Thanksgiving Week

With the exception of Jessica, the kids had the whole week off of school. Jessica had scuba class Monday and a twilight dive. She was supposed to have a night dive, but the waves were too high, and they were worried about something getting hit by the tossing boat.

We took advantage of the sales at Shoe Carnival to get Jasmine ready for basketball. I told her if she didn't do dance this year, she could get "real" basketball shoes.

We spent time playing games.

The kids had a challenge every day. One day they did states and capitals. Worksheet HERE.  I did it with them. We gave one point for each state, one point per capital and 1 point for D.C. There were prizes for the high scores and littler prizes for getting even one.

One day we did Presidents HERE. Give it a try. You just have to put in the names, it fills them in the right place. Our highest was 98%

Today we did countries of the world. That one is tough. Try it HERE. Our highest was 56%. We'd lose track of what we'd already labelled. And many of the countries have changed names since I was in school. For instance, we now longer have USSR. We have all the "-stans" instead. If you try this, post how you did! My guess is that Hevel would have the highest score of my readers.

We made and ate more cookies than we needed to.

The kids made gingerbread houses. We started this tradition a few years  ago to replace the tradition of giving them each a Christmas book on Thanksgiving.

The dogs got the neck, gizzards, giblets and anything else no one eats.

The cats got special cans of food instead of dry.

The guys are in charge of the Thanksgiving meal.

Forgot all about getting Thanksgiving paper plates. And who wants to wash extra dishes on a holiday so plain white paper plates did the job.

We had to eat early today because Jessica worked at noon. Tonight she and Tyler are going out in the madness for a few special gifts. Other than that, we are avoiding the crowds.

Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving and plenty of people to share it with. Our hearts go out to those who don't have enough to eat or family to be with. Our prayers are  with the Livesays and Heartline Ministries in Haiti and all those at Real Hope for Haiti today. These are two places we sponsor in addition to our local church, Compassion and World Vision.

The Weekend (so far) Plus Haiti

Adam has decided to go into the Marine reserves. Rick and I had to sign the paperwork since he's only 17. But they wanted him to start right away. He'll go to a base a few hours away for testing and a physical next Tuesday and Wednesday. If all goes well, he will swear in on Wednesday.

Even though he's still in high school, he'll start training one weekend a month. After he graduates, he'll go to basic. The recruiter wants him to try for a ROTC full scholarship to college. If he gets that, he'll actually get out of the reserves for his college years. If not, he'll go to college but remain in the reserves. After college he'll go to officer school.

I hope this all works out for him. We've discussed that it could only take one thoughtless decision  or impulsive act to sabotage everything he's planned with the recruiter. The recruiter gave him the same talk. Adam is a good kid, but impulsive and goes along with things his friends' plans sometimes without thinking. He also has to retake the SAT or take the ACT, bring up his grades and work on pull ups. He is very fit, but can only do a few pull ups. The scholarship is very competitive and they look at physical condition (including pull ups) plus grades.

Jasmine had a game last night right after the recruiter left.  She plays at night so it's hard to get any pictures.

The middle school kids play on this huge adult sized field. This picture was taken this morning when they had it set up for two teams to play cross ways plus a practice section. But middle schoolers play the whole field! They are exhausted after their games. The older players actually play on a much smaller field than the middle school teams.

Kaleb was ready to go. And the weather was great. Unfortunately the game was moved an hour earlier but no one from our team was notified so we all showed up too late for the game. The kids were really disappointed.

A few weeks ago we sent money and pictures to an orphanage worker for the twin's birth dad. Since they'd located him last year for us, they were able to contact him and he came in right away.

We sent extra money to be used for the kids at the orphanage. The preschool class had just studied circles and made paper pizzas so they bought them real pizzas. How cool is that? It's nice to know that they've really improved living conditions at the orphanage since our kids were there. At that time the schooling wasn't regular or consistent and the kids mostly wandered around all day. Now they have planned activities and classes. 

Look at all those precious faces!

Week Two

Today starts the second week of school for the younger kids and Jessica's first day as a college junior and her first day at FSU.

Our day starts around 5:15. I stagger out to the kitchen and start breakfast. I set everything out that I can the night before. Today we had hot oatmeal. Last night I measure the water into the pan and covered it and left it on the stove so I just had to turn it on. I measured out the oatmeal into a left over container so I just had to pour it in. The bowls, cups and bananas were already out as was the pan for the sausage.  I am not a morning person. The others get ready while I do this. Once I turn on the big kitchen light it means it's 5:30 and time to come out. Until then only the little stove light is on

Breakfast is easy--Monday-hot cereal, Tues- cold cereal, Wed-toast and peanut butter, Th-poptarts, Fri-whatever we decide on. We have fruit at breakfast, and this year I added a meat for protein. The twins were eating their lunch on the bus and pretty much it's a lack of control, not hunger, but I added the meat to fill them up more. The bus driver makes them leave their backpacks at the front of the bus because of the problems last year.

Rick, Jasmine, Adam (and Jessica on M and Th) have to be out the door at 6 a.m. or very shortly after.

The twins have to be out the door at 6:20. That will probably change to ten minutes earlier once the routes are set.

Jessica is excited about her underwater crime scene investigations classes and scuba class.

Adam has started cross country practice. He is deciding between military and college next year. He'd do fine at either.

 The hurricane dumped plenty of rain on Haiti.

 Those still in tent cities were hit hard.

It looks like the hurricane may go west of us, but we'd still get wind and rain. Either way, we are more or less ready.

We live near a bay. Although we can't access it or benefit from it, our yard floods from it anytime there is a tropical depression or storm. Maybe the kids can kayak in the yard again. They are talking about cancelling school tomorrow.

Sunny Day, Hurricane Ahead

 It was a beautiful Saturday, so two of the girls and I headed to the pool. We didn't have any rain all day!!!! Amazing.

 Kayla swimming. She can swim a few strokes but panics. We'll pick up from there next summer.

 Jasmine can almost swim a length with breathing. Next summer we'll streamline her stroke and add some endurance. 

Jessica and I were suppose to swim a 3/4 mile open water swim this morning but my knee has not healed even though it's been 7 weeks. I'm beginning to wonder if it will ever heal!

 Kayla coming off the slide.

 Jasmine coming off the slide.

This is kind of like "Where's Waldo" but it's really "Where's the lifeguard?" I could not believe there was not a lifeguard paying any attention to the pool. Tell me if you see the one guard for the whole pool.

The hurricane dumped rain on Haiti. Many of the people in the tent cities lost their tents and everything they owned. They had to stand all night because of the flooding in the tents. It's now on a path toward us but it's hard to complain much since the worst that could happen is that we'd have to evacuate. It would be inconvenient and we haven't budgeted for it, but we could do it.

Even if we lost our house, we could start over somehow. We are in a four bedroom manufactured home, and while it's not a dream house, it's adequate for us. Our kids have never been in need. They all have medical care and so do our pets. That seems really weird to the people in Haiti who can't believe we really have doctors for dogs when many of them don't have medical care for their children.

We are blessed.

Hope you are all having a great weekend.