One down, 179 to go...

Wow...never thought I would actually be a "home-school mom"...but I officially am! Today was the first day of kindergarten for Sammy and also the first day of 2nd grade for Jake!...and we are all still alive and in the same house! Seriously, it really was a great day. As I listened to the various buses go by-some as early as 6:30am, how awesome I felt that I didn't have to do the morning ritual....wake up sound sleeping children at 6:15 and pull off the warm blankets and get them dressed with their eyes still shut....scurry them down stairs and sit them in front of the tv while they awaken to a pop-tart being pushed in their face and only have so much time to eat it before they have to quickly brush teet, get their shoes on, grab their lunch box, backpack and off to the bus stop to wait...

The boys woke up excited this morning-had a big breakfast and off to the basement school room for the first day of class! I had them bring their pillows and blankets and we kind of camped out while we learned how the routine would go-Remarkably, we were able to start in with their curriculum by 10am and they hung with it without much complaint! Definitely took breaks, a snack break here and there-and of course a game of volleyball in between.

Jake enjoyed all of the patriotic books and learning-we are studying US history and he will be learning about all 50 states, maps, spelling, Bible, English grammar, Math, Reading, Science & writing. We are going to add in Spanish-which he already has had a little-but that is the language he chose to learn by computer. It will be a fun, yet challenging year, but I think he will do well.

Sammy gets to learn how to read (which he can do somewhat already-but needs more of the basics), and also has writing, science, history, Bible, Math, -he gets to have an ant farm (fun...) and gets to grow a butterfly garden too. And of course, we are adding European History with an emphasis on WWI and II with European Geography, which he loves and is his passion. So as you can imagine, in a "real" school he would have been expelled from the get-up he came to "class" with....full armour intact-he had at least 5 weapons, a grenade, helmet, & bullet-proof vest all over his camouflage pj's. He was ready. We even have camouflage pencils to fit right in with my history buffs. His Aunt Sandra got him a Winston Churchill Bunker book for his birthday and he loves it-and I do too-fascinating!!..SO that is his reading tomorrow. When I asked him what language he wanted to learn he said..."Russian & Korean"....um.....he will be taking Spanish too.

I'm sure we will have tough days ahead, but it got off to a great start and i'm hoping it will continue-at least for awhile. I have wanted to do this for a long time and am so glad I finally took the plunge and did it. All the worries and anxiety have really turned in to relief. I'll get to play a part in the building of Godly character in these boys. I found a great group of women who home school here locally, so we get together weekly. They have been a tremendous resource for me and after meeting them, it just reinforced why I wanted to do this.

No other big happenings have really been going on here-still playing tennis and will be playing for another division title Friday-that was been super fun and a great outlet for me as well. We are hoping to go to City Finals, so we will see how this goes! Wish me luck! I'll post how the rest of the week goes-even if it falls apart completely!!:)

Gosh, It has been a LONG time-we are alive and kicking!

One of the most indespensible things I have grown very attached to is the computer. Needless to say, I have not had one that has been functioning in my own home for months...reason being the last time you have seen me on here has been a mere 7 months!! My sincerest apologies!! AH, but good news I bring! We have a completely new c-drive with everything functioning AND it is VIRUS free! We were blessed to have been introduced to the Koobface virus, so that completely destoyed our system and of course any capablilities to blog and surf the internet!

I am so excited to be able to start blogging again-hopefully on a daily basis- and fill you all in the lastest and greatest in our lives here in Georgia. We have decided to home-school the boys this school year, so that adventure will be documented here as well.

I am off to get some much needed sleep before this week gets moving in full swing-Will be back on here in full force this week!

Patton?....

I just had to post some pics of my boys...Samuel (5) reminds me of General Patton with the flag in the background...that would be in his room. He asked for an American Flag for Christmas and has treasured it since. He hung it above his bed (with my help of course!) and salutes it daily...he is VERY patriotic and can say his pledge of allegiance. He is in his military attire and "guards" the house daily. Wonder what he wants to be when he grows up?? His teachers say they keep them on their toes when it comes to history...He explained to them the other day about the Enola Gay and how we bombed the Japanese...He asked me where Hitler was and if he was dead-his mind just goes on and on...fascinates me, this kid!

Jake is more interested in playing guitar hero and playstation lego star wars than pretty much anything else...he has become quite the rocker and Should I be concerned that my 7 yeard old is starting to walk around the house with a fake guitar singing "Talk dirty to me"..??!!...What am I doing to my kids??? I'm ok with having the kids play songs, but do you think they could maybe come with...say...some kid friendly songs??? Geez Louise....His favorite is Barracuda...Sammy prefers to rock out to Black Sabbath...yes, lovely Ozzy Osbourne....How lucky am I to have blooming head bangers in my midst! I think they have a little of their Uncle Karl in them!

They are settling back into the routine of school again-although the early mornings weren't a favorite for any of us. Eric has been traveling alot back and forth to Ohio, so we have been soloing it for while now...we just take it day by day! I'm actually using my pots and new appliances and they are working well-my recipes are actually edible!! A far cry, from my previous cooking experiences...watch out Top Chef!

Our newest arrival this past week was the new washer and dryer, which were much needed. After hearing some strange noises with the dryer, like it was going to actually come apart with each load, I finally learned why my Maytag was failing me...I heard Sammy yell while playing "I'm going to the escape pod" and run into the laundry room...Hmmmm..yes, his escape pod was the lovely dryer...so there he is inside with the door open pretending to blast off into outer space...so that explains why when I run a cycle, it's like threw in a set of barbels with my clothes! I quickly explained that these new appliances weren't "escaping anywhere" and that they were off limits. Gotta love boys!

With Eric gone so much, I did allow my kiddos to sleep with me a few nights just to make them feel more cuddled with things a little out of sorts. Little did I know that I would also be sleeping with 11 stuffed animals, a flash lights, commander cody, captain rex and every clone trooper in their posession. There is nothing worse than rolling over during the night and a miniature machine gun is jammed in your back. Makes for a lovely night's sleep!

We, like most of you, are experiencing very cold weather here in Atlanta...It was a balmy 10 this morning with only being 1 degree with the wind chill...Eric is thrilled. He leaves from Ohio where it is 6 below to come to single digits here in the south. We are bundling up needless to say and are hoping warmer air heads in....soon! I have a doubles match coming up and I will have to post how things went!!

Back to Bloggin'...

After a month long hiatus, I am proud to say that I finally have a working modem and Internet access!! YEAH...has been along time coming, but things are finally back in order.

SO much has happened...I will fill in the top stories of our lives over the past month.

Dec. 1st we closed on the new house and we welcomed into this wonderful state with a blocked sewer line...yes...fun...very fun! Eric discovered this wonderful gift within the first 12 hours of our ownership...Apparently, roots from our crepe myrtle (Sp) tree fed right into the sewer line in the front yard and completely blocked any exit...of anything. Lovely. How do you find such a problem you might ask? Well...flush a toilet and then take a shower...where would your shower water go, you might ask again? Well, how about through the and over the toilet on the first floor of your home...neatly blanketing your wooden floors and seeping through your ceiling and onto your basement ceiling. You know things aren't looking too good for you when within the first 3 days of moving in when your fridge is covered with magnets of all the service businesses you had to call in 48 hours. Plumber, clean-up crew, backhoe crew...yeah...I even have lovely pics to show you that wonderful out of pocket experience. The fun part was the sewer line couldn't be fixed until the following Monday...5 days after we moved in. The previous owners denied ever having problems, but clearly from the pics you can see how difficult this is to believe. My parents came to visit just a few days after moving in and they helped me open boxes while I directed all the crews that where at our house in the first week. The appliances were removed and new ones were delivered...with a scheduled install date of 3 days later (unbeknown st to me)...so we got to know some new places to eat in the Johns Creek area!...Using the bathroom wherever we went to spare any further damage to my existing plumbing situation. God bless my parents for not turning around and heading back home!

That situation was finally taken care of and now we needed to move forward with the clean up-dry wall was removed and everything was dried out..carpet padding removed..you name it. We are still in the midst of having all the repairs made, but our home-owners insurance took pity on us and at least paid a little to help with the expenses. Thankfully.

We have spent December unpacking boxes and moving things in. I didn't' realize just how long this would take...I guess I forgot that I actually brought a moving truck full. We had been living out of a few suitcases in a hotel for so long, when the moving truck pulled up with our stuff...I was blown away at just how much we had. Note to self...have a BIGGER garage sale BEFORE you move! Only a few things were damaged and nothing to valuable, so I don't have too much to complain about.

We did have a new kitchen installed which we love...but they of course came to deliver the new counter tops on the wrong day...would you really be surprised considering how things have gone? The demo'd the backsplash and made just a few holes in the walls, but nevertheless the new counters were in and they looked good....next call-tile guy. It's funny because the day before Christmas they delivered our new Refrigerator...you guessed it...wrong one. A new one will be coming on the 13th, so we wait again.

With all that was going on, I was a little lax on the shopping thing...I did manage to pull it out in my timing as usual...picking up a few last minute things on Christmas Eve, but we managed to have a wonderful day as a family and the kids were more excited than ever. Jake got some games for his PlayStation, star wars clone wars stuff, guitar hero and some other things. Sammy got his coveted OSU helmet and football uniform-which he wore for 12 straight hours on Christmas day! He also got an American flag which he treasures and hung above his bed and some new military toys. It was a fun day-weird to not be close to my parents, but we left the next day for Ohio and had a wonderful visit through new year's.

The boys have since settled back into their school routine and I promptly got the tree packed away...proud of myself for that one. We have much to be thankful for and to look out at my backyard and see the deer that freely walk by is so peaceful (see pic). In the grand scope of things, these inconvenient happenings pale to what people are going through back home and around the world.

I should be up to date now and can continue to share what is going on...hugs to all!