Wordless Wednesday - Lake View

I took this with my cell phone out at my sister's lake property. I just loved the way the light looked in it (even if it's not supposed to be that way).

Family History

Like most people, I spent time with family over the Thanksgiving holiday. I didn't get to spend it with some members since they were sick, but hopefully we'll have a belated Thanksgiving at a later date. In the mean time, while visiting with this lovely lady (my aunt)...

She made a point of making sure I saw this..

It's for my uncle, who was also a Georgia Tech graduate. There are many stories that circulate around the family about him, but this remains a constant. We *know* he served, the question always is "in what capacity".

I never really had the opportunity to get to know him, much less meet him. That makes the stories that are told about him that much more meaningful (and fun to hear).

Review: The Muppets

My daughter and I went to the theater yesterday to check out the new Muppet movie. It was very cute. A little on the extreme hokey side, but nothing unusual for the muppets. It was very touching to watch Kermit and Piggy. My daughter had to say "oh no" at one point when the lights went out in the movie.

I loved the cameos by Alan Arkin, Mickey Rooney and Neil Patrick Harris. My favorite would have to be Alan Arkin, though. My daughter's reaction was "who's that?" Ah well, guess I show my age.

Any way, she and I enjoyed it. We saw previews for a couple of movies we agree we're going to have to go out and see. The Borrowers being one, Brave is a potential as well.

Georgia Aquarium

We visited the Aquarium Wednesday for my nephew. The igloo from Tuesday was already gone, unfortunately. I played with the settings of my camera and managed to get some pretty good shots. I even did a short video of the Lagoon Jellies with my iPhone.

After we were done, we had to do our requisite stop at the Varsity. I tried suggesting something different (Johnny Rockets across from the Aquarium). My kids just looked at me funny and told me we had to go to the V. My husband said we'd trained them right.

Happy Thanksgiving

From my family to yours, we wish you a Happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy your holiday!

Wordless Wednesday - Building an Igloo

Seen at the Aquarium yesterday - they were building an igloo in the atrium.

It's a good time to..

After celebrating my son's 13th birthday this weekend, I've decided this week is a good time to fill in the blank. There are just so many things that we need to do, so many that we have to do. It gets stressful some days thinking about what we can and can't do. Add on to that the stuff that we HAVE to do and it's no wonder that I'm not getting stuff done.

So, yesterday was a good day to take it easy. The kids hung out in the morning while I did some stuff for work. Then we all took off to go to the dollar movie theater and watched "Spy Kids".

Today is a good day to catch up on volunteer hours. I still need to finish out my commitment hours for the Georgia Aquarium. So, off I go to the Aquarium. I'll be in "where's Waldo" mode as a Gallery Rover.

The rest of the week will be a good time to take family time. I have a nephew visiting, we will see family at Thanksgiving and we'll take my aunt out at some point as well.

Next week will be a good time to make sure my priorities are straight. I'm going to try to make sure my first priority is my family. I know, I should put me at the top of the list some time. Eventually I will, just not right now.

What's it a good time for you to do?

Birthday Fun

My husband and I got our son an AirHog Blue Sky plane for his birthday. He and his friends took it outside for a while to check it out. The conclusion is that we need a bigger space without trees. Here's how NOT to fly your Air Hog.

And yes, we had to knock it out of the tree by throwing sticks at it. :) We made quite a scene on the street throwing balls, sticks, etc. at a pine tree. Poor tree.

Happy 13th Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my little black belt boy scout! Hard to believe it has been 13 years.

Mini-PSA - FurKids

We stopped in at the FurKids shelter yesterday to pick up our little one from his neuter surgery. While waiting, we visited one room of kitties. My daughter and I took a definite liking to these two. The first one is 'Brandon'. A wonderful boy, very sweet. I LOVED the markings.

This is Grace. She was my daughter's favorite of the evening. Can't you tell?

Tomorrow is a big day in our house. Not only will I have 5 teen/tween boys in the house, but my son will have his 13th birthday. Oi.

Girls Talk - My Style Icon

I blame having been sick for the need to use a meme this week. That and general slackness. I have no style of my own, but I will admit that I admire Kimora Lee Simmons. She has a wonderful taste in fashion and a no-nonsense way of bringing it out.

I have to respect Queen Latifah as well. She always seems comfortable in whatever she wears. As much as I would like to say that I am, I'm not. My clothes are comfortable, but I'm not always comfortable in them.

For a long time fashion was a word I heard, not one I utilized. Being a stay at home mom, I kinda let things slide (in more ways than one). I'm gradually trying to improve my wardrobe, but I can't say I associate my style with any particular person. It's just me.

Get a Melissa & Doug 25% Off Coupon When You Take the North "Poll"

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Wordless Wednesday - Homeschool Humor

Chattanooga's Discovery Museum

Last week after the kids and I finished our tour of the Chattanooga Aquarium, we decided to finish the day out at the Discovery Museum. It worked for me to finish a long day in Chattanooga and make the drive worth the time. I "lost" my two here for around an hour playing with the water. This area has a climbing structure as well for the kids (5 and under need someone older with them). The kids went up a couple of times, but came back to the water table each time.

They had an area to explore music and instruments. The girls got the giggles while here.

This was the archaeological (or dinosaur) area. My kids decided the sand was soft like silk and wanted to either a)bring it home with them or b)swim in it. You can guess which they did.

This was the rooftop area. The "swing" is a pulley system. You "race" to the top to ring the bell by pulling yourself up the rope.

There was an art area, a 'medical' area and an 'inventions' area. We couldn't get to the tower (under construction) or the changing exhibit area (also under construction). We did, though, spend around 2 hours here. The kids probably would have stayed longer except that a)the museum was closing not long after we left and b)I didn't want to wait too late before heading home.

All in all, the day was an excellent adventure. Thanks to GCA for doing a trip to the Aquarium, giving us the excuse to explore elsewhere too.

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Honor your Veterans

Today is Veteran's Day. Whether we realize it or not, we have what we have because our veterans put themselves on the line. I personally have multiple people in my family who have served in one fashion or another. My grandfather was military. My father served in the Civil Air Patrol, my uncle in the military. My sister is military, my brother-in-law is retired. So, when it comes to supporting our military, I'm a little biased.

A little history about this day. It started as Armistice Day, a cease fire between the German army and the Allies. It marked the beginning of the end of World War I. After World War II and the Korean war, the 83rd Congress scratched out the word "Armistice" and changed it to "Veteran's" to honor all those who served. You can read more on the history of this day from the Dept. of Veteran Affairs web site.

If you'd like to help out, you can make a donation (see the right hand column) to donate to Operation Gratitude. They send cards and packages to our troops. If you want a more hands-on approach, contact Adopt a US Soldier. I've been using the 2nd to be able to send packages o soldiers currently serving. It's a wonderful feeling when they get the chance to send a note back letting you know how appreciated it is.

GCA Field Trip - Chattanooga Aquarium

This past Monday, GCA set up a field trip to the Chattanooga Aquarium. It was an opportunity too good to miss, so I packed the kids up and made the 2 hour trip. The littlest one in our group is a penguin fan (my guys love 'em too) and was very excited to see these guys.

These are all fresh water rays. Love the colors on them.

We easily spent an hour in each of the buildings out there. I probably didn't take as many pictures as I should have. The ones that we did take, I had to be selective of as most came out blurry or dark. So, I picked the 3 "best" of the rest and present them to you here.

The kids had a blast. We divided it up by doing the first building, stopping for lunch at the Mellow Mushroom and then moving on to the second building. From there we had ice cream at Ben & Jerrys and then went out to the Discovery Museum. I'll show you the pictures from that part another time.

It did make for a great all-day outing, though. The kids were happy but tired when we got home.

PSA - FurKids

My daughter and I visited the kitties Sunday. We were inundated with kitties whenever we sat long enough for them to visit.

This is Mango (on my legs) and Tangerine (on my lap). They were sweet girls willing to share and purr. They were very disappointed when I stood up.

This is Peter, a very sweet boy.

Peter and his 'crew'. Diddy Kong is on the left with my shoelace, Donkey Kong on the right.

Jack Frost - a big boy with lots of love to give

Sassafras could easily be a Sassy. A sweet little girl that batted at my when I stopped paying attention to her. She wanted me focused on her.

Last, but certainly not least, was Gooseberry. She wasn't sure of us at first, but she happily settled nearby to be visited with. She's an oversize bundle of love.

There were lots of others that were total sweet hearts. BamBam adored my daughter. Betty Boop followed us around the room while we 'visited' the other cats. FurKids is a wonderful group to find a cat from, they're definitely worth checking out if you're looking for a friend.

Special Elections Day

Do you know who or what you're voting for? If you haven't had the time to research it, an easy place to start is here: http://sos.georgia.gov/MVP/. It will give you a sample ballot that is available today. It also has the links to information about candidates (if there are any) in your area. I highly recommend actually READING the ballot first, before voting.

In my area (Gwinnett) we're looking at extending the E-SPLOST (Education SPLOST). I'm not in a city area, so I have no candidates to vote for.

I can say that I was recently redistricted in regards to the House seat. We have an elected official that lives a few doors down on the opposite side of the road. Amazingly enough, until recently we weren't in his district. When we moved here and he first ran, we were. Then the state redisctricted him OUT of his district. They put him back in, but ran the line down the middle of our street.

Halloween Photo Contest

For Halloween last week, I thought it was funny that I'd turned a warm-up suit from the 80's (I got it just before I went to Tech) into the body of the scare crow. I took a foam buzz head I found at a yard sale into the head. By sheer chance, I'd found a ceramic pumpkin at Hobby Lobby that had GT on it as well. So I put them on my porch.

I like to be linked in to what's going on in the area and have connected to various resources on facebook. One of the resources I'm linked in to is the Gwinnett Citizen newspaper. On a lark, I put a picture of my Buzz-crow in the Gwinnett Citizen Halloween photo contest. There were pictures of cute kids, cute pets, etc, so I didn't think much about my chances. Imagine my surprise when I find out that I won!

They'd already gone to press for November when the contest winners were announced, so the pictures will appear in the December issue. How cool is that? Thanks to the Gwinnett Citizen and congrats to the other winners too.

Mommy Meltdowns

Yesterday was NOT a good day. I started off well enough. I got me started (shower, feed animals, feed me..), then I got the kids going. I goofed off in the office until time for school to start. I probably had an inkling that things wouldn't go well when none of the kids wanted to get anything done. This, unfortunately, isn't unusual, so I continued blithely on until the first snag.

The 4yo was imitating her sister. Now, don't get me wrong, I think the world of her sister. She's my daughter's best friend. I'm not, however, totally blind to her faults. One of which is disappearing into her own world while sitting next to you. Yesterday was little sister's turn. She "finished" her work, but some of it wasn't actually complete. She just kinda scribbled then hid the work in the stack so I wouldn't see it. Normally I'd catch it a bit later, but I hit snag number two.

My daughter isn't strong in math. That's ok, we can still get by. I've been happy this past week that I haven't had an overwhelming work load to compete with the time she's needed me to help her out with her school work. Yesterday, though, she realized that she needs more time (A LOT more time) than she's willing to spend to get some of it done. Her weakness is her multiplication tables (followed by division). This has been an issue since 3rd grade. I *thought* we'd worked through most of it, but apparently I was wrong. So, she gets frustrated, which gets me frustrated, which feeds back to her, etc etc. After a while I send her with the youngest to go get lunch and to take a break. It gives me time to sit and see if I can figure out an alternative course.

Fortunately for us, yesterday was also parent/teacher conference day. After talking with the substitute (our teacher is out for maternity leave), we're putting all online math classes on hold for a week. We're going to focus specifically on what my daughter needs help with (confidence). To coordinate with that, I found what seems to be a great help site. I signed us up for a 14-day free trial. I'll let you know how that goes later.

At the same time, she was apparently selected by k12 to be part of a research project. It's some sort of math game that may very well help her out as well. I'll stick with the one I found for today. Next week, we'll take time on both of them to see which we prefer. At the end of the week, I'll see which one actually works.

So, I have a temporary patch for part of my troubles for the day. These weren't the only snags we hit, these were just the big ones. After the 4yo went home, I had a talk with both of mine about other issues that had cropped up during the day. So, I don't think any of us are particularly happy with how the day progressed (or at least how it ended). In the meantime, we have the weekend ahead of us to sit back and calm down before we jump in again head first on Monday.

Boo at the Zoo

I took my kids out to "Boo at the Zoo" on Sunday. It was a VERY busy day, but a very nice day to go. It was fun getting to see all the little kids in costume doing the activities and getting candy.

As we walked in, the tree was playing music and dancing.

Lots of young flamingos.

It's a rare sight for us to find the red panda out and awake.

This was a beautiful tortoise from Mexico. I loved the colors.

The Komodo was watching the crowds as much as the crowds watched him.

The staff put out Halloween stuff in the gorilla enclosures. It was fun watching the males discover the pumpkins and the 'scarecrows' they'd put out.

Another rare occasion for us was to see the Bongo out and close to the viewing area.

A very colorful snake, very poisonous but colorful.

One of the staff had this python out for close viewing.

An interesting snake to view.

My main reason for going to the Zoo was to see the two tiger cubs. We hadn't been to see them as yet, so the Halloween festivities were a good reason to go. The cubs were 'fighting' over a pumpkin (and generally being very playful).