FUMA or Bust

I'm not sure where to begin since things have been incredible hectic this month. It takes me days to finish one blog, and I am going so much it seems the days all blend into one another.

Let's just start with Olivia (16 months). Olivia has cut another tooth this month. Teething has been worst on her than all the others. As a result, I am very tired. She doesn't sleep or eat well when she is teething, and nothing seems to make her happy. I am so glad the molar finally came through yesterday, and it seems she is making her way back to normalcy. Maybe I can get a decent night sleep sometime soon. Other than that she is doing great. She is still a little thing so I guess I will hear more about that when I take her in for her next well baby. Unfortunately I can't make her grow -- only God can do that. She is still very girly, and it is cute to watch her feed her babies and wrap them up in blankets.

Caden (3 years old) is going through a "testing phase" right now. In general he is stubborn about pretty much everything and yells (A LOT) when he doesn't get his way. It is funny, I tell everyone non of my kids went through a "terrible twos", and once again this has proved true. No terrible twos, but the tail end of three is proving to be quite the challenge. He is doing really well in his school work though. He loves school, and begged to start doing school this year with "the Big Brothers". He learns at an amazing pace. With his focus and love of doing the work, I wouldn't be surprised if he is reading by the end of the year. One of his favorite things to do is cut with scissors ( I have included a picture of this in today's blog). He is also very excited to start Tae Kwon Do when he turns four, and is trying to learn how to ride his bike without training wheels before daddy gets home from deployment. This year he gets to switch to Cubbies in Awanas and is excited about being able to earn patches and stickers for memory work. In Puggles they got to wear a cute little shirt and that was so exciting to him but stickers and patches are so much better.

Ezekiel ( 9 -- 1 Sept) is doing well in fourth grade. I think he is still a bit overwhelmed at the increase workload from lower elementary, but for the most part he has really been doing well and working diligently without complaint. He seems to be really enjoying learning this year. He tests for Green Belt in Tae Kwon Do in a couple weeks. Once he gets his green belt he can start sparring. He has been living for that day for 9 months. Now, he can try out for the competition team in a couple months. He would like to compete in sparring and weapons. He also watched the demonstration team at the county fair and thinks he wouldn't mind doing that as well. Demonstration team is only for the top ranks except for a few lower ranks being invited to participate, so we will see. It will probably take him a little more than a year from now to earn his Black Belt. We are also looking for swim lessons for him to take. He wants to be on a swim team but that will have to wait until he makes black belt because Tae Kwon Do classes take up too much time every week right now. Zeke is also excited about Awanas starting up. We were unable to get involved until halfway through the year last year, so he is really excited to have a whole year to work on his patches this time.

Now we get to Russell (13 years old). A while back we received news from FUMA that they did not consider us to be in need of financial aid to attend their school (excuse me while I pause to laugh). Ok. Well, he had already joined another football team and we already bought homeschooling books and he had already started 8th/9th grade stuff. Then, last Saturday morning (out of the blue) we get a call from Fork Union saying they have decided they can give us Financial Aid. What? Chris was deployed and had just gone out on a mission. I didn't know when I would hear from him. I couldn't make the decision on my own, and school starts next Monday. I told them I would have to wait until I could speak to my husband and explained to them his situation. Well, minutes after I got off the phone with the school, Chris called to tell me his mission had been cancelled. HMM. We talked about it and both prayed all night. Then we talked about it some more the next morning. We both decided it was the best thing to go forward with trying to get him there for school next Monday. So, we have been in the mad dash to get school paid for, school supplies bought, a school physical done, and all the other paperwork ready. It has been a long week. He is so excited about going. He has been reading the handbook everyday trying to learn how to stay out of trouble and MOST importantly how to EARN privileges. He is a little disappointed to be going back to 8th grade Science since he has been doing High School Biology for a month. He is also a little worried about the placement tests, because he is in Algebra 1 at home (he took pre-algebra last year), and he doesn't want to go back to Pre-Algebra. Also, they have an elective period that is Art or Drama (not his things) or Spanish I. Of course they use the placement tests to decide whether you can take Spanish I. He really wants to do Spanish because he has been taking it anyway for a couple years, and like I said -- Art and Drama are not his things. Most importantly he is excited about being able to play on a football team where his weight does not determine the position he can play. In the recreation leagues they set a weight limit for all but the linemen, so they don't hurt the little guys. This year Russell exceeds the weight limit so he can' play any of the positions he has played since he was 5. (He has grown 6 inches this year and is now 5 foot 5 1/2 inches tall, and 155 pounds.) They had him on the line (not his favorite). Now he will be eligible to play anywhere. Yeah.

So, Daddy is gone, Olivia is teething, and Caden is incorrigible. Add to that Russell getting ready for school Monday, and Zeke having a Birthday Tuesday and I am exhausted. Monday should be interesting.

Home Again

We have been home for three weeks, and we have done so much it feels like three months. We are back at school full time. Zeke is testing for his Tae Kwon Do green belt in a couple of weeks. Russell is playing football and has practice every night. I am training for two races this fall/ winter. I just got my jog stroller fixed again so I can get into a more regular running routine sine I can take the little ones with me. It has been a nice hot summer. Yes I did say nice because I love the heat and any reason to jump in the pool. Besides more heat and less rain means less mowing the lawn. LOL. We have been swimming several times a week . The puppy is finally "potty trained". Chris is in Afghanistan. Music lessons start back up on Monday.

Finally . . . . Our Month in Florida

As the title says, we spent a month in Florida this summer. There were several reasons for this:

1. Thanks to the wonderful real estate market of the past 3 year, we still have a house down there. We decided if we were going to have a house in Florida we might as well get some use out of it.

2. Because of cut backs in Chris job, we were unable to afford to fix the pool in West Virginia. The kids and I REALLY miss the pool in the summer time, and the house in Florida has perfect weather and a beautiful pool.

3. We all have lots of friends in Florida still and wanted to see them.

4. The boys had to see their father anyway. Every year we combine him spending a little time with the boys with our trip down to check on the house. (He "wants to see them" but refuses to pay anything to get them down there) The trip down there is such a long one, that we decided just to stay and enjoy the weather, pool, and friends for a few weeks.

We left my parent's house the Monday after 4 July. There were of course "complications". It is a 15 hour trip from my parents house to Florida. Because of Chris work schedule, we had to make the trip in one straight through drive. Because we were going to be gone 6 weeks total, we were taking the dogs with us. Between all the tools we took to work on my brothers house, the 4 kids, and the 5 dogs, it was necessary to take both our vehicles. Therefore, NO REST. Both of us had to drive the entire 15 hours straight. To make the ride more enjoyable ( hopefully you can hear my sarcasm), Chris had the puppy in the back of his truck. The puppy does not travel well. She has puked several times inside cars so now we make her ride in the kennel in the back of the truck. She hates to ride in the back of the truck and will bark endlessly. She barked so much and so loud that I could here her inside my car driving seventy miles and hour down the interstate with the radio on. FOR HOURS. Then, I had Olivia in my car. She was teething. As a matter of fact she cut 6 teeth from the time we left for my parents house the last week of June until we got back in West Virginia 6 weeks later. She chose the trip down to be one of her more unpleasant days. Nothing made her happy ALL THE WAY DOWN. Even when it was time for her to fall asleep she didn't. To say we were happy to finally arrive in Florida is an understatement.

We arrived in Florida in enough time to unload and get in bed, asleep by midnight. Which was a good thing because Chris had to get up at 0400 to get on airplane and go back to work. It was a rough start to what turned out to be a very restful and fun month.

The house in Florida is "sparsely"decorated. There are camping cots and blankets and pillows for the boys to sleep on, a playpen for Olivia, and a Queen size blowup mattress for Chris and I. The kitchen still has a stove and refrigerator. It even has a microwave -- something we have lived without in WV since February (it just isn't important enough for me to spend the money on, and we have adapted quite nicely to now having one). There are also miscellaneous toys, puzzles, and games to be played with. What there is not: TV, Video games, phone, internet, or tons of stuff to clean up everyday. I honestly started evaluating the time we had there and how much "stuff" we could get rid of at the WV house. LOL.

We saw all our friends, even some friends we had not seen in YEARS. Went to the beach three times, and swam in the pool EVERYDAY. When the big boys were with their father and Chris was at work, I laid around with the little ones. We did little kid stuff all day everyday. We swam everyday, and Caden is now swimming without any floatation aid. He loves to swim underwater. Olivia loves the water, and will even put her face in on her own. We took hikes together everyday, so that mommy could start getting back into shape. We drew with sidewalk chalk and painted with sidewalk paint. We went to 6 different playgrounds and open gym every Friday. I drank a lot of Starbucks(LOL). We went to three different kiddie water parks etc . . . Daddy got to spend a bit of time with us between business trips, and then we drove home.

Oh yeah -- The poor older boys had to spend two miserable weeks with their father. They watched about 50 movies (I am not exaggerating), and gained a lot of weight from doing NOTHING but eating out (once again I am not exaggerating). He did finally make good on his six year old promise to take them deep sea fishing. They love fishing. They both told me they had fun . . .fishing. According to them you can do fun things with someone without "enjoying" spending it with them. They even told him they did not want to go to a couple movies, just because they wanted to see them at home with us. Of course that did not make him happy.

On the way home we stopped at a Revolutionary battlefield -- King's Mountain South Carolina. We took about a 2 mile hike and learned a little about the battle that occurred there. It gave everyone, even the dogs, a chance to get out and stretch there legs before driving 7 hours home. It was nice to learn about the Revolutionary war (we see a lot of Civil War Battlefields) especially since that is the time frame we are studying in History for school right now.

Thomas Jefferson called it "The turn of the tide of success." The battle of Kings Mountain, fought October 7th, 1780, was an important American victory during the Revolutionary War. The battle was the first major patriot victory to occur after the British invasion of Charleston, SC in May 1780 (http://www.nps.gov/kimo/)

We did finally make it home. We even got in a a decent time, which was a good thing because Chris had to work and Russell had football camp starting the next day.