driveway waiting for them to get home and as soon as the older 2 come into view on their bikes they all run to greet them and they all have a hugging and kissing reunion. I think Evye misses Garrett the most. She's like a little mother hen to him. When she gets home if he's sleeping she'll ask to go wake him up and if he's awake she runs over to him, picks him up and starts kissing him all over his chubby round face. He rewards her with bigger than life smiles and all kinds of coos and bubbly talk. It's pretty sweet. But Grayson and Evye are gone from 7:20 until 3:50 every day. They get a huge free breakfast and lunch but breakfast is from 7:30 until 7:55 and class starts at 8. And then class doesn't get out until 3:45 due to a new thing they have going. This is the 1st year they get out that late and it's killing all of the teachers and a bunch of the kids so hopefully next year they'll go back to letting out at 3. Even kindergartners go all day from 8 to "4". When I was little kindergarten was only a 1/2 day! And Pre-K is now also a state certified grade level! I had no clue! The school is considered Pre-K-12th. A degreed certified teacher has to teach it too! Pretty amazing! I wonder if by 2020 they'll have Pre-toddler and start with 6 month old babies. HA! Anyway, if we continue and the children flourish both academically and behaviorally and their character stays in tact through it all we will discuss going yet another year. I told Brad just as we took homeschooling one year at a time so we will take public school one year at a time. We will continue to pray and walk in obedience to what we are being led to do. If we do continue on with the school though that means Aubrey will start next year in Pre-K. I don't even want to think about the boys starting school ever. I can't even imagine not having them with me always. I cried Monday after we took Grayson and Evye and then I cried all day Tues and Wed. The day just isn't the same without them. I think I'll sob the day Garrison and Grant start school. I think they may just conveniently skip Pre-K. I think I may cry tears of relief when Aubrey starts Pre-K though! HA! I think she'll absolutely flourish and do wonders........ as long as she's not expelled due to beating the other kids up. She'll probably make headlines and be the 1st Pre-K student ever expelled due to outbursts and crimes committed against fellow students! No, in all honesty, the older she gets the easier it is to talk out her problems and frustrations with her and resolve them a little better instead of going into the Tasmanian devil thing every time she has a crisis. She really is an amazing kid and so entirely interesting to raise. I think she's my talking, breathing reminder to stay on my knees when it comes to parenting.
Anyway, that's the latest update on the school thing. Grayson has blown everybody away with his maturity, adult conversation ability and great manners. And they all have said Evye is so gentle hearted, mild and sweet and that she is a joy to teach. Oh, and the school has a strict dress code......which I didn't know public school's even had. If violated your parents will be called to bring you a change of clothes and you will not be allowed to return to class until properly clothed.
- For boys some of the stuff is....shirts must always be tucked in, they cannot have hair over their collar or bangs in the eyes, must be clean shaven, their hair must be layered in a suitable cut for males, no drastic hair dying and pants must be worn up around the waist and are not allowed to hang down and sag in an improper fit. No piercings or visible tattoos of any kind are allowed. Boys 5th grade and under are allowed to wear shorts but after that all boys must wear jeans, still maintaining their tucked in shirts.
- for girls some of the stuff is......no midriffs can be bared at any time, no slits in skirts, no visible tattoos, no cleavage showing, no skirts or dresses shorter than 4 inches above kneecaps, no drastic hair dying and so on.
Pretty incredible. You don't really realize how much of a difference it makes until you've been to the school and realize how well mannered they all are and how great the older students look and behave. And the older students all help take care of and watch out for the younger ones. Evye loves the attention she gets from the older girls and boys. And Grayson is so impressed that the older boys and all 6 of the football players have come up to him, introduced themselves and noticed him. A bunch of them call him by name now and that makes his day. It's just so cool, rewarding and great to see them excelling in every area including academics and character. Oh.......and at recess Evye walks across the dirt street and feeds the horses in the pasture handfuls of grass she's gathered! My kind of recess!
Well, after much prayer and many deep deep discussions Brad and I decided to put the children in school. It was a very hard decision to make but in the end we had a total peace and knew God has placed us here for a very special reason and that we've been truly blessed. That's definitely not to say it hasn't been hard, especially on me, but the more we walk this out the more incredible it is. They have only ever had 1 student with dyslexia that they knew of and never even seen a student with it as severe as Grayson and are doing absolutely everything they can for him. They are working with us intently so that we can all watch him succeed. They have resources and funds that we haven't had and probably won't ever have. They have ordered Grayson a laptop to do both his classroom and homework on so that the empty piece of paper is no longer such a barrier for him resulting in breakdowns where he can't even process anything due to his fear of it. The school is also paying for the principle, his teacher and me to go to the Scottish Rite Dyslexia Conference at the end of Oct. so that we can all learn how to better help him. His teacher is absolutely incredible and is so greatly appreciated. She has assigned a different student to him everyday as his aide. It has only helped her classroom and everyone thinks it's fun. The students strive to do well so that they might be his aide for the following day and he doesn't get tired of any one particular student and having to worry about personality clashes or resenting anyone. The students read and write for him and basically take the fear out of learning. And the teacher takes him to the back of the class and listens to him do his reading to her instead of making him do it in front of the class. She has been full of praise and he comes home everyday more and more confident saying the teacher said he reads so good that he will be reading with the class in not long at all. He is absolutely flourishing and loving everything about it. It keeps him challenged and has taken the boredom out of his days. His attitude has improved dramatically and when he is home he is so grateful for the time off and that he can play that he doesn't bother griping about anything.
The school is going far above and beyond what any school I have ever known would do. His teacher is amazed at his mathematical abilities. I tried to really explain everything I could to them about him before he started school but it still amazed them. I told them he is way ahead in math but cannot spell at all and can only read on a 1st grade level. They have all been blown away by his precision in math. And for his tests today his teacher modified them for him so that the barriers were removed and allowed him to truly test instead of being inhibited by the fact he cannot read the tests or write answers. I was so impressed. I have never given him a test before due to how volatile he is if it is anything less than perfect, so I was very unsure as to how he would handle tests in a public school system with real grades. He made 100 on math and did pretty well in spelling too......which is a huge, huge thing. He reversed his "d" to a "b" in the word "hard" so when she asked him to spell it verbally and he did it correctly she allowed him to change it on the test and patted him saying that those letters are confusing and we all get them mixed up sometimes. Because his handwriting is only barely legible, another huge characteristic of dyslexia, she asked him to spell audibly a few more words that appeared misspelled on his test. When he did it correctly she allowed him to erase his test words and write them better so that they could be read, saying to just try and write as best he could so that she didn't mistake them and mark them wrong by accident. He said she patted his back and told him that his letters are looking better and better everyday. So, he is surrounded by affirmation and it makes a huge difference that it's from someone who teaches kids his age and not his own mom. She also has modified schooling for him and has given him 1st grade words and 1st grade level books as reading assignments as she assesses and gets a feel for where he is. The whole experience has been positive and has put him at complete ease. I think he has completely smitten his teacher and she is head over heels for him. It's hard not to love him though when you see him striving so hard to do well and then struggling so hard and beating himself up over it.
Today he had 3 tests and made 100 on both geography and math and came in really well in spelling, though he wasn't sure of what his grade ended up being on that. He said they were given a blank map and a list of the states and needed to put the state names on the states. The class studied it last week before he was enrolled and hasn't been over it but once since he's been there. The teacher was so shocked that he got all but 2 right that she gave him a 100 on it since he did better than anyone in the class. I have to admit that though we may not have been too great at homeschooling I loved geography and we were constantly going over states and countries. We have map placemats, globes everywhere, and maps on the walls so he had a huge headstart. Evye can even point out accurately almost every state. And Grayson can precisely place almost every country in the continent of Africa. But it was so gratifying for me and such an ego booster for Grayson to blow his teacher's mind with that. So, he is doing very well in every area. I thought it was so great. His little aide read off the state names to him, he pointed out where they went and then she wrote them in for him, according to Grayson. It was a sweet mental picture of him working together with another student and feeling so successful. And he LOVES science! I knew he would. We just couldn't ever get past reading and writing to ever make it to the fun stuff so we had just kind of integrated that in with Scouts. He has a real science book now and just eats it up and amazes me with how much he retains from it.And Evye started the week in 1st grade and by the end of the week we had a parent/ teacher conference to discuss the fact that she was not ready at all for 1st grade. Her teacher's words were that she was lost and overwhelmed and Brad and I watched each day as she grew more and more depressed and finally by Wed didn't want to go back to school at all because she was the only one in her class that couldn't do anything. She was feeling very beaten down. So, she was moved to kindergarten and she is thriving. I was having a pretty hard time with it and beating myself up over it since I was the one that was so inconsistent with her last year as I struggled to help Grayson along. But the principle and teacher both said that she is by far the youngest in kindergarten and was not even 6 yet when classes began for 1st grade on Aug 16th. So, technically, had the state dates changed as school has been moved up over the years she wouldn't have even been eligible for 1st. The cut off birth date for an age for a grade level is still Sept 1st like it was when I was starting school. But since then school's starting date has been consistently moved up over the years and is now starting in early to mid Aug. So, after a heart to heart talk with the 1st grade teacher and the principle we decided it would be best to put her in kindergarten. It made a ton of difference and she is now flourishing too. All that she's concerned with is the fact that she FINALLY got to use her new glue and scissors.........and she got to paint too! HA! She came home today all smiles.
My only gripe right now is how long they are gone. I think I've cried more over that than anything. I think I bordered on co-dependency. The house is so quiet and vacant, and strangely and hauntingly peaceful without them home. The 3 younger ones are usually out in the driveway waiting for them to get home and as soon as the older 2 come into view on their bikes they all run to greet them and they all have a hugging and kissing reunion. I think Evye misses Garrett the most. She's like a little mother hen to him. When she gets home if he's sleeping she'll ask to go wake him up and if he's awake she runs over to him, picks him up and starts kissing him all over his chubby round face. He rewards her with bigger than life smiles and all kinds of coos and bubbly talk. It's pretty sweet. But Grayson and Evye are gone from 7:20 until 3:50 every day. They get a huge free breakfast and lunch but breakfast is from 7:30 until 7:55 and class starts at 8. And then class doesn't get out until 3:45 due to a new thing they have going. This is the 1st year they get out that late and it's killing all of the teachers and a bunch of the kids so hopefully next year they'll go back to letting out at 3. Even kindergartners go all day from 8 to "4". When I was little kindergarten was only a 1/2 day! And Pre-K is now also a state certified grade level! I had no clue! The school is considered Pre-K-12th. A degreed certified teacher has to teach it too! Pretty amazing! I wonder if by 2020 they'll have Pre-toddler and start with 6 month old babies. HA! Anyway, if we continue and the children flourish both academically and behaviorally and their character stays in tact through it all we will discuss going yet another year. I told Brad just as we took homeschooling one year at a time so we will take public school one year at a time. We will continue to pray and walk in obedience to what we are being led to do. If we do continue on with the school though that means Aubrey will start next year in Pre-K. I don't even want to think about the boys starting school ever. I can't even imagine not having them with me always. I cried Monday after we took Grayson and Evye and then I cried all day Tues and Wed. The day just isn't the same without them. I think I'll sob the day Garrison and Grant start school. I think they may just conveniently skip Pre-K. I think I may cry tears of relief when Aubrey starts Pre-K though! HA! I think she'll absolutely flourish and do wonders........ as long as she's not expelled due to beating the other kids up. She'll probably make headlines and be the 1st Pre-K student ever expelled due to outbursts and crimes committed against fellow students! No, in all honesty, the older she gets the easier it is to talk out her problems and frustrations with her and resolve them a little better instead of going into the Tasmanian devil thing every time she has a crisis. She really is an amazing kid and so entirely interesting to raise. I think she's my talking, breathing reminder to stay on my knees when it comes to parenting.
Anyway, that's the latest update on the school thing. Grayson has blown everybody away with his maturity, adult conversation ability and great manners. And they all have said Evye is so gentle hearted, mild and sweet and that she is a joy to teach. Oh, and the school has a strict dress code......which I didn't know public school's even had. If violated your parents will be called to bring you a change of clothes and you will not be allowed to return to class until properly clothed.
- For boys some of the stuff is....shirts must always be tucked in, they cannot have hair over their collar or bangs in the eyes, must be clean shaven, their hair must be layered in a suitable cut for males, no drastic hair dying and pants must be worn up around the waist and are not allowed to hang down and sag in an improper fit. No piercings or visible tattoos of any kind are allowed. Boys 5th grade and under are allowed to wear shorts but after that all boys must wear jeans, still maintaining their tucked in shirts.
- for girls some of the stuff is......no midriffs can be bared at any time, no slits in skirts, no visible tattoos, no cleavage showing, no skirts or dresses shorter than 4 inches above kneecaps, no drastic hair dying and so on.
Pretty incredible. You don't really realize how much of a difference it makes until you've been to the school and realize how well mannered they all are and how great the older students look and behave. And the older students all help take care of and watch out for the younger ones. Evye loves the attention she gets from the older girls and boys. And Grayson is so impressed that the older boys and all 6 of the football players have come up to him, introduced themselves and noticed him. A bunch of them call him by name now and that makes his day. It's just so cool, rewarding and great to see them excelling in every area including academics and character. Oh.......and at recess Evye walks across the dirt street and feeds the horses in the pasture handfuls of grass she's gathered! My kind of recess!
Country life coming to life
written Sept 20, 2006Country life at its best. Not only did we have the joy of encountering it........it was in the playroom where the children have played for the last few days. Since I can't send our pics we looked it up and ID'd it on the web. It was a juvenile..........I'm really glad we didn't encounter it full grown!!!!!!!!!......despite the fact it's non-venomous it grows to 6 ft in length! And on our way to locate a glove in the workshop we then nearly stepped on a massive tarantula! We took pics of it too but, of course, can't send those either. The thing was as big as a tupperware lid! It was all hairy and everything......just like the pics in books that you want to forever stay in the books. And then on my way out to get a bucket on the front porch to put the snake in a freakin bat flew out of the rafters and scared the crap out of me. Needless to say, I've had all of the nocturnal wildlife I can take for awhile. But I did stand in absolute awe of the millions and millions of stars up above and how absolutely amazing they are in their numbers and bright brilliance as Brad shot the snake to death. After coming in and identifying what kind it was AFTER he shot it then he got all mad that he killed it. It was a fiesty little booger and freakin struck at us every time we even shined the light on it. He could strike so far that he came 1/2 way out of the bucket...............not my thing at all. Snakes, tarantulas and bats all in a day's work. Ugh!
I'm really truly glad it wasn't a rattlesnake though. 3 neighbors have sent word around that they've found baby rattlesnakes in their flowerbeds up next to their houses. One was so tiny it only had one rattle and you couldn't even hear it until you got down close to it. That freaked me out. Hopefully the dogs' noise will help keep them at bay. Obviously, it didn't really phase this guy.
http://www.houstonherp.com/TxRat.html
http://www.bugsinthenews.com/Texas%20Snake%20Web/juvenile_texas_rat_snake_Oct03_Frisco.htm
Successfully Moved
Written Sept 11, 2006
Well, we did it! We all lived through the move and it is amazing! We definitely couldn't have done it without Mother and Granny!!! We loaded, unloaded, lifted, carried, strained and everything else all together. We all had the bruises to prove it too and looked like we'd been victims of domestic abuse! But it was so worth it. The 4 of us stayed up late more than just one night after the children were in bed and laughed until we cried due to exhaustion and the late night funnies. It's been an amazing journey and the move itself was just as amazing. Not even the rain on moving day could dampen anybody's spirit. As we made the beautiful drive God seemed to keep saying that this was not about mourning what we are leaving but that He was pouring out through the rain incredible showers of blessings on us as we follow His direction for our lives. As we move on in our journey we are being blessed as we go. He laid before us the most breathtaking portrait in the landscape than I ever remember. The clouds shrouded the tops of the hills as we made our way through. It felt like a dream and the end of a 3 year chapter.....or finally the beginning of a new one.
I still wake up and feel like it's a dream and that we'll be going back in a few days. It's too beautiful and homey to be real. Once we'd been here a couple of days we drove into San Angelo and even that was amazing. Land and ranches surrounded us and the hills rose up in the far off distance standing tall and seemingly touching heaven. On our way there we drove through miles and miles of untouched land and we passed 10 deer on our way home. We've already met a huge portion of the town. Not even the rain could squelch people's curiosity when we arrived and they came out from all corners of the town to get a peek at the newcomers. We quit counting after 8 the number of times one Suburban drove by! They said that was the busiest day on our street in years. HA! Several brave souls came by the very next day and stopped to introduce themselves. Before Mother left we were able to get out and walk around on the property behind us that will soon be our's too. We were able to go in the old cotton gen that was closed up in 1940 that sits in the middle of overgrown grass and trees. It was so amazing. Several massive white owls flew out the broken windows as we entered. The old machinery still sits exactly as it was left almost 70 years ago and an old cotton harvesting tractor sits all rusted beyond the bldg in the tall grass. On our walk back from seeing all of that we met an elderly couple out sitting on their porch. We introduced ourselves and they already knew exactly who we were. We sat and talked on their porch for a couple of hours as the wind blew through their huge pecan trees and dangled the hummingbird feeders and windchimes. They told us who lived where and who does what. He was born and raised here in this tiny town and she was born and raised in one not far from here and together they painted an amazing historic picture. Time is so much slower here. It really is a different way of life. Nobody even locks the doors to their houses and they all leave the keys in their cars. It's like a book that's unfolding in real life and I'm actually living it. This is where I want to raise our family. We truly have come home. They hugged and loved on the children like we'd always known them and they were their's. The people here are so amazing. It's like coming home to family. They've already asked Brad to run for city council! The joke of running for mayor and winning due to the size of our family quickly became reality when they realized how active we want to be in the community. The church has already asked me to be their substitute pianist and have asked Brad to set his drums up and play. I just don't think I expected to be so readily welcomed and embraced in this tiny town. Instead of neighbors it's like a family. The water man, the only city employee, came by to welcome us and called us by name before we even introduced ourselves.
The biggest thing in town is the Fri night football game every week and, true to what we'd heard about town parties, they have a fellowship called 5th quarter after the game where the entire town congregates at the church and eats. It's a potluck and all of the old women in town cook tons of cookies and cakes and the church grills hot dogs and hamburgers. It didn't take Grayson and Evye long to make friends and meet the entire town. They all know Grayson by name at the post office now, which he rides his bike too every day now, and the lady at the convenient store hugs he and Evye and calls them by name when they ride up on their bikes. I got to meet her at church on Sun and she is something else! She loves the two of them to pieces. Everybody in town has fallen in love with Garrison and Grant and just eats them up. Somehow Evye and Aubrey attracted the teenage and pre-teen group and have a fan club now. They've invited all the girls to the house and so we now have a group of girls that sit and braid the girls' hair and paint fingernails and hold Garrett for hours on end while watching the boys while they play. It's rare that any of them are inside anymore so between trying to tend to the wasp stings, ant bites, scrapes, and mosquito bites and nurse Garrett in between it all makes it hard to get any boxes unpacked. And outside play out here makes for some dirty kids!!!! So far since we've been here the older 5 haven't been able to avoid a bath even one night. You can practically write in the dirt on their foreheads.
Almost everyone in the town works at the school and the pastor's wife, our next door neighbor, teaches 3 of the grades while one of the most incredible women we have met teaches some of the older grades. Last year they combined 3 grades since there weren't enough children to make up each of their grade levels! It's more like a homeschool helpout program than it is a school. It truly is so different here. It's like family members teaching in the school and like a cross of Papa was a Preacher school days and Little House on the Prairie days. They take really great field trips to the farms and ranches and local working cotton gens. Most of the children that we've met and all of them in church still say "yes ma'am" and "no ma'am" and "yes sir" and "no sir" and call everyone by Mr and Ms. I love the spirit and the heart of everyone here. It really is like a rural farming community and almost back to the one room classroom. Not only are they Christians but we go to church with them, they are our next door neighbors, we know them and hug them every time we see them and know each person at the school by name and many of them were even homeschoolers. The thought has crossed my mind and we are diligently praying about putting the children in school. Many of the parents here homeschooled before coming to Paint Rock so there are many homeschool minded families in the school system that are actively involved with everything that takes place. They still not only pray in school but pray for each other. We talked at length at church with the people that hold positions in the school and they've all said that due to the size of the class Grayson can be worked with and pretty much privately tutored in his class. I think there's 5 in the 3rd grade. Every grade is in the same bldg so Grayson and Evye would still do everything together except their actual classes. I've both cried and rejoiced in this whole debate and never realized how hard it is to let go of so many pre-conceived ideas and even pride I didn't even know I had. But it is amazing to see that God has truly been with us every step of the entire way and has directly put us in a place that can be of so much help to Grayson and so carefully orchestrated putting us right in the middle of a bunch of like-minded people. After so many years of struggling and all of the tears God has heard every cry of our lonely journey and put us in a place where Grayson can have one on one teaching free of charge and by devout Christians that are trained to help him. We're having lunch with everybody on Fri to discuss it some more at length and ask more questions about the politics of it and how they as a school can get around what the state mandates to teach, which they say they have a pretty good way of doing. They still teach creation, and like I said, pray for each other in the school. Nothing is set in stone yet and we are still praying very hard. It depends very much on the politics and conviction of the school and also if they want to hold Grayson back a grade or two. We are not willing to hold him back since it would devastate him and could be overcome at home so we'll just continue to pray for direction and explore this new area. But it's just absolutely amazing to me that when you wait on God, even when it seems like forever, how vast and complete His blessings are when He does finally begin to move......even down to the town He places us in.
And we truly are completely TV-less here, whether we like or not! We'd turned it off before we moved except for the occasional news or allowing the children to watch a cartoon during the really hot days but since we don't have satellite here and that is the only way to get any channel at all we just don't have any reception for anything. So, with the exception of Einstein for Garrett we live completely without the TV. It's just so different here in so many ways. We truly do sit around and play board games at night with the children or read books instead of watching the TV. But the lack of TV has a downfall too since without anything out here we have to have a dial up connection for the computer. I've tried twice to send pics of everything here but the dial up just can't hack it. The other night I started sending the pics right before bed so it could work on it all night but when I got up they were only 25% sent and it had disconnected from the internet since it does that automatically after 3 hours. So, I have yet to find a way to send pics but I'll figure something out. We may just have to download them to a disc and mail them or bring them with us when we come into town.
Oh, and at our little Baptist church on Sun they had up on the podium that Sunday School attendance this week was 13 and last week was 19! HA! It was too funny. It's been 25 years since I went to Sunday School. Grayson and Evye made up the Sunday School class for their age, though they said usually there are a few more, and the younger 4 made up the entire nursery. It was really kind of pathetic because I looked up and realized in the middle of the service I had forgotten about Garrett and left him down there when my intent was to keep him with me. They were all so excited to have them all though so it worked out great. And we don't have to worry about them getting sick when they're the only ones in there! HA! And my Sunday School class was a riot. I sat with about 9 other women that were at least 50 years my senior and when reading the lesson missed about every 3rd word on the page. To give you a clue, some of their names were Edna, Mary Jim, Verna and Mazie. The 89 year old led the class and it was a hoot. I couldn't help but fall in love with them. There's a younger women's class that meets but apparently the leader of that was out of town so I got put in there with the older ones. They all begged me to join their class instead and said they are all young at heart. HA! They told me that since I have 6 children that I'll need their mentorship! hahahahaha! They all wanted to know the names and ages of the children and wanted to meet them after church was over. They all hugged them and asked Evye about her love of horses and told Grayson stories about when they themselves were little and caught the biggest lizards and frogs in the county! At one point the 89 year old was griping about the fact that the church doesn't have VBS anymore and then she said seriously, "Lord knows I shouldn't be griping about it since I'm not willing to work it." I couldn't help but laugh out-loud. All of the other women patted and reassured her saying that after 30 years of putting in her time she deserved a break. It was funny!
I love it here. I love the fact that we have been so readily embraced and that the children are so loved. I love how many true and dear friends we have made in such a short amount of time. I love how sincere everyone is. I love how slow and simple life is. I love our little house and what a gift from God it is. 3 people came forward after hearing that Mickey (the guy that Brad works with and sold us the house) had sold it and said they didn't have any idea that his house was for sale and would've bought it in a heartbeat for top dollar. Mickey said laughingly that he didn't even know his house was for sale and it just kind of sold. HA! He lives with his family out on their 400 acre ranch now in their hunting cabin until they can get their house built. But Brad and I just realize more and more everyday how blessed we have been and how carefully God has laid out every step of our way, even during the darkest parts when we couldn't see or make sense of anything.
Alright, I could go on forever. We've almost gotten everything organized and the majority unpacked so hopefully I can work on the pics and they won't be long in coming.....however they come! Mother's coming back down here to stay for awhile to help some more with unpacking so I'm feeling pretty settled. We're going to paint so we won't be hanging stuff on the walls until that's done but everything else is pretty organized and at least live-able.
Oh.......and we also have added a new member to the family. A little black cat seems to have adopted the children so after giving it milk for a few days we finally bought food for it and it's officially our's. They named him Smokey.......original, I know. This is only like the 15th cat they've named Smokey. I think this one is a keeper though.....whether we like it or not! HA!
Well, we did it! We all lived through the move and it is amazing! We definitely couldn't have done it without Mother and Granny!!! We loaded, unloaded, lifted, carried, strained and everything else all together. We all had the bruises to prove it too and looked like we'd been victims of domestic abuse! But it was so worth it. The 4 of us stayed up late more than just one night after the children were in bed and laughed until we cried due to exhaustion and the late night funnies. It's been an amazing journey and the move itself was just as amazing. Not even the rain on moving day could dampen anybody's spirit. As we made the beautiful drive God seemed to keep saying that this was not about mourning what we are leaving but that He was pouring out through the rain incredible showers of blessings on us as we follow His direction for our lives. As we move on in our journey we are being blessed as we go. He laid before us the most breathtaking portrait in the landscape than I ever remember. The clouds shrouded the tops of the hills as we made our way through. It felt like a dream and the end of a 3 year chapter.....or finally the beginning of a new one.
I still wake up and feel like it's a dream and that we'll be going back in a few days. It's too beautiful and homey to be real. Once we'd been here a couple of days we drove into San Angelo and even that was amazing. Land and ranches surrounded us and the hills rose up in the far off distance standing tall and seemingly touching heaven. On our way there we drove through miles and miles of untouched land and we passed 10 deer on our way home. We've already met a huge portion of the town. Not even the rain could squelch people's curiosity when we arrived and they came out from all corners of the town to get a peek at the newcomers. We quit counting after 8 the number of times one Suburban drove by! They said that was the busiest day on our street in years. HA! Several brave souls came by the very next day and stopped to introduce themselves. Before Mother left we were able to get out and walk around on the property behind us that will soon be our's too. We were able to go in the old cotton gen that was closed up in 1940 that sits in the middle of overgrown grass and trees. It was so amazing. Several massive white owls flew out the broken windows as we entered. The old machinery still sits exactly as it was left almost 70 years ago and an old cotton harvesting tractor sits all rusted beyond the bldg in the tall grass. On our walk back from seeing all of that we met an elderly couple out sitting on their porch. We introduced ourselves and they already knew exactly who we were. We sat and talked on their porch for a couple of hours as the wind blew through their huge pecan trees and dangled the hummingbird feeders and windchimes. They told us who lived where and who does what. He was born and raised here in this tiny town and she was born and raised in one not far from here and together they painted an amazing historic picture. Time is so much slower here. It really is a different way of life. Nobody even locks the doors to their houses and they all leave the keys in their cars. It's like a book that's unfolding in real life and I'm actually living it. This is where I want to raise our family. We truly have come home. They hugged and loved on the children like we'd always known them and they were their's. The people here are so amazing. It's like coming home to family. They've already asked Brad to run for city council! The joke of running for mayor and winning due to the size of our family quickly became reality when they realized how active we want to be in the community. The church has already asked me to be their substitute pianist and have asked Brad to set his drums up and play. I just don't think I expected to be so readily welcomed and embraced in this tiny town. Instead of neighbors it's like a family. The water man, the only city employee, came by to welcome us and called us by name before we even introduced ourselves.
The biggest thing in town is the Fri night football game every week and, true to what we'd heard about town parties, they have a fellowship called 5th quarter after the game where the entire town congregates at the church and eats. It's a potluck and all of the old women in town cook tons of cookies and cakes and the church grills hot dogs and hamburgers. It didn't take Grayson and Evye long to make friends and meet the entire town. They all know Grayson by name at the post office now, which he rides his bike too every day now, and the lady at the convenient store hugs he and Evye and calls them by name when they ride up on their bikes. I got to meet her at church on Sun and she is something else! She loves the two of them to pieces. Everybody in town has fallen in love with Garrison and Grant and just eats them up. Somehow Evye and Aubrey attracted the teenage and pre-teen group and have a fan club now. They've invited all the girls to the house and so we now have a group of girls that sit and braid the girls' hair and paint fingernails and hold Garrett for hours on end while watching the boys while they play. It's rare that any of them are inside anymore so between trying to tend to the wasp stings, ant bites, scrapes, and mosquito bites and nurse Garrett in between it all makes it hard to get any boxes unpacked. And outside play out here makes for some dirty kids!!!! So far since we've been here the older 5 haven't been able to avoid a bath even one night. You can practically write in the dirt on their foreheads.
Almost everyone in the town works at the school and the pastor's wife, our next door neighbor, teaches 3 of the grades while one of the most incredible women we have met teaches some of the older grades. Last year they combined 3 grades since there weren't enough children to make up each of their grade levels! It's more like a homeschool helpout program than it is a school. It truly is so different here. It's like family members teaching in the school and like a cross of Papa was a Preacher school days and Little House on the Prairie days. They take really great field trips to the farms and ranches and local working cotton gens. Most of the children that we've met and all of them in church still say "yes ma'am" and "no ma'am" and "yes sir" and "no sir" and call everyone by Mr and Ms. I love the spirit and the heart of everyone here. It really is like a rural farming community and almost back to the one room classroom. Not only are they Christians but we go to church with them, they are our next door neighbors, we know them and hug them every time we see them and know each person at the school by name and many of them were even homeschoolers. The thought has crossed my mind and we are diligently praying about putting the children in school. Many of the parents here homeschooled before coming to Paint Rock so there are many homeschool minded families in the school system that are actively involved with everything that takes place. They still not only pray in school but pray for each other. We talked at length at church with the people that hold positions in the school and they've all said that due to the size of the class Grayson can be worked with and pretty much privately tutored in his class. I think there's 5 in the 3rd grade. Every grade is in the same bldg so Grayson and Evye would still do everything together except their actual classes. I've both cried and rejoiced in this whole debate and never realized how hard it is to let go of so many pre-conceived ideas and even pride I didn't even know I had. But it is amazing to see that God has truly been with us every step of the entire way and has directly put us in a place that can be of so much help to Grayson and so carefully orchestrated putting us right in the middle of a bunch of like-minded people. After so many years of struggling and all of the tears God has heard every cry of our lonely journey and put us in a place where Grayson can have one on one teaching free of charge and by devout Christians that are trained to help him. We're having lunch with everybody on Fri to discuss it some more at length and ask more questions about the politics of it and how they as a school can get around what the state mandates to teach, which they say they have a pretty good way of doing. They still teach creation, and like I said, pray for each other in the school. Nothing is set in stone yet and we are still praying very hard. It depends very much on the politics and conviction of the school and also if they want to hold Grayson back a grade or two. We are not willing to hold him back since it would devastate him and could be overcome at home so we'll just continue to pray for direction and explore this new area. But it's just absolutely amazing to me that when you wait on God, even when it seems like forever, how vast and complete His blessings are when He does finally begin to move......even down to the town He places us in.
And we truly are completely TV-less here, whether we like or not! We'd turned it off before we moved except for the occasional news or allowing the children to watch a cartoon during the really hot days but since we don't have satellite here and that is the only way to get any channel at all we just don't have any reception for anything. So, with the exception of Einstein for Garrett we live completely without the TV. It's just so different here in so many ways. We truly do sit around and play board games at night with the children or read books instead of watching the TV. But the lack of TV has a downfall too since without anything out here we have to have a dial up connection for the computer. I've tried twice to send pics of everything here but the dial up just can't hack it. The other night I started sending the pics right before bed so it could work on it all night but when I got up they were only 25% sent and it had disconnected from the internet since it does that automatically after 3 hours. So, I have yet to find a way to send pics but I'll figure something out. We may just have to download them to a disc and mail them or bring them with us when we come into town.
Oh, and at our little Baptist church on Sun they had up on the podium that Sunday School attendance this week was 13 and last week was 19! HA! It was too funny. It's been 25 years since I went to Sunday School. Grayson and Evye made up the Sunday School class for their age, though they said usually there are a few more, and the younger 4 made up the entire nursery. It was really kind of pathetic because I looked up and realized in the middle of the service I had forgotten about Garrett and left him down there when my intent was to keep him with me. They were all so excited to have them all though so it worked out great. And we don't have to worry about them getting sick when they're the only ones in there! HA! And my Sunday School class was a riot. I sat with about 9 other women that were at least 50 years my senior and when reading the lesson missed about every 3rd word on the page. To give you a clue, some of their names were Edna, Mary Jim, Verna and Mazie. The 89 year old led the class and it was a hoot. I couldn't help but fall in love with them. There's a younger women's class that meets but apparently the leader of that was out of town so I got put in there with the older ones. They all begged me to join their class instead and said they are all young at heart. HA! They told me that since I have 6 children that I'll need their mentorship! hahahahaha! They all wanted to know the names and ages of the children and wanted to meet them after church was over. They all hugged them and asked Evye about her love of horses and told Grayson stories about when they themselves were little and caught the biggest lizards and frogs in the county! At one point the 89 year old was griping about the fact that the church doesn't have VBS anymore and then she said seriously, "Lord knows I shouldn't be griping about it since I'm not willing to work it." I couldn't help but laugh out-loud. All of the other women patted and reassured her saying that after 30 years of putting in her time she deserved a break. It was funny!
I love it here. I love the fact that we have been so readily embraced and that the children are so loved. I love how many true and dear friends we have made in such a short amount of time. I love how sincere everyone is. I love how slow and simple life is. I love our little house and what a gift from God it is. 3 people came forward after hearing that Mickey (the guy that Brad works with and sold us the house) had sold it and said they didn't have any idea that his house was for sale and would've bought it in a heartbeat for top dollar. Mickey said laughingly that he didn't even know his house was for sale and it just kind of sold. HA! He lives with his family out on their 400 acre ranch now in their hunting cabin until they can get their house built. But Brad and I just realize more and more everyday how blessed we have been and how carefully God has laid out every step of our way, even during the darkest parts when we couldn't see or make sense of anything.
Alright, I could go on forever. We've almost gotten everything organized and the majority unpacked so hopefully I can work on the pics and they won't be long in coming.....however they come! Mother's coming back down here to stay for awhile to help some more with unpacking so I'm feeling pretty settled. We're going to paint so we won't be hanging stuff on the walls until that's done but everything else is pretty organized and at least live-able.
Oh.......and we also have added a new member to the family. A little black cat seems to have adopted the children so after giving it milk for a few days we finally bought food for it and it's officially our's. They named him Smokey.......original, I know. This is only like the 15th cat they've named Smokey. I think this one is a keeper though.....whether we like it or not! HA!
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