Snow in Alabama! In May!

We got a delivery of SNOW from The Snow Company, located in Maryland. It is run by these children (and I suspect a few others). They folded and snipped and packed a whole box of the white stuff and sold it to us--so they are a legitimate business. The CEO or MIC (Mom-In-charge) is my Feingold friend, Mary. Mary and I are always up for a homeschool learning experience, and she figured out a way to have the kids start a business. Not sure if they are still producing snow, though...you'd have to ask Mary. I'm sure she'll sell you some!
We had a great time with the SNOW. This was more than we'd seen in a few years! And the best thing was that it did not melt! Here are some shots of Luci, JT and Bryan having fun.

Of course, you've got to rub it in brother's face!

Oops! Did the Cat in the Hat sneak some snow in? This one was Luci's favorite.

(Because it's PINK!)

Gotta make a snow-angel!

Lovin' it!

Thank you, Snow Company! This was lots of fun!

Bryan Says This Is True

And it isn't funny!

YEA!!

Phone message from Soccer Coach

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No practice today because the field is too wet. We got too much rain today, and practice will ruin the field.

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Mom

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Hooray!

Sleep...What Is That, Again?

Luci still is not sleeping through the night. After several emails back and forth from the two families who also adopted when we did, Luci is doing what their daughters are doing...needing only mama for bed, for the middle of the night, and please, please don't leave me!

Don't suggest the "cry it out" method. Luci gets hysterical if I don't show up. It is not night-terrors (she knows exactly where she is and what is going on, and is responsive). It is also not fake. She goes bonkers. When she sleeps in her room and wakes in the night, she makes it about halfway to our room and then starts screaming. It is heartbreaking and wow, what a way to wake in the middle of the night. So she is back in our room, on her crib mattress on the floor. No hysterics, but she still needs mama in the middle of the night.

Yesterday she played at the YMCA playplace for over an hour, then at McDonald's for over an hour, then no nap and sound asleep by 7 p.m. I could not keep her up any later. Then awake at 10 (NO I DON'T WANT DADDY!) and then again at 1 a.m....she was awake until nearly 4 a.m.! And up for the day at 7 a.m. The day before was not much better...lots of play, no nap and up twice. Today she's taking a nap because I need one.

Missing naps doesn't work. Running her silly, playing outside or in the YMCA playground for hours doesn't foster sleep. Routines at bedtime don't work. A cuddly that smells like mama doesn't work. Melatonin doesn't work. Giving mom a shot of liquor might work, but not for her.

I am exhausted.

I'm still hoping for rain.

I Hope It Rains

I got so excited yesterday. I looked at Thursday and Friday on the calendar, and they were BLANK! That rarely happens. Being able to stay home would be such a nice thing. It is 20 to 25 minutes to anywhere in town from our house. Not to mention the cost in gasoline.

Then I remembered Thursday (now today) is JT's last soccer practice.

I hope it rains.

Update on Chinese Orphanages

This is from the Rumor Queen at China Adopt Talk.

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Individual Orphanage Reports from the area hit by the earth quake.

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Where Can I Get That Puzzle?

Here it is! Geo Puzzle, Red-State Blue-State Political Map

This is the amazon.com link...you get it for 79 cents less than I did but you have to pay shipping...which may be lots cheaper, in the long run, than I got it since I had to pay for gas to go to the book show!

Just the Girls--Homeschool Convention

Luci and I went to the Homeschool Convention in Birmingham. I didn't go to the lectures, just the Vendors' Hall. I was able to buy our curriculum for next year (yea! but the boys are booing!), and I got some other fun stuff--or, as the boys would say, I got "instruments of torture." They do not like school or learning nearly as much as I do.

It was a fun Girls' Weekend for Luci and me. We stayed at the Sheraton, which is connected to the convention center. That was luxurious and convenient.

When we walked in the front door, Luci was in heaven. It was big and beautiful. Luci said she was "Eloise and you can be Nanny." If you are familiar with Eloise at the Plaza, you'll know who she means.

There was also an Indian wedding going on that weekend. There were 800 in the hotel just for that, and so about half were women dressed in gorgeous saris. Luci thought they all were princesses.


Here's Luci, about 60 seconds after we got into our room: Making herself at home.
Breakfast came to our door, just like in Eloise.
At the book sale. Why did the Early Works children's museum hand out kazoos? And Why oh Why did I teach her how to make it work?!
Having fun at one of the booths.
Packed up, ready to head home.
Luci found a friend to dance with while we waited for the van.

Why on earth did I think I got a good deal?!
Maybe this is why....
The loot:
And a puzzle. It will be fun on election night. There are two complete puzzles in the box--one red, the other blue, so you can have your own election results on the dining room table. You can root for the color you want...but we have our favorite color picked out! We are going to have this out on November 4th.
Luci talked us into doing the puzzle. (Bryan and JT had fun doing this--do they know it's educational?)Luci said, "I found Grandpa's state!" And she was right! Grandpa and Gran-Je live in South Carolina! Good for you, Luci. We use a plastic place mat from Walmart with the US map on it to go teach her some of the states we've visited and places where we have family. She knows quite a few!

Please Say a Prayer for China

There is so much heartache in the world...Burma...Tibet...China...Zimbabwe...the Sudan...the list could go on and on. My heart is more in China than the rest, though, so I'm asking you to pray for them today.

My heart breaks for those families who have only one child, or perhaps they were allowed two (in some rural areas, that is true). But imagine the grief when the only child is lost, the one on whom all the hopes of the mother and father were pinned. Heart-wrenching.

You can see Chengdu, which is near the epicenter, in this map--it is in the pink-colored area. Luci's province is the yellow one to the south, with Guiyang in the center.

The quake, 7.9 on the Richter Scale, swayed buildings as far away as Beijing and Hanoi, so you know it affected Luci's province of Guizhou. I am surprised and glad that China is letting so much news out about the quake. They are silent on most things.

Happy Mother's Day!

Elrino Lucinda John's mother. She was a wonderful Mom, and she was kind to everyone. She was really good at hospitality, and taught me a lot about that. Her middle name gave us Luci's first name.Audrey Vivian my mother. What a great Mom! She has been so patient with me and she is the most generous Mom I know. She's helping us on our trip out to Idaho this summer. Thank you for that, Mom. Her middle name gave us Luci's middle name (Luci Vivian).

Jeanne John's stepmother. She loves all of us, and that is a really big deal since John has a lot of siblings. She is so nice! She treats us like we are her own kids.

Me I asked Luci what she likes about Mommy and she said, "I like your 'emmy and o' (M and O) in your name." (My name's Mom!)


Shanna Heath's wife. Shanna is busy mom with two little girls, Sophia and Sara. She's a good mother to them, and you can tell they are loved so well. She's a smart mom, with her Master's, but I would guess that Mommy is her best job.



Audrey Eldest daughter. Audrey's also the mommy to two. She managed to take such good care of her daughters while her husband Thom was deployed and now she's getting ready to explore Europe with the kids when they are stationed in Germany this summer. Fun!

I'm Worth What?!

Study: Stay-at-Home Mom Worth Nearly $117,000 a Year

You knew there had to be an article or two on this subject this week...so here it is.

Oops! Add in the Homeschool Teacher salary, and that bumps it up to about $117,050. My first year of teaching in Shreveport, LA in 1985, it felt like I only brought home about $50!

Tornado Video

This happened yesterday afternoon, not far from us--just south of the Tennessee River in Leighton. It's 29 miles by roads but much closer if you could go "as the crow flies." It was captured by a security camera. You can see the tornado go through the parking lot, so look for that as you watch the cars dance. Thank goodness no one in Alabama was hurt.

How Do They Stand It?

We had to go into the safe room this afternoon. A storm went right over us; thank Goodness it did not touch down. However, we all felt the lower pressure in our sinus cavities! It was an odd sensation. How do people who suffer through a powerful tornado or hurricane stand that?

Of course, I took the camera with me. Here are the pics:

JT drumming and driving mom nuts; Bryan trying to shake hands with Luci, and Luci ignoring Bryan, busy with her binky and blankie. Luci listening to the weather report on our cute juke box CD player/radio.
JT getting quiet with the drumsticks (thank you, JT!).
Luci getting goofy.
Bryan, not being goofy, but hey, Charlie, Tom and Sam--look! He's got a moustache! Sorta.

A: Sidesaddle!

Q: How does a Princess ride a tricycle?

Math...Again, and a Mom & Luci Trip

I finally had to look in the Teacher's Manual for answers to the schoolwork...made it to the end of 9th grade Math before I even opened one of those things! I think that's pretty good.

Luci and I get to go to our homeschool convention this weekend. It's called CHEF (Christian Home Education Fellowship). We have reservations at the convention center hotel--woowee! it's a nice one!--and we'll purchase our schoolbooks for next year while there. I absolutely love, adore books so I am especially looking forward to seeing all the books they have, plus the curriculum we've chosen for next year (Weaver Unit Studies). Luci is turning into a book-lover, too, and that makes me very happy.

I am also looking forward to a room service breakfast (don't tell John that part yet!) and just being with my daughter. What a wonderful thing to be able to say! I love my boys, but it is so different with a girl. John gets a kick out of Luci and me going shopping together. (We're going shopping, Daddy! Mommy and me!) Usually it's just for groceries, but it is such a girl-thing to do.

What will the boys do while we are away? Burp and spit, no doubt. Put their elbows on the table and all that jazz. John is taking the boys to see the new movie IronMan. Saturday will be busy with mowing the yard and taking JT to the soccer game (I hope John remembers it's our turn to take drinks and a snack). I have told the boys to be sure to treat Daddy with the same love and respect they show to me, and to be as sweet to each other as they always are. They got a good laugh out of that--I just hope John survives the two of them.

This Made Me LOL

This commercial was on this morning. It was one of the SuperBowl commercials this year, but I missed it. I thought it was terribly funny...you might just think it terrible. It is a clean commercial, so don't worry about viewing it!

LOL: one of those cutesy terms that web-addicts and cellphone texters use, means "Laugh Out Loud."

Anne of Green Gables

From the Vox Blog:
Mom, this made me think of you a lot, since you got me to read Anne of Green Gables in the first place. You recognized me in her character long before I knew she existed. The boys were going to be "Anne with an E" if they were girls. (That name was just not special enough for our Luci.)


What fictional character do you relate to most and why?


Anne of Green Gables! Dreamy, lost in thought, reading all the time, following her heart even though that was not always the easy road, teaching school, even the red hair and smacking someone with her lunch pail...that was all me!



When I taught third grade at Smith Elementary School, we had a "Hat Day." I found a straw hat like the one Anne wears as a teacher (I couldn't find a picture of that) and made a long skirt and wore a frilly blouse...all the kids knew who I was! They all called me Anne of Green Gables! I loved that.



This picture is right before she smacks Gilbert with her lunch pail. I did that to a ridiculous boy in 5th grade...at Ustick Elementary!
The photos are from this website.

Bryan's Math Teachers

Here is the teacher who teaches the Rational Numbers...
and the one in charge of Irrational Numbersand the student who is learning regardless of the quality of his teachers!

Tornadoes, Princesses, Irrationality

After the tremendous storms in OK, TX and Arkansas, we took last night's bad weather seriously. I had our tote bags packed up and ready to go into the basement. The usual ingredients: flashlights, Luci's China paperwork (you can see that big brown envelope peeking out of the coca-cola bag--other families with Chinese children will know what that brown envelope holds), photo CDs from the past 7 years, cell phones, a snack for the kids, pull ups and binkies. We already had our shoes on, ready to run if need be.

Thank Goodness the tornadic cells went around us (at one point, two were headed towards our part of Lauderdale County) and, as far as I know, no injuries in our area. We didn't have to go into our safe room at all last night. This morning, Luci helped me get the paper. In her Princess dress. I loved it! (this photo is staged--we don't let her go down to the road by herself) When Bryan was this age, he wore his Batman suit every where. I wonder if Luci will demand to wear her Cinderella dress to Walmart? I think that would be just fine, if she did.
I dressed myself!
Now for the Irrationality: John and I were discussing Bryan's math last night. We are up to the Rational numbers vs. Irrational. John thought he should teach Bryan about rational numbers and that I should handle the others because, well, he says he is rational about things and I am not.

John's Home Again

John got home last night before all the storms hit. We got a Bible for his birthday (which isn't until June 2, but we won't be together then--he'll be on an Army trip and we'll be on the way to Idaho). So the kids inscribed the Bible and gave it to him yesterday. Notice how Luci dressed up for the occasion, and Bryan--well, Bryan looks like he just rolled out of bed! They are all so glad to have Daddy home!