Some more thoughts

When my brother told me that friends of his had read my "Day in the Life" post and became convinced they could not homeschool, I was amazed! Didn't you all notice I don't get up until after 8:00?! We only do formal schooling for at most 3 hours, from 9:30-12:30 except for Wednesday, where we do history in the afternoon?! I thought people would be ready to turn us in because our schedule was too light! LOL! The problem with writing down your schedule is that is everything sounds too neat and tidy--like everything just runs like clockwork. Well, sometimes that is true, but often it isn't! and the addition of each baby and each child who is ready to start formal schooling really plays havoc with whatever schedule I may have had. That's why I felt like I had to start homeschooling when Nathan was in kindergarten--so I could ease into it all. Believe me, there is nothing intimidating about teaching kindergarten to your own child! There are a zillion workbooks out there, even at Sams and WalMart! As I got more into homeschooling, I did more research and found different curricula I used, as well as different homeschooling styles. It was all gradual though.

Nathan is in third grade, so think back to your third grade class. You probably went to school form 8:00-2:30 or so. Your teacher would spend a long time going over various concepts a bunch of different ways in hopes of getting the slowest kid to understand while you were bored silly. You read little snippets of stories for "literature" and "reading comprehension". You were assigned several book reports of differing styles, ensuring that reading would also be "work". You did a lot of worksheets and busywork, and then you still had homework to do when you got hime. You were happy to not be learning, since it was so boring.

Well, in a nutshell, that's what I hope not to achieve with our homeschooling. I think that one of the most important things I could teach is how to learn and enjoy learning. Along with that goes a love of reading . Schools mainly focus on passing along information, especially if they must teach to tests. I can go deeper and help my children want to learn stuff on their own, as well as follow their own interests and move along in sujects as soon as one skill is mastered. I don't have to help 20 people understand a concept--just one! That's MUCH easier! I can surround my kids with great books so that reading is something they choose to do for fun--and why not?! The books are interesting and exciting, and you learn all sorts of cool stuff!

Really, every parent should be a "homeschooler", even if you contract out the academics. You have to be the one to model a love of learning, to encourage your kids to follow up on their own interests by taking special "field trips" with them, getting books out of the library that they find interesting, and so on. A teacher in a classroom simply can't focus all her attention on your child, so that part is up to you.

And if you are a Christian parent, God has called you to "homeschool" your child's character. (Deut. 6:6-8) He will be holding YOU responsible--not your child's school teacher--for the character development of your child. That requires you to search out teachable moments and stories that illustrate the Godly principles you are trying to impart. You must know your child and spend time with him to see what areas he is weak in, so you know what God wants you to be focusing on.

So in conclusion (finally!), instead of thinking that you could never homeschool, start thinking about how you already are or will be. And be open to the possibility that God may at some point call you to homeschool the academics too. That shouldn't scare you though--God ALWAYS provides the strength and ability to do the things to which He has called you. He is faithful! I am a testament to that! In some future post, I'll tell about how I knew that I would never homeschool (LOL!), as well as some of our shortcomings here, so you know I am definitely not up on some pedestal as "super mom" or anything. But for now, this post is long enough . . .

"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or
imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory
in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and
ever! Amen!"

Ephesians 3:20-21

Queen of the Realm, Mistress of the Mailbox

So I went out this afternoon to check the mail. I was also talking to Bob on my cell, but we hung up as I got out there. As I was getting the mail, a neighbor I haven't met yet came up our street walking her 2 labs. She waved and came over to talk.

Neighbor: "Hi, I'm Jean, and you must be a queen or princess or something."

Yes, I was wearing a little plastic tiara left over from our medieval party. Caleb likes to put it on me, reminding me that I am the queen, and He is King Arthur. It's so light that I frequently completely forget it is there, until I catch a glance at myself in the bathroom mirror. I didn't go potty before checking the mail however, so I feel like a complete dork.

Me: "Ha, ha, yes, my son likes me to wear this, ha, ha . . ."

Jean turns out to be quite talkative, so we chat for a few minutes. She brings up that she walks with another neighbor, Tracy, who I do know, and Tracy has told her that I homeschool. She asks, "How is that working out for you?" in a serious, concerned voice. I tell her that things are just fine, we're really enjoying it, blah, blah. She tells me that her step-daughter was homeschooled all the way through high school, and the only thing she (Jean) really worried about was the socialization issue. I didn't really say anything about that, but it certainly isn't my big concern. Anyhow, she went on to reassure me that the girl WAS able to get into college, although she had wanted to go to Virginia Tech, in their architecture program, but she only got accepted into Penn State's program. But she kept saying that she wasn't saying that to discourage me! LOL! I told her we hadn't thought that far ahead yet.

After she left, I realized that she will probably go tell Tracy that I certainly am one of those stereotypical nutty homeschoolers, one who goes around thinking she's the queen! Maybe she was worried about MY socialization! LOL!

In other mail-related news, we got the waiver letter today. And in it, they have picked my doctor for me and sent a letter to him. How nice. No, it was not who I picked. Grrr. So now we will have to call Tricare on Monday (after calling my choice of doctor to make sure she is still accepting Tricare patients and has room for me) to see if they will change. Then Tricare will have to send out more letters. I'm just so tired of this hassle!!! How utterly bureaucratic. How utterly frustrating that they would just assign me a civilian doctor too! I should definitely not be surprised, but I am tired of it. I will wave my royal scepter and send them all away. . .

A Day in the Life of . . . Us

Yesterday someone on the Well-Trained Mind boards asked if anyone had posted a typical day lately. I haven't for awhile, but I always enjoy reading about others' days. When I first started homeschooling, some books I really enjoyed reading were Homeschooling: A Patchwork of Days, and Homeschool Open House both by Nancy Lande. In both books, she has interviews with lots of families, and each family keeps a diary during a normal day. It was so interesting to see how many variations there are for homeschooling, and it gave me a lot of confidence. So I decided to log today and then blog about it. Just for the record, Nathan is 8, Luke is 6, Caleb is almost 4, Jonathan is 2, and I'm 14 weeks pregnant. Here's our day:

8:15 Jonathan wakes up. I get up and get him up and dressed. I put him in Nathan and Luke's room where they are reading. He climbs in bed with Luke, who is reading a book on spiders. Nathan is reading D'Aulaire's Greek Myths, which I just bought used yesterday from a lady at co-op. Nathan is thrilled because we used to get it out of the library in Ohio, but they don't have it at this library. I get in the shower.

8:45 Luke and Jonathan are eating breakfast. I go out to get the paper and discover that it is not there. Hmm, this is a bad omen. I love the Washington Times! Maybe Bob took it. I go back in and eat.

9:00 Nathan finally comes down to eat, and Luke goes up to dress. I check email.

9:30 I call the paper to complain, then get Caleb up, dressed, and eating.

9:35 We start school. First I read a chapter in The Child's Story Bible (Vos), then we read a chapter in Wisdom and the Millers. Then we locate and read about the next country in Operation World. Today our country is Finland. We pray for Finland, for our country, and for our day. While we are doing all this, Jonathan looks at some books on his own for awhile, but then he and Caleb start wrestling, causing no end of distractions. I banish them to the playroom, which is really our formal living room. Since we have no formal furniture, it houses an impressive collection of Little People, Duplos, dress-up stuff, and other miscellaneous toys.

10:00 We start our regular subjects on the couch together, and the order depends on what strikes my fancy. Today we start with spelling by reviewing orally the words. This year both Nathan and Luke are doing Bob Jones Spelling 2, since Nathan is a weak speller, and Luke is a stronger one. Hey, another subject to combine! It's worked well for us. While Nathan does a spelling page, I do First Language Lessons with Luke. Then he does spelling while I do Rod and Staff English 3 with Nathan orally, but I assign him some sentences to do later. Then we do Latin all together. We're almost done with Minimus, which was our fun summer break. In a few weeks, we'll start into Latin Christiana 1. The boys have really enjoyed Minimus, although I don't think they are getting all that much grammer out of it. Amazingly, Caleb and Jonathan are still playing happily in the playroom. Do they know that today I am writing this all down? LOL!

10:45 I take a break to deal with a poopy diaper.

10:50 We finish Latin, then do some Mental Math and flashcards.

11:00 We move into our study, where the boys each have a little desk. They do handwriting, Explode the Code, and grammer sentences (Nathan) and copywork (Luke) by themselves. I go over each boy's math lesson with them during this time. Nathan is almost done with Saxon 3, and Luke is halfway through Saxon 2. Caleb and Jonathan want to "do math" too, so I give them some worksheets to do. Caleb likes to trace, practice his numbers, color, etc. Jonathan scribbles diligently (with his left hand, woo-hoo!). I help where needed and also go online to check the WTM message boards and read blogs.

12:15 I start lunch. Today I decide we will have turkey hot dogs in crescent rolls. This is a special treat, so the announcement is greeted with much excitement. Luke has finished his work, so he is playing with Caleb and Jonathan, while Nathan keeps on. Math is what takes Nathan a long time, and it is simply because he dawdles.

12:45 We eat lunch--hot dogs, carrot sticks, and pears. Nathan has a "100 sheet" of math facts to complete still. This is when I usually read the paper, so I am missing that. Instead I use my time wisely and organize my commissary list for tomorrow so that hopefully I won't forget anything and we will be in and out in a resonable amount of time! We listen to Classical 103.5 , our classical music station over lunch. Hmm, they are playing a familiar piece, but none of us can quite place it. I guess a Beethoven symphony. We also have a long conversation about gambling, of all things, specifically betting on horse races, but it leads to discussion of casinos as well.

1:30 We're finished with lunch (finally!). Nathan does his 100 sheet, while I look up the playlist for the radio station--yes, Beethoven's 7th Symphony! I was right!

1:45 We work on making a paragraph out of facts we have collected on box turtles. We saw one in our yard a few weeks ago, so we got some books out of the library to do some research.

2:10 We read Story of the World 2 about Good Queen Bess. We are almost done with this book, and then we'll start volume 3. We don't do a narration or mapwork today, although the boys do answer the review questions. When I last went to the library, I got out some books on her, so the boys were already pretty familiar with her story.

3:00 I put Jonathan down and collapse on the couch for a nap myself. The boys play Parcheesi on the the computer. A year ago, I found a "board games" CD at TJMaxx for $2.00, and it's been a big hit. It has games like chess, checkers, backgammon, Connect 4, Pente, and Dominoes, and it's nice for them to be able to play the computer when they can't find anyone else to compete with!

4:00 I wake up and start thinking about dinner. Jonathan doesn't usually wake up until 5:00, so I have time to play with Caleb, and often I read to the boys too, or they go outside to play. Bob usually gets home around 5:30, we eat dinner, and then after dinner we like to play games as a family or read or just play. Wednesdays are our longest day of school--usually we are done by lunchtime, unless someone hasn't finished their work. Monday afternoons the boys have art class, Tuesdays we have co-op until 12:30 and we don't do any school after we get back. Thursdays after lunch we usually run errands (tomorrow we're going to the commissary), and we try not to plan stuff for Friday afternoon either. We're in a good routine now, but I wonder what will happen when I have the baby, and also next year when I need to do more with Caleb! Also, writing everything seems much "quieter" than our actual day. In reality, there are lots of interruptions as well as some squabbles that break out. There can be whining as well, although today was a good day. Monday, however, was not!

Thanks for visiting us! Tomorrow will be more of the same, I'm sure. I love seeing the boys learn, and even though it can be tiring, I wouldn't change things. I feel very blessed that I am able to spend all this time with the boys, working on their characters as well as developing their minds.

Waiver Update

We still haven't gotten our official approval letter, so Bob called this morning to see what was up. It turns out this is a multi-step process filled with extra people, so we are still a little ways away from actually getting the letter. The first step was to get "Nora" and the lady Colonel to sign off on the request, which they did. Then they send it up to "Betty", who in turn sends it off to Tricare. Betty sent the request off last week, and Tricare has received it on Thursday, the 22nd. Now they have 7-10 business days to send off the official letter, which they have not yet done (Bob talked to them). They may get it out by Friday, or it may be Monday--who knows? Anyhow, we should have the letter by the end of NEXT week, at which point I will be able to call and make my first appointment. By that time I will be almost 16 weeks along, so at this point I am just hoping to be seen before 20 weeks. Whenever I read about people wanting government health care, I just laugh hysterically. They have no idea what they are wishing for!

Not Much to Say Today . . .

. . . but that doesn't stop me from writing! The house is very messy. I don't understand this--it was so clean on Thursday. Sigh. And I am still tired. I keep thinking I will get over that part of pregnancy, but so far no go. We also haven't received our official waiver letter, so I still don't know when I'll actually get to see someone. Bob will call on Monday.

We brought dessert for Bible study on Friday. Nathan made rice krispie treats, and I tried a new recipe from an old Quick Cooking for blueberry kutchen. So we brought 2 9x13 pans of dessert, and both pans were compeltely cleaned out by the time we left! The blueberry kutchen was quite good and very easy--I will have to make that again.

Today the boys had another soccer game. Bob took all the boys while I went to 2 big children's consignment sales that were happening around here. I was specifically looking for some new maternity pants and shorts. In August, on a whim, I bought a pair of khaki maternity shorts from Target that have the new matenrity waistline--the elastic goes under the belly. Oh. my. goodness. They are so comfortable, I would wear them all the time if I could! They are SO much comfortable that the old kind that go over your entire tummy! So now I want to get some jeans, etc. that are like that, so I was hoping these sales would have that. I didn't find anything though. : ( Anything "new" like that was the total wrong size. I am really missing "Once Upon A Child", the consignment store back in Ohio. They have a big selection of used maternity stuff, and I'm sure I would be able to find something there. But I did find a coonskin hat for $1.00 at one of the sales, so the morning wasn't a total loss!

After the boys were done, we went out to Cici's pizza with the L's. We ate a lot (too much) and had a good time. Then Bob and Ed went suit shopping. Bob last bought suits I think the year we got married, so it was high time for a new one! He found a nice charcoal one, which is getting altered and what ever they do before you can take it home. Now he will look like a real professional realtor!

My big accomplishment of the weekend is that I finally made a scrapbook for Jonathan. This has been one of those little things nagging me to pieces: "What if I suddenly die and Jonathan has no scrapbook to remember me by? How will he know I loved him?!" Those crazy pregnancy hormones! Anyhow, I finally got his done, and I am feeling pretty darn proud. Now I need to just do last year's pages for the rest of the boys, as well as scrap the entire time we've been living here in Virginia. So I guess maybe I shouldn't feel so much satisfaction, considering I am still very far behind, LOL! I think it will be my goal to catch up by the time the baby is born, since I know I won't do anything after that happens! Who cares about housework?! Well *sigh* I guess that's not really feasible. I'm off to help with baths!

More Good News

A few weeks ago, I posted an entry about the science fair that I am working on, and how concerned I was that it was going to flop in a big way. Well, this afternoon Katrina, the fair director, called with what she considered bad news. One lady on our committee is moving to Germany suddenly, and another man just said he had to give it up because his job was too busy. "Wow, nothing like clear direction!" was my first thought! She said that she felt like throwing in the towel, and I said I thought it would be a good idea to drop the whole thing for this year because if we weren't getting good community support during the planning stages, then how could we expect to get good support and participation for the actual fair?! She said she felt bad about wasting all this time and effort on it, but I told her that we would REALLY feel bad if we kept going (and there are only about 4 of us left at this point!), and then there only ended up being 10 kids or so! I also said that she shouldn't consider our time wasted--we did a lot of legwork, and maybe in a few years, someone else will come along who has this vision as well. Then we can try again. For me, I just feel so relieved! What a load off my shoulders! So now my February and March are open again--I'm hoping we can take a quick trip back to Ohio mid-February to see Mom and Dad's new house and for me to visit Amy, who I am missing dreadfully. Then I can be free to have a baby anytime in March! Thank you, Lord, for clear direction!

Food Thoughts

The last few posts from my brother have all been about the restaurants he was planning on eating at when he went back to Sacramento to visit. They made me hungry. So now I am going to return the favor and talk about our planned menu for the upcoming week. Today I've been doing a lot of cooking--I browned over 7 pounds of ground beef, putting it in bags in the freezer. I'm also cooking some chicken breasts to cut up. Some of those will go into the chicken enchilada casserole we're having tonight, along with the leftover rice from Monday's tangy pineapple chicken. The rest of the chicken will be put in a freezer bag for a casserole or soup to be named later. I also took out a pork tenderloin to thaw, and we'll probably have my easy teriyaki/mustard glazed pork tenderloin on Saturday with wild rice. I bought a big bag of meatballs awhile back at Sams, so I'm going to put those in the crockpot on Friday with a great, easy sauce that Michele S. had at her open house back in August. The boys all loved her meatballs, so we'll try them here over egg noodles. What is driving my specific menu choices is that I need to defrost my garage freezer before it gets cold, and to do that, I need to make it a lot emptier! So I also see beef barley soup in our future, to use up the chuck roast out there, as well as a beef and broccoli stir-fry for the top round. There's a ham taking up an unwieldy space, so that will certainly be eaten in the next week or so as well.

I also think I need to make some room in our kitchen freezer so I can put some stuff in there while I'm defrosting. Two things that are taking up a lot of room in here are a box of fudgsicles and a box of ice cream sandwiches. Being the sacrificial wife and mother that I am, as well as being one of the few persons in the house that is not either lactose-intolerant or allergic to dairy, it falls upon me to clean those items up. I go willingly--I must do my duty!! I'll try not to complain. : )

A God Thing

Yesterday the boys had their first art lesson, and they had a great time. It's a class with 9 boys and 1 girl, which I think intimidated the teacher a bit at first, but the boys all very pretty focused, and Nathan said he couldn't wait until it was Monday again, so that must mean it was fun! While they were downstairs, some of us moms visited. I was telling Christine about our waiver approval and about how I don't know which civilian OB to pick now. There are only 4 of them in our area that are covered by Tricare (2 in the same practice), but I don't know of anyone who has used any of them, and it's hard to just pick a name off a list without knowing anything about them at all. SO she recommended I talk to Diana A. Diana was in our co-op last year, but her kids have all graduated form there now, and she is back to work as an OB doctor. I thought that was a good idea, but when I got home, I realized that since I don't still have last year's roster, I don't have her phone number or anything. Today is co-op day, so I figured I'd just ask someone there if they had her number. But when I walked in, there she was! She had just come back today because it was her day off, and she wanted to catch up with old friends! Wow! So I had an opportunity to ask her in person what she thought about these doctors. I told her the first man's name, actually the man and woman team, and she said that while he was a great doctor, his personality wasn't really like hers, so she would never choose him for herself. She sort of searched around for a word, then described him as "controlling". LOL, he used to be an Air Force doctor, getting out as a major--I had googled him yesterday and found his bio! So that description didn't totally surprise me! But I was glad to rule him out--it's one thing if that is who you happen to get, but I can't see choosing someone like that deliberately! So I went on down my list. Diana had not heard of the next guy, but when I mentioned the last name, a female, she perked right up! "Our office covers for her and is right next door! She is a great person! And if you go into labor while I'm on call, I could deliver you!" Okay, I'm sold! Thank you Lord for real direction! So now I'm just praying that her office will still be taking Tricare and accepting new patients--we're just waiting to get that letter in hand, and then I'll call!

Getting to Know Me

I've been tagged by my Aunt Claire, otherwise known as Pilotmom .

5 things I plan to do before I die:

1. Visit England and Ireland
2. Learn Latin (I'm well on my way!)
3. Live in a nice commune in Colorado with my parents, Amy and Jason, the L's, Aunt Claire and Uncle Jim, Nana, Dan and Melinda, etc.--oh wait--that's what I want to do AFTER I die, in heaven! LOL!
4. Climb Mt. Everest (Just kidding! That would never be a dream of mine--I don't dream of doing anything dangerous!! But this exercise does highlight a problem of mine, which is to say that I really have no big dreams. I have actually talked to Bob about this, so I have already recognized it. I guess I am pretty content to live in the "here and now", and I don't like to set myself up to be disappointed.)

5 things I can do:

1. Cook
2. Read very quickly
3. Have babies (LOL!)
4. Plan trips
5. Remember where minutiae are in our house, such as assorted shoes, specific lego pieces, game pieces, etc.

5 things I cannot do:

1. Sing
2. Play chess or checkers (much to the disappointment of the boys)
3. Waterski AND downhill ski
4. Eat coconut
5. Vote Democratic (LOL!)

5 things that attract me to the opposite sex: (Bob in this case)

1. His broad shoulders
2. His sense of humor
3. How he got along with my best friend, Amy : )
4. How well we worked together
5. How he made me more out-going and sure of myself

5 things I say most often:

1. BOYS!!!!!!!
2. Stop touching each other!
3. Please sit down and listen! (Said primarily during school time)
4. I love you
5. Yes, 4 boys--we're very blessed. (Said primarily at stores)

5 Celebrity crushes: Well, no celebrity crushes here either, just like my aunt, so I will also do celebrities I would like to meet.

1. President Bush
2. Mrs. Bush
3. Susan Wise Bauer (author of The Well-Trained Mind)
4. Joni Ericson Tada
5. Umm, I'm drawing a blank, at least on current people. I'm not one to read "People" or anything like that and pine to meet celebrities who are full of themselves. I'm sure there are other famous people I would like to meet, but I just can't think of any right now. Maybe I'll update this later, if I think of anyone!

And I never tag anyone, but if anyone would like to do this, please feel free!

Weird Thing That Relaxes Claire #1,255

I've been thinking about things that bring me joy and relax me lately, after reading a discussion about that on the Well-Trained Mind boards. Most of my things involve me being by myself in a quiet place--reading, doing a crossword puzzle, doing a jigsaw puzzle, (taking a nap while pregnant), etc. Last night I thought of another one--arranging books on bookshelves. I LOVE arranging books. I get happy just thinking about it! When we got the 3 new double bookshelves in our study and the one on our family room, I was in heaven! I've been thinking for awhile of moving a shorter bookcase that was in our living room up to the hallways upstairs so there would be a better place for books upstairs than the small bookshelf in the corner of Nathan and Luke's room. So last night Bob and I moved it up, and I got to spend a very happy hour deciding what books to put on it and organizing them on the shelves--ahh, what joy!

One time, back in Colorado when we just had Nathan, I went over and watched the L's 3 children while Elizabeth had Amanda. Wow, it is so weird to think of that because I was watching a total of 4 kids that day, and it seemed like so many, although they were all great and very well-behaved! LOL! Anyway, back to the story--the L's had just moved into their house about a month before, so they had a whole ton of books just stacked up randomly on this really long ledge in their basement that they had not yet gotten around to doing anything with. Since everyone played so well, I was able to organzine the books by categories, stacking and ordering them in nice arrangements. It was so fun!

Bob said I should be a librarian, but that's not really it either--I don't like just simply organizing by alphabetical order by the Dewey Decimal system. I like the books to LOOK nice and ordered too. Unfortunately, there is not a market for this kind of skill, so I will not be able to make my fortune with my "hobby"! I guess this means I will have to continue buying books for us so I can just relax by arranging our own books. LOL!

An Answer to Prayer!

Bob called early this morning to say that our waiver request has been approved!! So now we can see someone off-base and close to home! The waiting's not over yet, however--we should receive a letter in about a week giving official approval or something. THEN I can try to find someone. Ahh, what's one more week? It's actually been kind of nice, not worrying about all the first trimester appointments. In military hospitals, they always make pregnant women go to these cheesy first-trimester "pregnancy orientations" where they make you fill out lots of intrusive questionnaires about your parenting styles, marital relationship, food choices, etc. I make a game of it--answer the questions in the most politically correct way possible--sort of like remembering stuff about evolution for a test but not believing it. They also give patronizing information about pregnancy ("Did you know that eating broccoli is another way to get calcium? Make sure you get plenty of rest." etc.) The worst thing is they require you to go no matter how many pregnancies you have had. I guess there is no other way for them to get their nosy paperwork. BUT I missed all that with this pregnancy! Yay!

Caleb's Special Day

Today Nathan and Luke had another soccer game. Caleb slept late (validating my puffer theory because I didn't give him his albuterol last night), so I stayed home with him while Bob took the other boys to the game. I got a lot done today, but I am sure Caleb thinks I am quite boring and will never choose to stay home with me all by himself again! LOL! I did 3 loads of laundry, went through a stack of papers in the study, and in my biggest feat, I went through Jonathan's closets and drawers, organizing his tub of too-small clothes, getting them ready to go down in the basement. Wow, when will the excitement end!! Caleb did fine playing by himself, and he's a lot of fun to have around, chattering away. Nathan and Luke are in a big chess phase right now, so there are chess sets upstairs as well as on the main floor. Caleb played with both sets sort of like I would play with them, since I don't know how to play at all--he had them in patterns, chasing each other, etc. It was cute. He also played our Tonka Joe computer game (a gift many years ago from Uncle Dan to Nathan that is STILL getting much use today!), and he didn't have to let anyone else have a turn! I know he was thrilled about that! Everyone ended up staying to watch Jessica L's game, then they went out to lunch at the Buffalo Wing Factory with the L's, so they ended up being gone a significant period of time. I let him have a few special treats so he will hopefully not be too jealous of Nathan and Luke and all their time with the L's! He had a piece of gum earlier, which is pretty rare, and now for a snack he is having some of those gummy fruit snacks AND 3 Starbursts. Pretty special, I know! LOL! I did ask him if he wanted me to read to him, but he chose to help me go through Jonathan's clothes, for some reason. It must have sounded fun! The boys are on their way home now, and he is pretty excited. He's definitely not used to being by himself without even Jonathan around, so this is probably good for him.

Rough Week

Whew, I'm glad it's Friday! The boys have just all been on edge this week. Literally, it's something in the air! Caleb's asthma is always really bad in September, so I've been having to give him his albuterol "puffer". When he takes this, he is just so emotionally fragile, and he also doesn't sleep as late as he normally does. Nathan also has seasonal allergies, although nothing like Caleb's. Luke has no excuse, I guess, but he has really been fragile too--maybe it's just contagious! There's been a lot of bickering that doesn't usually happen, and Luke actually burst into tears during school on Wednesday when I told him that he was going to have to do a better job writing his spelling words out. To be honest, they looked like those "word verification" things--the letters were all jumbled on top of each other. VERY sloppy, and not like he usually writes, but he cried about it for the rest of the morning. Good grief! And today he did poorly on his spelling test, which is also very unlike him, and which also upset him greatly. Sigh. I felt like I was dealing with an emotional, pregnant woman! LOL! So I really don't know why this week was so hard for him, except maybe that everyone else was just so grumpy that he felt he needed to do something to be included! I'm just glad the week is over, and next week will be a fresh start. I'm thinking we might even do a field trip next week, just for a nice change. I read about the Potomac Overlook Regional Park in the paper a little while ago, and it looks like a very interesting place. It looks like it has a nice nature center with some rescued birds of prey, lots of taxidermy exhibits, and even a glass-sided bee hive so you can see what goes on inside a hive. Since the weather has been so beautiful, we should definitely take advantage of it!

As an update to our prenatal saga, Bob just called. We went out to lunch today with him and another co-worker to celebrate their passing of the fitness run (praise the Lord again!). Of course, we went to an all-you-can-eat pizza place, so maybe that was a wash, LOL! But while he was gone, Tricare (the office that determines the waivers) called and left a message. The message didn't actually say anything, just to call back, so he did. Well, the lady who called had just left, and no one else was willing to find the paper saying whether or not the waiver was denied. So we don't know anything more now, but hopefully we should know something on Monday. I should just be thankful the lady didn't leave a nasty rejection message on Bob's machine!

And this last note is for Dy--I just saw your comment about the Trailblazer books. It's probably too late for you now, but I wanted to tell you that Nathan really loves them. They are exciting and interesting, and he is certainly learning about great Christians who don't really get a lot of press nowadays! His favorite was something about a Drummer Boy--I can't remember the exact title--but the Christian character was Florence Nightengale. The reason he liked it so much though was because it takes place during the Crimean War and so involves a lot of battle scenes. He's also read about John Bunyan, the Judsons, John Wesley, and Samuel Morris. If I ever found any of these books used, I would snatch them up!

Curly Girl

Last night we went out to eat at the lone Star Steakhouse again. They keep sending us coupons, and it's free for all the boys on Tuesdays--we can't lose! We all ate for $15.38 last night (not including tip, of course), which I think is pretty darn good. ANyhow, after we were done, I didn't really want to go home yet, so we moseyed across the street to Borders. I have been trying to get this certain book out of our library for the last several weeks, but it is never in. Our library has the absolutely weirdest systerm--you can only check books out for 2 weeks, and you can only renew them once. BUT--there are no late fees, and so basically you can keep books out as long as you want, as long as you don't need to get anything new. You have to turn in your overdue books before you can check more books out. Sometimes I like the system--hey, no fines! But it makes it hard to plan for books because when you look online and it says that a book is due on say, Sept. 1, well, it could come back in anytime or no time--could be months later! So I've been looking for the book Curly Girl by Lorraine Massey, which has been discussed a lot recently on the Well-Trained Mind boards. Finally last night at Borders I was able to look through the book, and yes, I am very interested! She describes my hair perfectly (she talks about 3 types of girls for non-African-American hair--Corkscrew, Botticelli, and Wavy)--I have Botticelli curls and a bad hair cut right now. She also described accurately how I always feel coming out of haircuts. I always tell they stylist what I want, then they wet it all down, cut it, and it never turns out how I am imagining. My last haircut was very bad. I went in July and told her I was trying to grow the layers out. She proceeded to cut even more layers very short! Oh well. Massey has some very radical ideas for taking care of curly hair, such as no shampoo. Yes. None at all. Just conditioner. That is very hard for me to even contemplate, so I am just cutting down on the amount of shampoo I use. Maybe I will eventually become very brave and do without; we'll see. She also says never (or at least rarely) use a hairdryer, and then always with a diffuser, which I don't own. Today I air-dryed, and I look like I placed a mop over my head--not that attractive. She says it will take 2-3 weeks to see improvements, so I guess I should just keep on. Also, it will get better as my hair grows out, I am sure. I do think I will purchase the book at some point, however. It really is the first thing I have ever seen that gives specific ideas for taking care of curly hair. I am like a lot of the people she quotes in the book--I have never been very comfortable with my hair, it is not tidy-looking or polished on its own, which always bugs me, and I would much rather have straight hair, or at least hair without the wild cowlicks, especially at my bang-line. But maybe under her regimen I could at least learn to like my hair and it would look like nice long curls. And people with nice straight hair that lies where it should after a haircut, don't comment saying you have always wished you had curly hair--no, you don't! It is a real pain and a burden! That is another reason why I am glad I have all boys--no curls to deal with, and since I keep their hair so short, I'll never even have to know if they do have curls.

Paradise--Our Clean Garage

Yesterday we cleaned our garage. It has been so hot this summer that we hardly set foot in the garage except to get into the minivan, so it was umm . . . crowded . . . with all the junk we had just kind of tossed around in there. Well, no more! It is as clean as a whistle! In fact, if it weren't for the fact that we have one of the world's largest collections of boys' bikes and other outdoor ride-on type toys, Bob could probably fit his car in there too, even though it really is a SMALL 2 car garage. We were so absolutely spoiled by the enormous 3 car garage we had in Ohio. Sigh. No looking back and painting pictures of Egypt, as the Sarah Groves song goes! : ) Yesterday after we were done, I was sitting in our newly clean and organized garage, and I realized that I would rather sit out there than be inside, where it is definitely NOT clean and organized! Maybe I can just move my rocking chair out there.

In other news, today the boys start AWANA again. We have gone back and forth about this. Our church is too small, so they don't offer programs like that. Last year we did AWANA at the church where the L's go and where we have our homeschool co-op. It was just fine, but they have a small facility for the numbers of people attending, so they have a few odd things. First, only 4 year olds can be Cubbies, so Caleb would have had to wait another year to start. Second, only Cubbies and Sparks are at the same time --the Truth-in-Training group (where Nathan is this year) is later on Sunday afternoons, so that would really take up our entire Sunday together time. Luke would be gone 4:00-6:00, and then Nathan would be gone 6:00-8:00! That just sounds crazy and stressful. So we decided (this afternoon, about 1 hour before it started, LOL!) to try AWANA at Christian Fellowship Church in Ashburn. This is where the boys are doing their Upwards soccer program, so we're hoping they see some familiar faces. Our friends the P's who are also in our OCF Bible study and go to our church send their girls there for AWANA, so there will at least be 2 familiar faces! Luke was not real excited about trying something different, so we'll see how it goes. Nathan thought we should try it so Caleb could go--what a sweet big brother! I was ready to just not do it at all this year, but the boys do really enjoy it, and I'm not very disciplined otherwise about having them memorize Bible verses, so it does fill an important place for us.

In Freedom's Cause

Nathan and I have been reading In Freedom's Cause by G.A. Henty, which is the story of Scotland's struggle for independence from England. We started it as a read-aloud, but then Nathan wanted to continue on, so he just kept on reading. He kept telling me how exciting it was (in great detail, following me around the house to ddescribe various battles and close calls), which convinced me to finish it, so I am working towards that now. I told Nathan that this was really personal stuff, since we have Scottish ancestors on my mom's side. Imagine my horror when we read that Sir William Wallace was betrayed into the hands of the English by a Sir John Menteith! "Several Scotchmen took part in this base act, the principal being Sir John Menteith." I believe that my mom's maiden name is an Americanized adaptation of "Menteith", so this villian could very well be a distant relative! Ah well, as Anne of Green Gables might say, it does seem a bit romantic to have such a blackguard away back in the family tree. Speaking of Anne, we have been listening to the Focus on the Family Radio Theatre version of the book in the car and really enjoying it, even the boys. Whenever Anne says she is in the "depths of dispair" or something like that, Luke is always so surprised: "What?! Again?!" LOL! You can tell he has not had very much experience with girls of the sort as Anne is, so this is probably a very good learning experience for all the boys!

Science Fair update

Last night I stayed up late working on a puzzle. Luke started it; it's is one of Pikes Peak and Garden of the Gods. The L's have one, and I love it, so when we were in Colorado this summer, I looked at the Trading Post and was thrilled to find one for us! It's a good-size puzzle, over 500 pieces, but (excuse my bragging) Luke is really kicking tail on it! Obviously he takes after his mother! : ) I stayed up working on the sky because I just find doing puzzles so relaxing. What am I stressed about? Well, the science fair. You may recall that back in January I went to a meeting where I thought I would volunteer to set up tables or something for a homeschool science fair maybe to be held that March. No. There was no science fair (yet), and that was the first planning meeting. There were 4 of us there, and I was the only one who had ever even been to a science fair, much less participated in one, judged one, or had any real experience with one. So I leaped out of my comfort zone and signed on. As we've gone on, it has become obvious that I was really needed, especially when the director Katrina (yes, she's heard all the jokes) decided that we needed to become an International Science and Engineering Fair affiliate member. This was because our county, Loudoun County, will not allow homeschooled or private schooled students to participate in their regional science fair, so those students have no possibility of going on the the State or International level. My preference would have been to just have a year or 2 of being a regular fair, where no one goes on to anything, just to determine interest and get the kinks worked out, but Katrina and the other people felt like we needed to "think big". So we plunged on ahead. Becoming ISEF-affiliated requires a ton of paperwork, there are a literal ton of pickly little rules that everyone must adhere to, and there are lots of committees that must be formed involving school administrators, medical doctors, biomedical scientists, science teachers, etc. to evaluate projects plans and make sure they are not too risky. Well, those people simply have not appeared, although we have looked for them. We are also having trouble with Loudoun County cooperating. All they need to do is specifically state to ISEF that they exclude homeschoolers and private schools, but the lady in charge there is not even answering my emails or calls anymore. Grrr. Also, we need to have 50 high school students, and that is a very large number, especially given that we have no idea what the interest level for this even is (not too high, given the stunning lack of volunteers we have gotten so far). I really doubt we could have that many the first year, and I think it would be so much better if we didn't have to! There are lots of little issues that we need to get worked out, but starting out right away with a big fair makes it unlikely those will get worked out, and likely that more will arise. This is all coming to a head now because we have a deadline of Oct. 1 to submit our affiliation package. I'm scared, frankly, that we will go ahead and affiliate, but then we will totally mess something up (which will be on my head, since I am the one in charge of ISEF stuff and am the only one who knows anything about scince fairs). Then we would be on probation, etc. Plus, we are going to have our fair in early March, so obviously timing just isn't very good for us at all, with me being due the end of March. It's certainly not going to be a good time to have to do all the ISEF related after-fair paperwork that they require within 14 days of your fair. So. Katrina and I need to make some decisions the next few days. And then we will need to sort out how it all plays out for this year. I think it would be a lot easier to scale back, but we'll see. I keep wishing I had never gone to that meeting! I'm going to go work some more on that puzzle. . .

White Sulphur Springs

We had such a wonderful time at White Sulphur Springs this weekend. WSS is the eastern conference center for the Officers' Christian Fellowship, and it is located in the Allegheny mountains near Bedford, PA. WSS is one of my absolute favorite places in the world. We went there while I was growing up, I used to work there on their junior support staff during the summers, and Bob and I continue to go back with our family. It's one of those places that, although some little things change, it always feels like the same familiar place, and I guess that's why military families like it so much. We went because the Wright-Patterson OCF group was having their annual retreat, so it was a great time to visit with my parents and see old friends from W-P. The speaker was Mike Riddle, from Answers In Genesis, and he talked about the great creation/evolution debate. He was a really good speaker, and I know he really challenged some people to consider why the issue of how you believe the world came into being is important. He pointed out how many churches have compromised by saying that God just used evolution, and he discussed the ramifications of that view (such as, if you decide you don't take Genesis literally, then how can you take the rest of the Bible literally? How can you answer a person who says there are many ways to get to God, even though God clearly says in the Bible that Jesus is the only way, because you have just said that there are many ways God could have created the world, even though He clearly said he spoke it into existence in 6 days.) He also inspired those of us who are homeschooling to keep on, given the total control of the educational system by the evolutionists. People are really indoctrinated today in public schools about evolution, since there is never even a question about problems with the theory, or even the statement that it IS just a theory, and there are so many Christian schools out there that also teach theistic evolution. We went away armed with more good resources to add to our growing creation library! There were 2 homeschooled girls who were brought from Ohio by another family, and they had a great program for the kids, even tying it into what the speaker was discussing. It was so nice to have all the kids taken care of. I actually skipped a few morning sessions to take naps, and it was so, so restful. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, so we were able to do lots of outside things. The boys paddled a canoe on the lake, they did the rock-climbing wall, Nathan and Bob went horseback riding, and we took some nice walks. We had a bonfire Friday night, where we sang and made s'mores, and we had a square dance Saturday night , which was great fun. Nathan was my partner (Bob sacrificed and took the little boys back to bed), and he did really well at following all the directions! I am sure when he is old enough to be on staff there, he will have a line of ready partners for the square dances! : ) Nathan is looking forward to participating in "Camp Caleb" next summer, where he would stay for a week and do all these fun things like archery, riding, canoeing, etc. There was another family there with 5 kids, the oldest 2 being boys 9 and 7, so they all got along great. It was just so nice to get away from everything this weekend, and it was very hard to come back in to the "real world". Katrina, Justice Rehnquist's death, high gas prices (up to $3.39 here), homeschooling, laundry, my science fair meeting tonight--bleh. It's hard to not run back! At least we won't be doing any more traveling for a few months anyhow. Surely things will settle back into a groove again, and sometime I again won't be so tired all the time.

Trash Truck Troubles

When we first moved here last summer, we had to get used to a crazy trash schedule. We've never before lived in the "South", so we have never had trash be picked up twice a week. So the actual trash truck came on Mondays and Thursdays, but then the yard waste truck came Wednesdays, and the recycling truck came Fridays. Yes, we had some sort of trash truck here every weekday except Tuesday! And what was worse was that apparently we were the first neighborhood on their routes, so they would roar up and down the streets at 7:00 in the morning. Jonathan developed a fear of the loud noise, so almost every morning, he would wake up, shaking and crying, "Trash truck! Scares me!!" Not a good way to start the day. Imagine my delight when we found out that our neighborhood association was switching to a different trash company! And then they gave us the schedule--trash pickup on Tuesdays and Fridays, and yard waste and recycling were also on Fridays! Hooray! Except that now we must be the LAST neighborhood on their route, and so they come around 4:00 in the afternoon. Yes! Right in the middle of naptime! Sigh. And the funny thing is that trash trucks don't scare Jonathan any other time then when he wakes up suddenly by hearing them. He likes looking at them when we are driving, or watching through the window if they happen to come when he is awake (when they miscalculate, LOL). So I'm hoping he outgrows this little phase. In the meantime, I have decided that we will move him into the back bedroom, opposite Nathan and Luke's, when the new baby comes. Maybe he won't be able to hear the noise in the back of the house!

Back to School (again)

Today we started back to school after taking the month of August off. I am happy to report that I did NOT fall asleep on the couch until after we were completely done with the day's teaching. Math facts and Latin were again a little rusty, but that will come back in a few days. We even had a little interruption of our morning when Nathan happened to glance out of our study window and exclaim, "Hey, there's a turtle in our yard!" He was exactly right, so we all trooped out to study the speciman, who was not all that pleased to see us approach. But he was a good sport, even sticking his head out again and walking more for us. I actually picked him up and moved him when he started to walk too far into the trees--oooh, a brave moment for Mom! We took a picture on the camera and Luke also drew one, so we will be well-armed when we go to the library next and hunt for books on turtle identification. I know it's one of the common ones that we have seen in lakes, but I can't remember the name, and anyhow, it's always great to have another reason to go to the library! Our yard simply isn't a hotspot for turtle life, so I have no idea how this guy ended up here. He disappeared into our tiny stand of trees, but I am assuming he will eventually try to make it down to the creek at the end of our cul-de-sac. And here I was just lamenting our sad lack of science! : )

We have had quite a summer. I sat down with the calender last night and figured out that, if you count next weekend when we will be at White Sulphur Springs for the OCF retreat, we have either been gone or had company at our house for 45 days this summer (starting June 3). I think that's pretty impressive! And I hope to never break that record again, since this summer about killed me. Also, while we were home, we planned and executed a medival feast and, umm, got pregnant. Well! We certainly were busy, weren't we? LOL! I'm looking forward to Fall . . .

A book review

Last night I read a very interesting book called Giving Birth: A Journey into the World of Mothers and Midwives by Catherine Taylor. It was so interesting that I read it all in one sitting, like a novel. The author started researching exactly what contemporary midwives are in America, how thir work settings influence their practice of midwifery, and why America rated pretty low for maternal and infant mortality rates among industrialized nations, even though we spend more per capita on birthing women than any other country. While writing the book, she became pregnant with her second child, so it was also a search for this "perfect' birth experience that she felt she had missed during her first labor (which was with a certified nurse-midwife in a hospital). She shadows several midwives in a hospital setting (in the southwest US), writing about many births, which I always find fascinating. She was surprised to find that although the midwifes seemed to be in charge, in many cases doctors were actually making decisions that the CNMs had to implement. Also, almost all women at this hospital gave birth sitting in a bed with feet out to the side, in stirrups, although they were encouraged to labor in different positions. And most midwifes were not really around much for the labors--just for the actual pushing and delivery. Catherine also visited a birthing center in Taos, NM where she observed more births and found a philosophy a little more to her liking, as far as the midwives really supporting the women and being there, and there being a lot of options for laboring comfort as well as delivery. This center had very low c-section and epidural rates, which the hospital midwives did not. Then she went to some home births, which she decided were the best of all worlds, and she gives a lot of statistics to bolster her case, such as how healthy the babies are, how less-stressed the moms are, etc. Catherine eventually decides this is the way for her, and she has a home birth for her second child. While she is following all these different midwives around, she becomes a doula so she can better assist women at birth, and also actually experience more births. Although the book tries to be pretty even-handed, she is clearly not a big fan of drugs or epidurals. None of the midwives, however, make a big deal of this--they all were very supportive of whatever choices the client made, and like I said, the hospital midwives ended up with a lot of epidurals. She muses about the causes of this--that American women simply are not used to any sort of pain, and will not tolerate it at all, even knowing it has an ending point. Also, that nurses and OBs would rather have thier patients have one so that they don't need to be so involved in the care. Interesting thoughts, but I would love for my sister-in-law to read the book and tell me what she thinks, since she actually IS a labor and delivery nurse! The author never interviewed or shadowed any nurses or OBs, so she was basically just making judgement calls.

Several of the author's points I think depended a lot on personality too. One reason she was dissatisfied with her first birth was that she felt like her midwife wasn't around for it, and she didn't have all the support she needed. I personally have never liked having too many people around me while in labor, so this absolutely was never an issue for me. I like the peace and quiet, and I just read and listen to music. I think it would drive me crazy to have someone hovering around me, offering me "sniffs of peppermint oil" or other things like that to distract me from my contractions! But I can understand that not everyone is as self-focused as I am during labor, and maybe they do need more of that. Also, she really hated it that she didn't have the midwife she saw for her prenatal care deliver her. Well, I have had 4 children now, and I never been delivered by anyone I met before they were peering at me from between my legs! I guess I never expected it or thought it very important who actually caught the baby (good thing, huh!), so I wasn't disappointed. Also, I rarely see the same person for appointments, so it's kind of hard to form any attachments, LOL! Catherine was also bugged when the hospital midwives would take the baby after just 5 minutes on the mother's chest to bath it and clean it up. Well, I don't really like goopy babies, so that was never a problem for me either. Let me deliver the placenta, then bring me back a nice, clean weighed baby! As far as home births go, I would NEVER want to do this--I would never want to deal with all the blood and gunk and dirty laundry! BLEH! Also, the author takes a hilarious set of birthing classes where everyone belly-dances around, then the instructor acts out the story of "the goddess Innanna descending in to the underworld, the tomb and womb of the earth, where she plants seeds of life by giving up her own". LOL! This intructor also makes everyone practice making loud pushing noises by pretending they are mama gorillas. I don't think so! They also have to draw a "landscape of their labor", which is supposed to be a metaphor. Catherine draws a river with rapids that flows through a narrow opening to a wide calm lake. Nice idea, but how exactly does that help? I've made it through 4 completely all-natural labors, and I didn't need any of that weird stuff to help me!

For my first 2 deliveries, in Colorado, I was delivered by certified nurse midwives that I am sure were very similar to the ones she shadowed in the book, although they would not have had all the stresses of dealing with HMOs and the whole managed care system. I was thrilled to not have episiotomies, to not have drugs pushed on me, and to be able to stay in the same room for labor and delivery! It also helped that I stayed home as long as possible before going in. One thing that always bothers me about my births is having to keep the contraction/heart rate monitor on at all times, even though they always said in classes that you could be free to move around. Again, going in late helps with this--you don't feel much like moving anywhere when you are already at least 6 cm dilated! It does make it harder to move into comfortable positions for transition, however, if every time you move, the alarm goes off because the monitor no longer can pick up anything. Grr. Also, I have become trapped in the "only push in a semi-sitting position" way of thinking. When I was in labor with Jonathan, I was laying on my left side when I felt a tremendous urge to push. I told everyone then scrambled to get sitting up while they took off the end of the bed in between contractions! As soon as I sat up, I never had such strong pushing urges again. He was a big baby (9 lb. 6 oz), and it was harder to get him under my pelvis. I think if I had stayed laying down (would they have even let me? No midwives at the big W-P teaching hospital!), I would have pushed in half the time (which was still only about 20 minutes, but that's a lot for #4!).

Well, this was a long review, but it was such an interesting book for anyone who is or ever has given birth, or who just wants to get some perspective on it. I didn't agree with all her conclusions, but the stories were great, and the book made me think. My conclusion was that everyone has such vastly different expectations for birth and ways for coping with pain and childbirth. I'm glad there is no one method forced on women like it used to be, and I am glad that more and more hospitals are becoming less and less invasive and forceful about managing labor, as if it were a disease to cure or something. Thanks for reading this far!!

Library Adventures

This afternoon we all went to the library. Normally, I go by myself, as Bob kindly allows that to be my "Mom's Night Out" activity. Hey, it's cheap and fun! But we needed more books, I did my homework ahead of time by finding likely books in the Story of the World Activity Guide, looking them up on the library's website to make sure they had them, and even writing down the call number on them so I could find them right away, so I felt confident we could be in and out with no real problems. Well, Jonathan was a real pistol. For some reason, I did not put him in the stroller, although I did clearly tell him that he needed to stay right by me and be quiet. Somehow, the message wasn't heard though. He did okay for a few minutes, then he started climbing the shelves. That was quickly stopped, so he and Caleb started playing some kind of giggle game, which got loud pretty quickly. Again, that was stopped. Caleb's big thing is that he just wants to touch Jonathan, all the time, preferably around the neck. Of course Jonathan protests loudly, so I had to tell Caleb not to touch Jonathan AT ALL , not even to try to hold his hand. I felt like a circus clown, juggling library books, sending out piercing glares all around, grabbing little boys' shoulders, chins, etc. as need be, all the while there was a constant chorus of "SHHHHHs" from Nathan and Luke. Poor Luke is so mortified by his loud brothers! We finally made it to the end of the juvenile section, but then Jonathan decided to start running from one end of the aisle to the other. So I had to hold him as well as our big sack of books. Finally all we had left was one book for Bob, so we headed over to the adult non-fiction side. I got it and started marching towards the front, naively thinking that everyone was following behind me like little duckings. Then I heard a "thump" and a piercing cry. Jonathan had made a detour to sit on a chair, which he then somehow pulled over on himself, bloodying his nose, and he was now letting everyone know about, right under a big sign that said, "QUIET AREA". Now I was mortified!! I muffled his face against my shirt, but it didn't really make that big of a difference. I kept shushing him, and finally, an eternity later, he calmed down enough that we could walk out and check out. So now I am back to pledging only to go to the library by myself! Library trips should not contribute to ulcer formations!

Family Pictures

We got to Bob's sister Ann's house at lunchtime. One of Bob's brothers, Paul, was also there with his wife and 2 kids, and they had brought Bob's parents down as well. Rose and her 2 girls were also there, so 4 of the 6 siblings were there! It was crowded! They had all planned to go to waterpark, but it was cloudy and rainy, so we ended up not doing anything, which was very nice. Bob's family is often under the impression that if you're not going somewhere, then fun must not be happening. As a result, they never have time to just sit and visit! 

Rose brought down an album of old pictures that she put together when she was in high school. They were pictures of Bob's parents and their families, but we didn't know who all the people pictured were, because none of the pictures were labeled. Bob's mom came from a family with 13 (?) kids, and Bob's dad's family had 6 kids, so you can imagine that there are a lot of people that we could tell were related but we had no idea who they actually were! While Jonathan napped and the kids played outside, I sat down with Bob's mom and went through the whole book, labeling all the pictures. She really enjoyed talking about her family and reminiscing about the past, and once we were done, everyone else wanted to go through the book too, so she got to talk about old pictures all afternoon! I felt like I really got a better feel for their families, and hopefully since one book is now labeled, that will help us label all the other pictures back at their house in the attic! 

 The afternoon also gave me a whole new empathy for Bob's mom and for some of the choices she has made. She (Ann) met Bob's dad (Frank) when she was a little girl and their houses' back yards were catty-corner to each other. When she would go out to hang out laundry, they would meet and talk. When he was 16, he enlisted in the Navy during World War II. Somehow during the war, he got hit by shrapnel(?) or something. Anyhow, he got a metal plate in his head, he started drinking, and that has been blamed for a myriad of personal problems of his. When he got back, he was different, but Ann decided that he was the only one she would ever love, so she went ahead and married him, even though there was some opposition from his parents. They moved to NY for a few years, and there their first children were born, Frank Jr. and then Marsha about 18 months later. They then moved back to PA, to the small town where they had both grown up, and as Bob's mom told me Tuesday, "That's when all our troubles started." 

 This next part is something that is never talked about, so we (the siblings and in-laws) have sort of pieced together what must have happened. Apparently Frank started drinking a lot more and getting abusive. Bob's mom was pregnant with her third child, and sometime in the winter she fled to a sister's house back in NY because she was afraid for the baby. She left Frank and Marsha there in PA, probably because she knew that both sets of families were there, and how could she provide for the kids in NY while being heavily pregnant? In March, Frank was in a terrible accident (all we know was there was snow involved, and possibly a milk truck, but we do not know if he was drinking or not). Frank Jr. and Marsha were both killed, and Bob's dad spent several months in the hospital. In the photo album, there are pictures of Frank and Marsha with Santa the December before they were killed. Frank is 3, and Marsha is 18 months. They are so cute, and it just really hit home that they were the same ages as Caleb and Jonathan are now. I really can't fathom how Ann survived that and was able to stay married to Frank, but it was not because of strong support from either their church (they are Catholic) or either set of parents. A priest told her that she had to stick with Frank no matter what he did, and I think implied that the kids died because she left. This makes it clear why, although Frank continued to drink and yell and be mean throughout even Bob's childhood (he's the youngest), she never again left. How could you, if you at all thought it was your fault your first children were killed because you had left before? 

 Also, in the album there are pictures of Bob's dad's childhood but none of Ann's. I asked about this and she said it was because after she "lost her kids", her mother gave everything that was hers (pictures, school papers, etc.) that was back at her parents' house to one of her brothers, and she never saw any of it again. Can you believe that? Basically they thought it was her fault too. I can't imagine living under that load of guilt all my life, and since the church also gave no support, it is easy to see why she has no real relationship with the Lord now. Like I said before, this whole situation is never discussed, and we may never know exactly what happened. But it is very easy to see the fruits of it in how both of Bob's parents have lived and have treated their sons- and daughters-in-law. I always wonder how they would be if the accident hadn't happened, but as Aslan says, "No one is ever told what might have been". To wrap things up, Bob's mom gave birth to Bob's now oldest sister Ann in May, still in NY, and then a few months later she came back to PA. They had 5 more children and have been married for hmmm. . . I know I'll get this wrong . . . . over 50 years, for sure, closer to 60. I would imagine 58 years, but they have not been what I would call happy years. There is a lot of bitterness still there, although they coexist and would find it hard to survive without the other. I am so thankful that Bob is committed to not being like his dad, and I am even more thankful that the Lord found him while he was at the Academy, so now he has the power to actually be different.

Beach Trip

Well, as I said in my lsat post, our trip to VA Beach started out pretty inauspiciously. Bob's sister Rose and her 2 girls came down Saturday afternoon for a night on their way down to Ann's house in Richmond. We had a good afternoon with them, but we didn't really figure out how Sunday was going to work before we went to bed. Because of various miscommunications and differing expectations, we ended up going to church (without Rose), but leaving early to get back here to say goodbye to her before she left. We were not at all packed up to leave, so we followed about an hour later, at 1:00. We were supposed to stop at Ann's house, but tensions were pretty high in our vehicle, so we decided just to go straight to the beach. We got to Fort Story at 5:30. We stayed at the Cape Henry Inn, in a cottage, which is the third picture on the main webpage. (There are 3 cottages attached in a row.) Our cottage was very nice--2 bedrooms, bath, full kitchen, and a nice living'dining area--all for $100 a night! It was technically right on the beach, but you couldn't just walk out to the beach from our deck. There was a wide strip of trees, scrubby bushes, etc. (which I know are very heathly for beaches, prevent errosion, etc.!), but that meant we had to hike down a ways to a long boardwalk which then finally took us to the beach. But we had a great view from our cottage, and we got to see lots of big Navy ships go by and also anchor right outside. But I am getting distracted--on with the narrative. So we unpacked and then talked about dinner. We almost decided to order pizza there in the room, but we ended up leaving to seek our mealtime fortunes off post. We had a pull-out map of VA Beach,so we figured we would find tons of restaurants. The main strip is 3 miles away from Ft. Story, so we headed over there, then picked a main road and turned on it, away from the Strip, figuring restaurants would be cheaper and not as crowded there. We drove for a while but didn't see anything, so we turned again, paralleling the Strip, then finally back towards the Strip, then finally back on the Strip itself. There were no recognizable restaurants. We looked in every little strip mall for pizza places, but all we could find were carry-out places. Everyone was so hungary by now, since it was almost 7:00. There were lots of trendy restaurants on the Strip, places I would normally avoid like the plague, but at these we could find no parking. Tensions were again quite high. Finally, at almost 8:00, we ended up eating at McDonalds, which was certainly not the hot, cheesy, pizza I was hoping for. At that point, I was firmly convinced that I hated not only beaches in general, but also any populated area surrounding beaches, as well as greedy developers who only put up condos but no normal restaurants, like Chilis or Applebees. We limped back to the room and put everyone to bed.

Monday dawned sunny and beautiful. We ate breakfast, then packed everything up for our day at the beach. The beach at Ft. Story turned out to be a wonderful place. It was not crowded at all, and only families were there--no perky college girls in teeny tiny bikinis or anything. Jonathan began his first beach visit in the same way that Luke and Caleb did when we used to visit the L's down in Florida--he absolutely hated the sand and wouldn't put his feet on it. He did condescend to sit on a towel an eventually play in it, but there was no way he was going in that water! The other boys started building a sand fort (of course). The water was nice and warm, and so eventually I moved my chair up so my feet were in the water. Finally Joanthan decided he disliked being back alone under the umbrella even more than he disliked the sand, so he managed to walk up to where we were, all of about 4 feet away. Oh, the torture! Then he discovered that the wetter sand, which was firmer and not so hot, was really not that bad at all, so he started playing there. A few waves went over his toes, and then he finally decided that wasn't so bad either, and he even let Bob take him into the water to swim! He ended up loving the beach, a much quicker transformation than either Luke or Caleb at his age! Surprisingly, I loved the beach too. I thought I would read the whole time, but I just enjoyed sitting there, watching the waves and everyone play. I even swam in the ocean! There was no nasty sea slime or jelly fish or anythng else like that to make me grossed out! LOL! I took a nice walk by myself along the beach, and I found several beautiful horseshoe crab shells. The highlight of the beach was definitely seeing dolphins. The website said that this beach has "ten times more dolphins that anywhere else on the East Coast", and I would believe them. We saw tons of dolphins--big pods of about 14 or so, as well as small groups of just 2 or 3, gracefully swimming up and down the beach. Sometimes they even came inside the buoys marking where people could swim, so they really were close! I took some pictures, but I am sure you will not be able to see a single thing, so you will just have to trust me--they were really neat! We went back for lunch around 1:00, then eveyrone rested for a little while. Jonathan, Caleb, and I stayed back, while Nathan, Luke, and Bob went back for a few more hours in the afternoon. It was low tide then, and they even caught a blue crab! They put it back since 1. we don't like crab, and 2. even if we did, there's no way I'm boiling something alive! Bleh! Everyone showered, and we tackled the dinner problem again. Vowing to learn from our mistakes, we searched through a coupon book and found a likely candidate for pizza. Armed with this address, we set out. Ironically, it was just a lot furthur down on the first road we turned on. We just panicked and turned agian too soon! We found tons of places to eat. In fact, when we got to the shopping center where the pizza restaurant was, there was an Old Country Buffet there too. We decided the pizza place looked kind of like a hole in the wall, and there was no one in there, so we ate at the buffet. Hey, you get dessert there! We had a great dinner, more than making up for McDonalds the previous night, and it turned out that Monday is "Flurry night" there. So we all except Caleb enjoyed flurries. Mine was made with chocolate ice cream and Heath bar pieces, and it was absolutely delicious. Bob claims his which had Nestle's Crunch bar with chocolate ice cream and some hot fudge sauce was better, but don't believe him. LOL! They were all good, especially since you could put a lot of whatever additive you picked in, so it wasn't like you got to the bottom and there were no Heath bar pieces left! We finally rolled ourselves out of there, back to the cottage and into bed. The boys were so exhausted, we heard nary a peep from them the whole night. We got up the next morning, and it was a gray, drizzly day. We were so thankful that the Lord gave us beautiful weather for our day at the beach! We packed up and checked out at 11:00. Then we drove off to Bob's sister Ann's house in Richmond, where a lot of his family had gathered. That is for another entry however, since this one is quite long! We are already making plans to go back down to VA Beach, since we didn't do any sightseeing. There are a lot of naval museums that looked so interesting, as well as boat tours to take you around the Norfolk harbor to see all the big Navy ships. The rates really go down at the Cape Henry Inn after Sept. 14, so maybe we'll go after that.

Short History

My Aunt Claire had this open tag yesterday, and I thought I would do it too. I've seen it on a lot of other people's blog, but I don't have any other deep thoughts coming right now, and I am pretty obsessive about remembering things, so . . .

10 years ago I was... in a temporary apartment in Colorado Springs. We moved there right after I graduated from college, and we were waiting for our house to be finished. We moved in in September. Our apartment was SO hot (no A/C of course), and we only had one car, so sometimes Bob would drop me off at my grandma and grandpa's house so I could spend the day at their "day camp"! LOL! It was air-conditioned there!

5 years ago I was... living at the Air Force Academy while Bob was as AOC. I only had 2 boys, and we were waiting to hear where we would be transferred to in about 6 months (ended up being "home" to Ohio!). We worked with a sqadron of basic cadets that summer through the Chapel SPIRE program--we really got close to those cadets, and I htink we had a positive impact in their lives during that very difficult summer for them. I would email their parents after each meeting, and so I also got to be close to their parents too.

1 year ago I was... furiously unpacking boxes and trying to settle in here in VA. We moved here in July, so while the big stuff was put away, there were lots of little things left to unpack and find places for (or finally just ignore and put back down in the basement). I was looking forward to my best friend Amy coming out with her 2 boys to visit us over Labor Day!

Yesterday I... helped the boys clean to get ready for Rose's visit. I also helped Nathan make blueberry oatmeal muffins and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (can you tell we buy oatmeal in bulk at Sam's?). I did very little though; he did most of it. I also took a nap on the couch, and we went to Bible study and stayed really late, which made Jonathan really crabby today!

5 snacks I enjoy are... Peppermint Patties, peanut butter cups, ice cream, Oreos, and Harvest Cheddar Sun Chips.

5 songs I know all the words to... well, pretty much any VeggieTale song, "Don't Fence Me In", "Red River Valley", any song from Third Day's "Offering II" album, ummm, I actually know tons of songs because we listen to stuff in the car. Right now I am stuck on the silly lyrics from Beethoven's Wig I and II , which are set to famous pieces of classical music. The boys love these, and frankly, so do I.

5 thingsI would do with 100 million dollars... pay off a house "somewhere" (still not decided on that dream location; see last post! LOL!), travel on that really nice train with the dome tops through Banff Park up in Canada, give lots of money to pro-life causes, Compassion International, and tons of other organizations we support but that always need so much more, invest (Bob would be crazy with happiness, having that much money to play around with!), and last but not least, I would hire my own personal masseuse to come to my house weekly (every other day maybe?), and then maybe I wouldn't have such shoulder problems!

5 places I would run away to.... Colorado--ahhhh, I like just running there in my mind; back to Ohio to see my family and Amy, on an Alaskan cruise, and to England and Ireland. I would LOVE to visit there,

5 things I would never wear... a bikini or anything that showed my belly, since I am the queen of stretch marks, anything tie-dyed (it's just not me), those pants that are really wide-legged--I look goofy in those; hmm . . . most of the stuff I see advertized for young women today. I'm so glad I have all boys!

5 favorite tv shows... Design on a Dime. That's the only one I watch on any kind of a regular basis. I didn't grow up with TV, and it simply isn't a big temptation for me. Books, on the other hand . . .

5 bad habits... snacking when feeling down, not wanting to get up early (even when not pregnant!), not wanting to try new things, being over-critical, and hogging the computer (the last one was courtesy of Bob, who is ready to get on here!)

5 biggest joys....my relationship with the Lord; my wonderful family, immediate and extended; reading a really good book and getting to talk about it with someone who has also read it; planning something and having it go off with no hitches or things forgotten; and losing weight after pregnancy and being able to fit in clothes again!

5 favorite toys.... my computer? I can't really think of anything here. I need more hobbies, I guess. Books aren't really "toys".

5 people I tag to do this (if they'd like to)...no, I know most everyone else has already done this. I just like talking about myself! LOL! Just kidding!

Country Mouse/ City Mouse

Today Dy, over at Classic Adventures (a blog I read but which isn't listed on my sidebar because, well, I have never updated that since the day I actually "made" it. Maybe I should make time for that sometime!), anyhow, Dy wrote about how their offer on a house and land in Huntsville was finally accepted after a huge long involved story and after many months of househunting.The property sounds wonderful, and that has really gotten me thinking. Here's how she describes it:

As for the property itself, it's much smaller than we thought we would be
willing to buy. But it captured our imaginations. It captured the boys'
imaginations. From the moment we set foot over the creek, the boys took off and
had a fantastic time among the rocks and trees. It was the only property we
looked at that the boys specifically remembered, and cited things they loved
about. Even Zorak's eyes sparkled when he saw the creek, and the trees, and the
fruit trees, and the tree fort, and, and, AND!!! WOW. So, it's our own little
six acres in the boonies. It has the stream, some texture and slope to the land,
some open and some wooded. It has everything you'd need to really make an
adventurous childhood come to life. We're five miles from good hunting, two and
a half miles from a boat launch. It's a two mile trek to a little cafe and a
small market, but we aren't en route to anywhere at all, so the traffic is
nominal down our little country road.

Doesn't it sound great? Bob and I are always debating about what kind of a place we want when we retire. He wants a lot of land in the middle of nowhere, but I am always firmly on the side of staying in a subdivision. My arguments are along the lines of: I like having neighbors, so when we go away for a few days, they can pick up our mail instead of us always having to stop it, I like being able to take walks on sidewalks in a neighborhood, the boys like riding their bikes in the cul-de-sac, who wants to shovel a long driveway of snow (not an issue in Alabama, I know!), I don't WANT to be out in the middle of nowhere, etc. But when I read Dy's descripiton of her land, I thought, wow, the boys would LOVE a place like that. They would probably not even miss riding their bikes. They would be outside ALL of the time! And it's not even like I really socialize all that much with our neighbors. We do chat if we're outside at the same time, but except for Pam in Colorado, I've never had the kind of neighbor where we pop into each other's house and drink coffee together. (Maybe the problem is I don't drink coffee at all! LOL!) So I probably wouldn't miss the social aspect as much as I think I would. Being here in D.C. has given me a new perception of distance. There is Food Lion, which is close, but Sams is about 10 minutes away (and believe me, that IS close!), and the commissary is a good 35 min., if not longer in traffic. At least country roads pretty much always take the same time to travel, since you're not dealing with the vagaries of traffic. Hmmm. Definitely stuff to think about. Actually right now, I'm about ready to sign up for any amount of land any distance away from civilization, if it gets us out of D.C.! I'm fed up with the military medical system (but that's another post), and how far all that stuff is from us. As Bob always says, "We'll see what God has in mind."

Not Much Getting Done Around Here . . .

We've sort of unofficially called a break from school until after we get back from VA Beach and Richmond next week. We've TRIED to do school lately--it just hasn't worked out. We started doing school when we got back from Rose's house. Everything went fine at first--we read our Bible story, prayed for the country from Operation World, and started reviewing Latin. Then I realized I would be ever so much more comfortable lying on my side on the couch. Then I propped my head up on a pillow. Finally I had to tell everyone to go read books, and I promptly fell sound asleep. Yesterday I had the best of intentions, but after I cleared breakfast away and checked email, I discovered everyone quietly absorbed in books, even Jonathan. So I lay down on the couch and took a nap. Is there a pattern here? LOL! Today I didn't even try! Nathan and Luke start Upward soccer tonight, so Nathan wanted to do some jogging and exercising this morning. All the boys ran around the cul-de-sac a bunch of times and did their sit-ups, push-ups, and stretches, then we all came inside and did leg-lifts straight from the Buff Moms-To-Be book that I got out of library. (Disclaimer about the book: it is filled with pictures of extremely pregnant models doing the exercises wearing regular exercise clothes. By that I mean, just jog bra-type tops. The bellies are quite a shock! I don't even like seeing my OWN very pregnant belly in the mirror, much less someone else's, complete with linea nigra down the front!!!! ACK!) Then I rode the exercise bike for 20 minutes. It seems that the only way I can stay awake in the morning is if I am doing some kind of exercising! Meanwhile the boys have been doing other things, like making stuff with clay, painting, doing puzzles, and playing games. Nathan even wrote a letter yesterday, of his own free will and idea! And they're reading a lot. Nathan is into these "Trailblazer" books that I found at the Ashburn library when I was there Monday night for a science fair meeting. They are Christian books, historical fiction, built around the lives of famous Christians. So right now Nathan is reading Traitor in the Tower , which is about a boy who meets John Bunyan. They seem pretty exciting, and I have seen others recommend them on the WTM Board, but I have never seen them before. Luke just finished reading the second book in the My Father's Dragon series. It's called Elmer and the Dragon. This is the first series of books that he has really gotten into. They're older books, but amazingly I never read them when I was little! Well, off to fight the daily battle of "what do we have for lunch". Sandwiches are really not cutting it right now for me, so every lunch is a big struggle. Sigh.

We're in the system

Well, I finally made it into the clinic to take the "official" pregnancy test, and it was indeed positive. If the military deems me pregnant, then you know it must be so! Today we ran all our errands, since Nathan was feeling better. First we went down to the clinic to pick up Caleb's prescription refills and take said pregnancy test. That actually turned out to be a bigger hassle than I thought it would be. Here, you can't just walk into the lab and give a specimen--you have to be referred by a doctor! How ridiculous, since they don't have any OB services here, and it's not like that would count for your first appointment. So they told me to go to the nurses station. We all trooped over there, and she made me a "walk-in" appointment for noon, and told me to check in at the front desk, then come back to the nurses' station. After doing that, I finally was given a cup. We all went over to the lab bathroom, and there I tried to figure out how to give a specimen with all the boys there. I finally just turned them all around facing the wall and told them to give me some privacy! Nothing like peeing into a cup in front of an audience! So then we went back to the nurses' station, where the lady told me to eat lunch, then come back in for my results. I really didn't feel like doing that, so we just went back over to the lab to see when the results would be back. Hey, they were already back! So we went back to the nurses' station, since the lab can't give out results. Of course not! After finding out (surprise!) that it was positive, the lady asked me what I wanted to do about my care, now that I was "in the system". They could refer me to Bethesda (which is closest, at about 45 minutes away with no traffic), or they could send me down to Ft. Belvoir, which is really far, but that is the place you must go through if you want to try to get approval to be seen at an off-base, civilian facility. So we went with option B, and now Bob has to try to get the powers-that-be to release me. Hopefully they will be merciful and not make someone pregnant with her 5th child go 45 minutes away for all her appointments! Not to mention the risk of delivering on the Beltway. After all that was taken care of, we had to wait again so they could give me my prenatal vitamins. Then we went to Wendy's for lunch, then off to Ft. Myer to get gas (only $2.41 there!) and go to the commissary. We left the house at 11:00, and we finally returned at 4:15. Whew. The boys were a huge help unloading, and now we are going out to Lone Star Steakhouse for dinner. We have heard rumors that kids eat free on Tuesday nights, and we have a coupon for Bob and me. Then I am sure I will collapse in bed.

High gas prices? Who cares!

So gas is up to $2.70 a gallon here in D.C. People are talking about ways to save gas, etc. What are we doing about it? We are doubling the amount of big trips we take! We're gone every weekend! That will show them--we LAUGH in the face of high gas prices! LOL! On the downside, though, all this traveling is taking a toll on us. In brief, we had a good time at Rose's, although I must confess that I am not really a "lake water" person. The boys' aqua socks smelled so incredibly nasty when we got home, I could barely get them out of the bag to dry. Bleh. Plus, Luke and I saw a water snake, which didn't make me more eager to go in. I actually dreamed about water snakes last night, so it obviously made a big impression! Rose has tons of fun stuff--it was like a paradise for kids. She had a trampline in the yard, as well as a water trampoline out in the lake with a slide as well. She has a paddle boat, and a sailboat, a swingset, and tons of other yard toys for the boys. They were totally exhausted when we got back late Wednesday, as was I. Then on Saturday we drove to Idlewild, the little amusement park near Bob's parents' house. Since it was the day of Bob's dad's compnay picnic, it was again absolutely jam-packed. I thought it was hot the last time we were there, but I was wrong--it was only warm. Saturday was BOILING. I thought I was going to melt. I could hardly walk around. We went through "Storybook Forest", which at least was somewhat shady, and then we spent the rest of the time in the pool with several thousand close strangers. We drove up and back on Saturday, so that was about 7 hours of driving for about 7 hours of being there. Hmmm. Then on Sunday we drove south of D.C., a little over an hour away, to go to an open house that some good friends were hosting. They moved here in June and had their 3rd baby a week later, so this was a celebration of the baby's baptism, plus just a time for everyone to see their house. Tim and Michele have such wonderful families. Tim is from California, but both of his brothers came, as well as his parents. I hope that our boys are close like that when they grow up. It was obvious that all 3 brothers have fond memories of growing up together, but also have deep relationships as adults, and their families are all close too. All of the sister-in-laws get along really well too. What a great testimony! Michele is from Wisconsin, and all of her family came as well, including cousins. We also got to see some other people that we have been stationed with before, which was a lot of fun. It's always great to catch up with old friends, so we stayed a long time and got back around 5:30. We were so exhausted, so Joanthan and I napped until 7:00. That will throw off an evening! Nathan woke up early this morning feeling sick to his stomach and vomiting, and now he's started with diarhhea. We had planned to go pick up Caleb's prescription refills and then go on to the commissary today, but we obviously are not going to be able to do that. I am really hoping we will be able to do that tomorrow though. Hopefully everyone will be feeling fine by Friday when Rose and her girls get here. They'll be here until Sunday, at which point they will drive down to Bob's sister's house in Richmond, and we will drive down to Virginia Beach for 2 days. Then we will meet up back at Ann's house for 2 more days, since Bob's brother and family, as well as Bob's parents, are going to be there. Then we will be home for a week, until we go to White Sulphur Springs for the Wright-Pat OCF retreat. THEN we should be home for awhile--and I am fully expecting gas prices to drop like a rock then.

It's official . . .

Our alarm system is possessed. We have a nice, nifty alarm system which we have never really used except that it beeps whenever a door or window is opened. This is very handy because I can always tell when one of the boys goes outside. But we have never paid to have it monitored. We were going to, when we first moved in, but the company who had been monitoring it for the people we bought the house from told us that our system was "outdated" and wouldn't work anymore. Since the previous owners had been paying for it, we figured the company was just out to get more money from us, so we said no thanks and thought that was the end of that. Several months ago now, we accidentally pushed the "panic" button, so our alarm went off. We managed to get it turned off, but imagine our surprise when a police officer showed up a few minutes later! We told him it was just an accident, but we were surprised to see him since no one was monitoring our system! He said someone WAS monitoring our system, so the next day we called the company again to say we were not paying for the service and they weren't supposed to be monitoring us. They assured us that it was all taken care of, so again we assumed that was the end. On Sunday night, Bob and I were just sitting around when all of a sudden, out of the clear blue sky, our alarm went off! Bob's first thought was that we were being broken into, although the alarm wouldn't have gone off in that case, since it wasn't armed, but he ran around down in the basement trying to see what was wrong. Finally he came back up and turned the noise off, and we sat back down again, shaken. I got ready to go upstairs, and as I went up, I noticed a fire truck pulling up in front of our house! Oh no! So Bob went out and talked to them, telling them that 1. we have NO idea why our alarm even went off, and 2. WE AREN'T PAYING FOR ANYONE TO MONITOR THE SYSTEM!!! So that was actually our FIRE alarm, as opposed to our burglary alarm, but our smoke detectors never went off, and we checked around but never found anything suspicious. By then we were really shaken, and I didn't sleep well at all that night, especially after we noticed that now a mysterious red light was on on our control panel and on the fire alarm monitor in the upstairs hallway. Monday Bob again called the company and threatened to send any bills we get from the county straight to them, and they again assured us that everything was taken care of. When we got back from Rose's yesterday, the control panel was beeping at us, so it might have gone off again while we were gone, but our door wasn't broken down, so I guess no one responded this time! Then this afternoon, again while I was just sitting on the couch, the alarm went off. I had to call Bob to figure out how to turn it off. Nobody came or called, so that is good, but now the question remains: why is it randomly going off?! It is SO loud and so startling. I am ready to smash the whole thing to pieces, that is for sure. Bob has his own conspiracy theory--the monitoring company is making it go off so we decide that we really DO need them after all! I'm thinking maybe a short or something? Who knows? Who do you even call for things like that? Frustrating!