Checking in...

Hi Everyone! *Ü*

Yup, I went missing again for a bit and haven't made a post in a while. We have been busy getting into a routine with homeschooling and life. We just finished week 4 of this school year and perhaps next Friday I will be up to make a weekly report and share what we've been up to at Jetihoja Academy.

I am trying to be more disciplined in some area's of my life. To be honest, I have many areas to work on in regards to my own self discipline and my family. Something we started last week is getting up by 7:30 am, eat, chores, get dressed, etc. by 8:30 am. Then we start in on school and begin with 365 Days Celebration and Praise and bible study. Jessica and Timmy are working on a study together and Jake and Holly are doing a separate one as well. We all have enjoyed this and the kids ask to do it daily (well at least the week we were consistent with it *Ü* ).

We attend a homeschooling co-op with First Class Ministries and this co-op has been a blessing to our family. The kids are taking a wide variety of class from Beg. Drawing and Design, WA State History, Election Lapbooking, and more. One of my favorite times during co-op is chapel time. During this time we sing praises, hear a brief message, say the Pledge of Allegiance, and more. What a wonderful way for homeschooling families in our community to grow closer together. And one of the best times of the day is Lunch Hour! It is great to see all these families in there interacting with each other and seeing the kids making new friends. My son told me he already made 2 new friends. *Ü* That is a REAL blessing for him.

We put Holly back in art class at a local art school and her creations are just wonderful. Her last one just blew me away! It looked like something from a children's storybook. Here is her picture:

As you can see our life has been full of "things" to occupy our time. I am going to try and do the Menu Plan Monday Meme and if I do, I will be back tomorrow with our weekly menu. I know with the economy and all, I need to get a little more organized with my meal planning. Hopefully this will help me. *Ü*

Blessings~Tina

Our Day Didn't Go As I Had Planned....

Instead, my dear husband came home early and we ended up heading to the beach!

The kids had a blast looking for Spider Crabs on the dock and making little (OK BIG) dwellings on the beach for them. While on the docks we saw candle fish, muscles, seagulls (one was eating a muscle), and lots of other sea creatures. (unfortunately I never took out the camera today)

We also took the boat out for a little while and pulled the kids around in the inner tube. It was sunny, but cold and the kids (Jessica and Timmy) insisted on getting in the water, so we let them. Aren't we fun parents? *Ü*

ETA: I once heard that a boat is one of the best places for a family to spend time together. There is no place to go and everyone is pretty much forced to communicate with each other. I have to agree... We have spent some wonderful days together on our boat. I do have to add that I don't always want to head out on the boat (honestly, I am not much of an outdoors person), but once I am out there I ask myself why in the world didn't I want to come... *Ü*

Our day ended up perfectly with warm cookies and Dad reading Voyage of the Dawn Treader aloud before bed time. It was great having Dad for longer than we expected today.

At first I wasn't to sure about having my school schedule interrupted again (this happened last week too), but then my thoughts went back to the workshop I attended this Saturday. I know we will have lots of time to get our assignments done before this school year is over and I know they will get more from our adventure of the day (building family ties & learning about some the animals of the Puget Sound), than they would staying at home doing their seat work.

With that said we did get a little school in today. Each day I am reading from a neat book called: 365 Days of Celebration & Praise. Each day there is a different theme, be it event of the day, week, or month. Today we happened to read that it is Children's Good Manners Month.

We also started our Explorers Bible Studies. Jessica and Timmy are both using the same books and Jake and Holly are doing a different one. With Jake and Holly I am not having them write things out, I am doing it all orally with them. We had a wonderful time doing these studies and I don't know why I haven't pulled them out before now.

That is my story of how our (should say "MY"), day didn't go as I had planned... But it turned out wonderfully after all. *Ü*

A Little Blog Break

This announcement is WAY overdue, but I think it is about time I made it. I will be taking a little blog break. I may come and share things from time to time until I am back into the swing of things.

I am really busy with helping to start a new co-op/homeschool support group in our area. Boy this takes up a lot of time. But it will be well worth it. I really feel God moving in a big way with this ministry and am just tickled to be a part of it.

In the month of June I was busy with getting ready for the WHO convention and presenting 2 workshops there. That really took a lot of our time as we were preparing some wonderful hands on activities for the attendees. I was SHOCKED at how many showed up to my 1st workshop... 85 people. I was overwhelmed. I have never given a talk like this (except at our local used curr. sale) and was beside myself somewhat. But I love lapbooking and I think all and all it turn out just fine. :) The next day was much better. There were about 25 or so people

Here is a picture from my workshop and some from the convention:

My Booth (Representing In The Hands of a Child Lapbooks)

This was at my friends booth. She has created these WONDERFUL countries studies. We actually used her Russia one and learned so much about it. You can see what we did HERE. To learn more about her products you can visit here: Into All The World.

3 girls protecting the booth...

We will be doing Brazil next using Into All The World Country Studies.

All the kids but Jake are away at summer camp for the next few days.

After this camp, Jessica and Holly will be a horse camp for a week. They are really looking forward to this. I am sure I will come back on her to share their adventures with you all.

We are also planning a Chocolate Study using HOAC Chocolate Project Pack and a few other items I have found to expand on the topic. I will surely post about this fun event! If there is time, I want to get a horse project pack from HOAC and a unit study completed. We shall see.

I am also working a couple subject with the kids that need to be finished before our new school year that starts in Sept. Yes, time does fly and Sept. will be here before I know it. We don't have much to catch up with, but with all the breaks/happenings this summer, we still need to set time aside to accomplish these things.

Thanks for the private emails from others that have been wondering where I was at? It makes me feel so special. :) What would I do with out you all? Thanks for your encouragement.

I have been missing...

posting here at my blog. But life has been pretty busy around here lately.

I am part of a wonderful group of gals that is starting a homeschooling co-op in our area. Boy this is a LOT of work. But I feel it is very God directed and am extremely excited about it. We are finishing up the final touches to get the teacher request forms out. We are still trying to come up with a name. Boy, this is so hard to do... But I am sure we will come up with a perfect name.

Our Co-op classes are over (art, bible, human body, Latin-though online classes are continuing), but Zoology is still happening for the next 4 weeks. We are doing Zoology at my house and I am enjoying being home to do teach this. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed being at my friends houses as well, but there is nothing like teaching in your own home. I just wished I had a bigger home like my friends. It would be nice if the mom's could have a separate room to visit in.

My mom got pretty sick this week and ended up staying the night in the hospital. She is doing much better, but the Dr. still need to find out what the root of her problem is. They think is is Bilateral Vertigo, but they don't know much about vertigo. Please pray for my mom. She is afraid to lay down flat (understandably so), because she is worried it will happen again.

Other things in life have been happening: school, visiting with my grand baby when ever possible, field trips, helping Nana, and more... It is amazing how busy our lives can get during different seasons in our lives. I am anxiously awaiting for a slow season.

Oh and we finished our Russia Study! YEAH! My friend will be finishing up her finally revision of her studies and will have these for sale very soon. I couldn't recommend the Russia one highly enough. I have learned so much... and so have the kids. I can't wait to get the next one she has for me to review. And I will be sure to post here as soon as they are available for sale.

Something I have been neglecting that I am waiting to get back into ASAP is our nature studies. I am really missing these and am looking forward to getting back to them.

I will be posting updates on our weekly reports, field trips, etc as soon as I can. I miss doing these things. At times I think I am not doing enough with school, but when I post a weekly report, oh my... I feel like I did a lot more then I thought I did.

Thanks for stopping by

PS: Patrica, I will get to that tag asap. Thanks for thinking of me!

Wordless Wednesday: Holly's is 9 Year's Old!

Happy Birthday HOLLY!

Here is a little slide show of some photo's of my little girl. I couldn't find any on my computer (they are all on Daddy's computer) of her under 3 years of age. So these are a mix of her from 3 to 8 years old.

Have a wonderful Wordless Wednesday Everyone!

Jessica: CPR Certification

Jessica is now CPR certified. Please help us congratulate her.

WAY TO GO JESS!

She knows this will help her when she is babysitting (we will also be putting her in a babysitting class). And when she gets older, she would like to get a job at our local pool as a life guard.

Update on Timmy's Arm

What a long, long journey we have had with is arm. I am very happy to let you all know that he has completed physical therapy and no longer needs to visit the Dr. YEAH! Praise God!!

He will still need to work on his exercises at home to get his hand to turn over upright. I believe the degree is now close to 70 and a normal person is at a 90. So he isn't far off any more.

The muscle at his wrist wasn't used for 3 months; therefore it has become weak and doesn't want to turn. But with his at home exercises, the Physical Therapist thinks he should be pretty close to normal in about 6 months.

Thank you everyone for all your thoughts and prayers!

Look What We Woke Up To Today!

What a wonderful thing to happen day 2 since returning to school. Our School district is closed today. Hum... Does that mean no school here too? *Ü* We have been getting lots of snow this season, but unfortunately, the snow we get doesn't last to long. Today it is supposed to turn to rain.

When I first woke up:

About an hour later:

And right now:

And it is still snowing! Let it SNOW!!

Like I mentioned above, this is Day 2 of school for the new year. I will post some of our happenings over break in a day or two, but for now I want to leave you with Holly's science experiment yesterday. As you can see, it is on evaporation. *Ü*

Thank goodness it was very easy to clean up. *Ü*

Look Who's on the Cover of HOAC Catalog!

Wow! I couldn't believe it when my friend emailed me and told me to check out Hands of a Child's new 2008 Catalog. She said someone I know would be on the front cover! WOW!

Well, needless to say I dropped everything I was doing at the moment and headed over to Hands of a Child and checked out the new catalog. Timmy is on the front cover holding the Extreme Weather Lapbook. And that isn't all, my children are on other pages throughout as well.

* Timmy is on page: 22 (Lions)
* Jessica is on page: 44 (Biltmore House)
* Jake is on page: 44 (Out Like a Lion & In like a Lamb)
* And a group photo (Jessica, Timmy, Holly, & friend) of a a class I did at my home on Extreme Weather is on page: 23

This catalog is wonderful! It is full of GREAT coupons, Question & Answers, wonderful articles, and more. I recently received the hard copy of this catalog. It is a wonderful to sit down with some coffee and read catalog! You can also download in ebook format for free at HOAC.

I always enjoy reading the HOAC catalog!

And I don't think I shared this other tidbit with you. Timmy is also on the HOAC blog logo. :o) What a photogenic child I have!

Timmy's Dr. Appointment Update

Well... Timmy's hand isn't turning like it did after the surgery. So we have to do exercises 10 times a day and he will start physical therapy 2 times a week after Christmas. The PT says she doesn't feel the blockage in his arm like before when she tried to turn it. Therefore her, and the Dr., feel it is just a little stiff and with working it, he will be ok.

Please keep him in your prayers that healing continues to improve and he is able to turn that hand palm upright in no time.

After Surgery Update on Timmy

Sorry this took a while to post. I just wasn't certain what I would say, how much to share, etc. Seems I got a little long winded anyways. *Ü*

We arrived at the hospital at 7am. Did a quick check in and then off to the surgery waiting area. The nurse Timmy had was wonderful! She made him feel very comfortable. And she made us feel comfortable too.

The anesthesiologist was a funny character. He was asking Timmy all kinds of math questions (converting pounds to kg) and Timmy just stared at the guy. I told him that Timmy couldn't even remember his name when asked a while ago, let alone be able to answer any questions like that. Then he told Timmy, "See you later Alligator." And then asked Timmy what he was suppose to say. Timmy just stared at him... again... The poor kid was overwhelmed. But all in all the anesthesiologist was a very nice guy and was just trying to make Timmy feel comfortable with him. He (the anesthesiologist) just struck me as a little odd. *Ü*

Surgery started at approximately 8:30am and was scheduled for 1 1/2 hours. Therefore he would be done and in recovery at, or around, 10 am. At 10:45 am I was wondering why we hadn't heard anything yet. At 11 am Greg went to the desk to find out the status of Timmy's surgery. They said all was well and the Dr. was taking his time and being very careful.

At 11:45 am we still hadn't heard anything. At 12pm Greg went to the front desk again to check on Timmy's status and he was told they just finished up, that Timmy was in recovery, and that the Dr. should be down anytime to let us know how things went. The total operation took 3 1/2 hours.

I can't begin to tell you the thoughts, worries, etc. I was going threw during those extra 2 hours of "unknown". I couldn't concentrate on anything. I brought my Christmas cards and filled out a lot of them during that time, but after about an hour I just couldn't sit any more. I was amazed that Greg could sit there and read his book. My mind was all over the place. There is no way I could concentrate on reading... I guess that is just another difference between us gals and guys.

My brother and sister-in-law arrived around noon to be with us and Timmy. I am so thankful they came. It really helped distract me from my woes. I really enjoy spending time with both of them and feel so blessed they traveled to come and spend the day with us.

What did the Dr. have to say you ask....? The Dr. said it took longer because there are so many nerves, etc and with how deep they had to go he just had to take his time to make sure not to damage any nerves, etc. He told us that at the end of the operation, he turned Timmy's hand and it went flat, palm up, no problem! Praise the Lord!!!

The Dr. did say he wanted Timmy to stay the night so he could have access to stronger medicine because of the operation. He also put a shunt in his arm as well and that had to be removed in the morning before he could go home. He also told us Timmy had a 4" incision in his leg and about the same size incision in his arm. OUCH!

Around 1pm we were able to head up to the hospital room and see our boy. Right way I started to get teary eyed. My baby looked so out of it. I felt so helpless... But I quickly sucked it up, thanked God for pulling him through this, put on a happy face. He didn't need to see me like that!

We all visited with Timmy a little while, he slept a lot that day. After some time, Greg, his brother and his wife left and went to our house. They picked up the other kids and took them out to dinner and then brought them to the hospital to see their brother. They are wonderful siblings!

Have you heard about pets visiting people in the hospitals Well it just so happens that on the day Timmy was there, a gal and her Great Dane were making their rounds. Boy that dog is BIG! Scooby Doo is a Great Dane. *Ü*

During the time Greg was away, my dear friend Lisa (Lisawa to some of you), and her DD stopped by for a visit. It was wonderful to see her. She was my rock that day. My mom was out of town and couldn't be there, therefore I called Lisa when I was feeling low/worrisome while Timmy was in surgery. Side Note: It also reminded me of a time several years back when Timmy was bit by my mom 's dog and had to go to the ER. Greg was out of town (in Japan), and Lisa and another friend Charlyn came to be with me and Timmy at the hospital. I thank God for the special friendships he has given me. *Ü*

While the kids were at the hospital, Grandma and Grandpa stopped by for a visit. Timmy was sure happy to see them too! *Ü* What a lucky boy to have so many folks stop by and wish him well.

After everyone left, I took the kids back home, picked up a couple things that I didn't tell Greg I needed for spending the night, and returned to the hospital. Greg then said goodnight to Timmy and headed home to be with the other kid-o's.

Timmy had a hard time shaking off the drugs that were in his system. He couldn't hold anything down that whole day. As I mentioned earlier, he slept a lot of the day away. At 1 am he wanted to go for a walk. So up we went, out into the hallway and walked around the floor (wing-area he was stying) of the hospital. I was amazed at his strength, determination, and his ability to bounce back so wonderfully!

I am pleased to say Timmy is doing WONDERFULLY! So much better than I expected. He moves around pretty good now and isn't in much pain. We see the Dr. on Thursday and I will let you all know how that appointment goes.

Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, and well wishes! *Ü*

Dad and Son watching some TV:

At home recovering:

A gift arrived in the mail from Grandpa and Grandma:

Christmas Baking: Christmas Wreaths Cookies

We are visiting a friend today and my girlfriends husbands LOVES my Christmas Wreath cookies. I meant to make these during the day on Monday, but time just slipped by me... So at 9:30pm last night my darling helpful little girl came to my aid.

BTW, these are my favorite cookies too. My family has been making them every year since I was a little girl. Probably even before I was born. My mom doesn't care to make them any more, so now it up to me to make them and pass the tradition onto my family.

Here are some photo's of Jessica helping me. Following the photo's will be the recipe. Have fun making these YUMMY cookies with your children.

(Above) Stirring the melting marshmallows & butter. Just added the food coloring.

(Above) Added the cornflakes and STIRRING more. Boy it gets hard to stir.

(Above) Shaping the wreaths and adding the cinn. dots



Christmas Wreaths Cookies

30 marshmallows
3 1/2 c corn flakes
1/2 c butter or marg. (butter is better)
Green food coloring
Red Cinn Dots

Stir over med low heat until butter and mellows are melted. Add food coloring for desired color. Add corn flakes and stir until well coated. Shape into wreaths on wax paper and add 3 cinn dots to the top.

When wreaths dry, just cut the paper around the wreath. Leave the wax paper on the bottom of the wreath.

NOTE: When I make this, I always double it. Some times I substitute Mini M&M's for the red hots. And have a cup of cold water by you to help you shape the wreaths with ease.

Jessica's Birthday Party

This was LONG overdue, but it turned out wonderful!

Her birthday is in September, but we have been so busy with other events, and other things just come up that we finally got around to it on Nov. 3o-Dec. 1 (yes, a sleep over).

The party guests arrived around 6pm and we had an all you can eat/make your own pizza party!

The highlight of the night was High School Musical 1. I haven't seen this show yet and I just didn't understand all the hub-bub about it. Well I must say I really enjoyed it and I can't wait to see High School Musical 2. The girls enjoyed dancing to the musical performances & signing along with the cast. This is one special time in my daughters life I will always remember.

The big event for the party happened on Saturday. We took the ferry over to Seattle to go to the Seattle Aquarium. Once we arrived in Seattle we took the kids to McDonald's for lunch. By the time we were done eating, it was snowing in Seattle. The kids had so much fun walking the water front, towards the aquarium in the snow.

On our way to catch the ferry home, we stopped in the Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe on pier 54. This store is one of the neatest store on the waterfront. They have all sorts of neat things in the store. There have Mummies, a two head pig, shrunken heads, etc.

Below are some Highlights:

Update On Timmy

Yesterday was the day we found out what the next step will be. Yes... he will need surgery. He is a little nervous about all this, but all and all I think he is doing fine. He knows it has to be done and there is no way out of it. It is scheduled for 2 weeks and he might be able to come home the same day, as long as he is doing ok.

They will remove the extra bone that connected the 2 bones together and will be taking some of his tendon from his thigh and placing it where they removed the bone to help stop new bone growth to form. Please pray that this works. If not, then the next step might be surgery again or radiation.

The bonus is that he also has a floating bone (isn't attached to anything, just floating in his muscle tissue) that developed during the healing process and they will be removing that as well. Man, this kid just has amazing bone growth!

After the surgery, he will rest for 2 weeks and then it is back to physical therapy. The Dr. feels he will heal just fine. He won't have 100% use of his hand (turning the palm upright) like before, but it will be much much better than what he has now. There is a possibility when he gets older he may need this procedure again.

Please continue to keep praying for Dr. wisdom, the hospital staff, and that Timmy heals properly and is given a sense of peace about the whole procedure.

Thank you for praying for him.

A picture of Timmy's hand for those visual folks. *Ü*

For more information/past posts click here: Timmy

~*~ A day with my Grandbaby ~*~

On Oct. 31 my grandbaby Hailey came by for a visit! She was dressed as a monkey with a banana hanging out of her back pocket. *Ü* Just adorable I tell ya!

We pulled out some baby toys I have been saving for grandbabies and the kids had fun playing with her with their old toys.

She is such a good baby and so happy. She definitely has a wonderful mom! *Ü* At one point I was rocking her and patting her back. She began to pat my arm. How precious! I just love babies, especially my grandbaby! *Ü*

Enjoy some pictures of our special day:

Kids Costumes

Here are some photo's of the kids all dressed up:

Timmy and Jessica are characters from a Metroid (Game Cube and WII) game. They made their costumes all by themselves:

Holly is a Medieval Princess & Jake is Medieval Knight.

~Pumpkin Carving~

Last night was our family pumpkin carving night. What a GREAT time we all had. Even our bird, Coconut, was enjoying the night. We spent about 2 hour from start to finish. After everything was cleaned up, we celebrated with cupcakes Holly made all by herself earlier in the day. They were YUMMY!

Where did we get our pumpkins you might ask? Well, we went to Hunter Farms Pumpkin Patch that is a little over an hour from us. Well worth the drive for us. It is a wonderful

farm with loads of things for the kids to do and see there.

I will post pictures and more information about our trip ASAP.

Enjoy the pictures!

Weekly Report: Week 5

5 Down, and 31 More to Go!

This week went by so fast! Our biggest treat was to have Dad home a lot this week. A regular week is WAY different when dad is home. But we still completed "almost all" our school assignment goals for the week.

Monday was a holiday so we took the day off. The girls and I did go to JC Penny's and did a little class on ecomomic and bought them some new clothes for the girls during their AWESOME Columbus Day sale.

This is also the day Timmy got his cast off. To read more about this BIG event and see what he still needs to get done, click here.

Also, Jessica's friend came over after church (on Sunday) and they ran into JoAnn's to get the needed items so Jessica could make Pot Holders! She made her first one on Sunday, and now she has the pot holder making bug...

Tuesday, Dad was still home with us. We did accomplish school, but it was a challenge. The kids just wanted to "play" with dad.

Wednesday, Dad was home with us yet once again. But today we went on a field trip with 2 other families to the pumpkin patch. This place is a little over an hour away from us, but they have a hay maze, tractor ride out to the pumpkin field, farm animals (and one of the goats butted me...), and fresh produce stand/market.

Dad told the kids that they could get any size pumpkin they wanted as long as they could move the pumpkin to where the wheel barrows are located. The kids were on a hunt for the largest pumpkins ever. And they did pretty good. I did go out into the field and helped Jake get his pumpkin back. REALLY, how big of a pumpkin can a 6 year old get on his own? Of course he needed some help.

(I will add pictures in an other posts of our Pumpkin Patch visit)

Thursday was Co-op day. At our 1st co-op, First period was art for Jake and Holly, and Timmy and Jessica were learning about the bible in "That's In The Bible". Second period Jake and Holly were learning about their bodies in "Basic Anatomy" class, while Timmy was in art, and Jessica was doing Latin.

But Timmy didn't stay at co-op until the end. He wasn't feeling well, and since Dad was home yet again, I called DH and he came and picked Timmy up so he could go home and rest. Therefore, he didn't complete his art project. But since I am the teacher, he will get to finish it up this upcoming week.

Then it was onto our Zoology Co-op! We had a GREAT day of review & quiz taking. All the kids did a wonderful job at learning and remembering the information we studied.

Friday my grandbaby was suppose to come and visit for a little while, but she bumped her head on her mom took her into the doctors to get checked. She is doing fine and was sent home with a band-aid on her forehead.

We got most of our work done then it was time to go and visit friends, aka Lisa, to check out the Lewis and Clark Trunk. What a wonderful visit we had! I wish we had more time in the day as I would have stayed longer to chat. Prior to going over to our friends house, we made arrangements to get some stick bugs, but they said we can have them all, cage and everything. My kids are just tickled to death! I am still adjusting to the fact of having "bugs" in the house, and I vow to get to the point where I will hold one someday... Someday...

Oh and in case you were wondering... Dad went to work this day.

Saturday was PSNS Family Day at Dad's work. This is a big treat because they don't open the ship yard that often for families. The last time was 12 years ago and Greg took our son Michael, then 6, to Family Day. We left the house around 9:30am, and stood in line until the gates opened at 11am. I am glad Greg wanted to leave that earlier as there was so many people there (12,000 were registered for Family Day). Then we quickly walked to the line up area to get aboard the U.S.S. Alabama.

We stood in line well over an hour, but made the tour. Many folks that were in the line didn't get a chance to go aboard the sub. Greg is a welder and has been working on the turtle back of the sub for some time, while it is being over hauled. We were able to see approximately (we couldn't get to the exact area), where daddy is working on the sub.

This was a chance in a life time for the kids and I to see, and go aboard, this submarine. What an amazing place... This is home to our service men for 60-90 days, while being submerged under water and not seeing the day light, etc. We saw and walked between the missile launchers, looked out the periscope, saw where they slept while out to sea, went through the mess hall and kitchen, and so much more.

We also got the opportunity to see a few other places daddy goes to with in the ship yard. We are all sore for all the walking/standing, but it was well worth it! Unfortunately, they don't allow camera's with in the shipyard gates, so we couldn't take any pictures.

Enjoy the pictures:

The Cast is OFF!!!

Today was Timmy's big day to have his cast removed. YEAH! He is free!!!

After review of his x-ray, the Dr. noticed that he as a new growth of bone that formed in between the muscle tissue (cartilage formed and it turned into bone). The Dr. said this can happen with children that are in casts, as their bones heal so quickly and they regenerate new bone material fast. Doc. said this may go away or he may have it all his life. The only concern is that if that bone material attaches to his other bones and his arm becomes locked in a bent formation. But that is unlikely to happen.

Because this happened, he needs physical therapy for the next 2 months. Please continue to pray for our little guy.

He was very excited to come home and take a shower! *Ü*

Weekly Report: Week 2

This week was short and sweet as we went on a family vacation from Wednesday - Saturday. We didn't go far, just to Everett and then spent the time doing all sorts of family activities in Seattle. What a beautiful city it is!

Monday:

Everyone did school except for Timmy. He was happy I let him off for the day.

Jessica attended her last Online Narrative Writing class until Oct. Her next online writing class will be Elementary Report Writing. She really enjoys Home2Teach and I plan on using for as long as we are able to.

Nothing too exciting happened this day, just a normal school day...

Tuesday:

We didn't get a lot done today, as I was getting ready to leave on vacation the following day. And I was busy getting all my co-op class items pulled together for the facilitators that were teaching for me while we were away playing. Thank you Charlyn and Pam for taking over my class for me.

Jessica did get to attend 2 online Latin Classes and thoroughly enjoyed both of them.

Wednesday:

Today we headed off for our family vacation. Like I mentioned earlier, we didn't head far, but had a wonderful time!

Greg has always wanted to go to Old Country Buffet. So this is the place we went for dinner. All we have to say is it was our 1st and last Old Country Buffet experience.

Thursday:

The kids started out the morning by spending some time in the hotel pool and hot tub. Poor Timmy, since he was in a cast he didn't get to swim. But we did allow him to go in the pool and tub, but his arm had to stay on a towel a the edge of both places. I am surprised he even wanted to do that. But I guess being in the water a little is better than not going in at all...

Then we headed out for an adventure at Pike Place Market. We spent several hours here just browsing all the shops. We even got the chance to see them throw fish around at the Pike Place Fish Market. We picked up some goodies while walking around; a few "must have" items at a bakery, smoked salmon at the fish market, big jaw breakers of the kids, some maple smoked jerky, a few other items, and a Polish Pottery Piggy Bank for ME!

After Pike Place Market, we went to the Seattle Aquarium for a quick tour. We haven't been there since they remolded the place and it looked wonderful! I loved the full wall aquarium that you see at the beginning of the tour.

For dinner, we went to Izzy's Pizza for their buffet. It was pretty yummy!

Friday:

Today we headed off to the Pacific Science Center. When we first arrived there, we went to see the Imax show "Dinosaurs Alive 3-D". It was a great show. I jumped 3 times and the kids jumped at times too.

After the show, we toured the Butterfly House, and walked around main exhibit area. We even did a simulation of a roller coaster ride that was amazing. Now this is my type of roller coaster ride. No risk involved with my life! We watched some bubble demonstrations and had a wonderful learning experience.

By now, our tummy's were very hungry! So we heading off to the Food Court at the Seattle Center, which was right next door. Jessica said she knew where we had to eat at. It is a place she has gone with another family a few times and loved it. It is Quincy's Burgers! And boy was it GOOOOOD!

Afterwards went went to see the special exhibit: Colossal Fossils . The kids loved digging for dinosaur bones and watching the special movies they had on display.

(no pictures yet as DH is fixing his computer and that is where the pictures are stored)

After we were done with the exhibit, we went for a monorail ride to Westlake Center, a large mall. When we arrived to Westlake, we heading to Godiva Chocolatier and everyone got to pick out one piece of chocolate. Of course that didn't apply to us grown-ups. Then we got on the monorail and headed back to the Seattle Center, then got in the car and heading back to the hotel.

Passing out chocolates:



What a fun filled day!

Saturday:

Today we just spent the morning milling around the hotel, letting the kids swim and taking our time until check out time. Once we left the hotel, we went to Mukilteo Lighthouse. What a pretty place. This isn't a large lighthouse, it was used more to tell the ships to turn here to continue passage through the straits.

(scroll over pictures to read captions)

Then we heading off to Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. This is one of our favorite places to go. They have been remodeling the zoo the past few years and it is getting better and better with each visit we make to the zoo. While there, we were able to watch them feed the walrus's, clean ET's (the male walrus) teeth, have them do a few tricks, etc.

(no picture yet as DH is fixing his computer and that is where the picture are stored)

After our stop at the zoo, we went to for dinner at Famous Daves BBQ! OH IT WAS SO GOOD! We have been to the one in Montanna last summer on our way to Yellowstone and just loved it. We told them them must get one out our way. Well unknow to us, they had one in Tacoma for about a year and a half. We are all very happy that this resturant is in our area!

And that concludes our Weekly Report: Week 2