We're Official!!!!!

I'm all giddy with excitement because I just submitted

our first ever private school affidavit!

This doesn't really mean much, other than we are offically

a homeschool in the state of California.

I was really intimidated by this task and kept putting it off.

(Deadline is October 15)

Official forms and documents always scare me because I have this

irrational fear that if I do it wrong, I'll have a warrant out for my arrest

and I'll never see my family again. Like I don't know how to answer

questions about myself or something.

Thankfully, another homeschooling friend of mine sent me this link

to HSLDA's website that has step-by-step instructions on how to do it!

http://www.hslda.org/hs/state/ca/affidavit/AffidavitInstructions.asp

Super helpful!!!

I started to fill this all out yesterday.

I read question 1 and was immediately stumped.

"Name of School"

ummmmmmmmm I don't know!!!!!!!!!!

Apparently we have to NAME our homeschool.

Nobody prepared me for this. Oh no, what do I do?!

 So I went to Google-land with a mission to find a name for our school.

I found quite a few homeschooling forums where other people listed the name

of their own schools and why they chose it.

It sounds like this would be an easy task....but its not.

Initially I'm like "Oh, I'll just put (Our last name) Homeschool"

No....that's not good enough.

Other people were so creative and thoughtful! I don't want a boring name,

I want to be cool too!

I noticed a lot of people had the word "Academy" in their name.

Ok, I could go that direction.

It literally took me almost 24 hours to come up with a name I think I could live with...

I chose this name because I felt it was unique and it encompasses what I want

our homeschool to be for our family.

The definition of Liberty is "The state of being free within society from oppressive 

 restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views."

Yea, that's one reason we homeschool.

We have the freedom to choose our own curriculum and teach our children the

way we feel is best for them without having to answer to anybody.

 Another reason we homeschool is because I want to encourage my children's

curiosity in learning new things. I don't want them to feel that knowledge is a chore.

I want them to understand that learning is everywhere in our every day life, not just

at a desk in a classroom. That is why I chose the words "Creative Learning" in our name.

We keep it fun, relaxed, interactive and entertaining so they actually enjoy it.

After I picked a name, we decided we needed a mascot.

Introducing, Liberty the Lemur!

 

Kayden and I have talked about it and are going to work on raising money 

to adopt a lemur from WWF!

We had fun with this and now that this process is over we can continue on

with our year as official homeschoolers, woo hoo!

The Shutdown From My POV

I've been married to my husband for almost 8 years and we have gotten

the "no paycheck" threat before. It always got figured out before payday

though and didn't really affect us. I just figured the same thing would

happen this time so I wasn't phased much when I heard about it.

Payday came, and we got paid. I paid the bills. We were good.

But then there was more. Closing the commissary? No more FRO?

Even the possibility of our hospital cutting hours? What is going on!

Surely that won't actually happen. But it did.

Word started to spread that our commissary was going to be open Tuesday,

October 1st, to sell perishables and then it would be closing its doors until

the government figures itself out. I immediately knew that I had to face the
madness at the commissary Tuesday morning if I wanted to feed my family.
I knew it was going to be bad. I had NO idea it was going to be this bad.

Soooo here's the real point of me posting this.
We know a lot of people are suffering in different ways because of this.
Some people are completely without pay and still have to work every day.
Yes, there is always someone worse off than you, but I still think you have the
right to voice your frustrations if it is affecting you. Heck, even if it isn't affecting
you and you are frustrated for those who are. I saw a lot of negativity on Facebook
yesterday about people "freaking out" and "you don't have it that bad." No, maybe
we don't have it as bad as others, but we are hurting too.

I am still bothered by those comments today.
Yes, our commissary closed and I was one of those who stocked up with $400 worth
of groceries in my cart. No, I don't think its the end of the world. But I do find it a lot
more affordable to buy groceries for my family of 5 with commissary prices than shopping
at Staters out in town. So my freezer and fridge is packed with enough food to last us
a while. Even though I saved money by doing this at the comm, I still tipped my bagger $20,
not because I can really afford it, but because I know that we'll continue getting a paycheck
while she is at home waiting for the government to make a decision and because I know
others are more greatly affected than I am.

I guess what I'm getting at is, don't bring more negativity into this situation than there
already is. People are scared and emotional and just trying to take care of their families.
Our government just threw a huge wrench into a lot of people's routine lives and its not
exactly easy. Support each other, listen to each other, help each other, just don't be rude.
Don't argue politics, don't make people feel bad or stupid for feeling the way they do, don't
try to one-up anybody else on how much this shutdown hurts you.
It's unnecessary and not going to help anything.

Oh and read this article, its spot on:
 http://www.militaryspouse.com/articles/shutting-up-while-we-shutdown/

I really hope this is all over with soon!!!!!!!!

A Baby Shower + D's Birthday!

So here's how this began...

Back in the Myspace days I was your average stalker.

I was young and bored and spent a lot of time just 

browsing random people's profiles.

(I know I wasn't the only one!)

I had a friend who had a friend that I found interesting.

Her Myspace page was pretty public so I kept up with her posts without her knowing.

(There is absolutely no way to explain this without sounding like a total creep.)

If it makes you feel better, we were all Marine wives in Oceanside and I felt like

I could be good friends with this girl...even though she didn't know I existed...oh jeez...

Anyway, years went on and people moved over to Facebook and I moved on.

A little over a year ago I get a message on FB from this lady! I was like "omg what

does she know?!" In her message she introduced herself and explained that she was marrying

my husband's best friend and moving to 29 Palms soon. Wait...what?!

Andrew and Jacob grew up together and have been best friends since childhood.

We knew he was getting married, and we knew he was getting stationed in 29,

but he's marrying the same person I used to stalk years ago?!

Obviously she had gotten a divorce from the Marine she was married to back in

the day and this small little world led her to Jake.

I had to confess.

I had to tell her that I already know all about her and her life.

It was awkward and I felt so dumb!

Seriously, what are the chances of this happening!!!!

Jeanette, being the amazing woman that she is, thought it was funny and

made me feel less of a creep by understanding. She thought the whole thing

was pretty crazy too. So, just like I suspected, we became pretty good friends!

They've been here a little over a year and are now expecting a baby boy together!

Jake is currently in Afghanistan so I wanted to do something special for Jeanette.

I had the honor of throwing her a diaper party with our small group of friends

to celebrate the upcoming arrival of their baby Sawyer!

Since it was a diaper party, I tried to use diapers every way I could:

 Diaper Banner

Diaper Cake

Poopy Diaper Game (its chocolate!)

A friend helped with the food and we served a sausage and egg dish, homemade

donuts, watermelon and strawberries, and cookie dough dip with Nilla Wafers.

My cupcakes were Funfetti (of course!) with a homemade buttercream frosting.

I served Martinelli's sparkling juices to fancy it up!

In addition to the poopy diaper game, we played a memory game, a quiz about

the mother-to-be, and then I surprised Jen with some Newlywed game-type questions.

Before the party, I contacted Jake on Facebook and asked him a series of questions

related to parenting. He gave me his answers and we had Jen try to guess his answers.

It was a sweet way to include Daddy who has been missing so much.
 

 Overall our brunchy diaper party was a success and Jen now has a good stash ready for Baby!

~~~~

 My 2nd party that week was for my son.

My little baby boy turned FOUR!!!

Time flies when you're a parent!

Its amazing and scary at the same time.

Only a few more precious years until my babies are on their own.

We had to do a Ninja Turtle theme for our little guy, no question.

Ninja Turtles are back full force and Davin is obsessed.

I stole a few fun ideas from Pinterest.

I ordered a ton of decorations from birthdaydirect.com.

I ordered their Ninja Turtle edible cake image and had the commissary

make us a plain white cake with a "turtle green" border. This worked out great.

 

I also bought the soda bottle wrappers, which I thought were awesome!

 

We served pizza (duhh), Sprite, Squirt, salad and green jello!

We invited our closest friends and family and had a great time visiting with everyone.
And D got lots of cool new things.

I think Bubby really enjoyed his party this year!

Quick Update!

Hello all!

Wow September has turned out to be a lot busier than I was prepared for.

We started school, two of the kids started soccer, Girl Scouts began again, 

I took in a daycare child 5 days a week, and I've had 3 parties to plan!

On top of that, my husband has been in the field the majority of the month!

So, its no surprise I haven't had much time to blog.

I think we're starting to get into a routine though. I might find a

couple minutes here and there to start posting again. I kind of miss you.

Our first year of "official" homeschooling has started off great.

I am so super pleased with the curriculum I picked out for my daughter.

All of the time and research really paid off. She and I are both enjoying it.

We do school work for a max of 2 hrs a day and its perfect.

She is such a smart little cookie and I love being her teacher and watching her learn.

We are staying on track and having fun along the way, which is all I can ask for!

The three parties I've been planning include my son's 4th birthday party, a dear

friend's baby shower, and my sister's baby shower which is this weekend.

I will post about those parties this week with some of the ideas I put into them :)

 I better go make dinner before it gets too late!
I'll see you tomorrow!

Never Forget

I was just beginning 8th grade when 9/11 occured.

I walked into my 1st period Algebra class and saw my teacher, Mrs. Stone,

sitting quietly on her stool watching us come in, with the news on the TV behind her.

We immediately knew something wasn't right.

Mrs. Stone was always bright, cheerful and energetic in the mornings.

Once we were all seated, she slowly started to explain to us what happened to our

country that morning. I didn't understand. I don't think a lot of us did.

We spent the entire class time asking questions, trying to comprehend it.

I remember coming home from school that day, hopping onto my computer and

playing music. I started to read articles online and people's comments and that's

when I started realizing that this was serious.

To this day, the songs "I'm Like a Bird" by Nelly Furtado and "How You Remind Me"

by Nickelback bring me back to that moment.

It took me a few days, and lots of questions, to actually understand what a

"terrorist attack" was and that our country will be forever different.

Even though I didn't get it at first, I will never forget that moment walking

into 1st period and the look on my teacher's face.

Twelve years later, and a world of new friends, I'm interested...where were you?

Please take a moment to watch the following 9/11 tribute video by Gus & Knots.

The drummer in this video is my amazingly talented close friend, Laura.

You can check out her professional drum page here. Enjoy and Never Forget!

My Strange Sleeping Habit

The other day, the hubby and I were having a conversation about

sleeping. He had said something about me snoring really loud the night

before. I got all freaked out because I had no idea that I was a snorer!

I proceeded to ask him a million detalified questions about my snoring.

Do I always snore?

Is it only when I'm really tired or sick?

Do I snore when I lay on my back?

My side?

What exact tone is my snore?

I didn't get much out of him but apparently the "loud snoring" is an

occasional thing for me. Still though, I don't want to be a snorer!

Then he said "You always do this weird clicking noise though."

Um...what?!

I demanded further explanation!

"It almost sounds like you're hitting your teeth but I've listened closer

and you make this sound using your tongue."

I got so scared and immediately came to the conclusion that I'm conversating

with life on another planet during my slumbers.

What the heck?! Who clicks in their sleep??

Has anyone ever heard of this?!?!

Google is our friend, so we looked it up and apparently I'm not the only one.

*phew* That makes me feel less of a freak, but I still couldn't find much information about it!

Something about the suction in the back of your throat and your tongue...

There was a YouTube video titled "Sleep Clicking - Deadlier Than Snoring!"

Wonderful!

I didn't watch it.

Ok so I guess I will ask my doctor or dentist about this at my next appointment

but it is so weird to me that I've had this habit and didn't even know about it.

 I always thought my husbands twitching was funny, my parent's snoring annoying,

my sister's sleep-talking entertaining, but I always pictured myself like this...

Apparently not!!

Does anyone else have any weird sleep habits (that they know of?)

or am I the only one? :(

Spartan Race Gives Back

Huge announcement from the Reebok Spartan Race team!
They have partnered up with GovX to form one of the largest race discount

programs for US Military members and government first responders.

To show their support, they are offering a $30 discount on race registration
for our heroes! To read more about this special offer, click HERE.

Not familiar with the Spartan Race? Take a look at this...


Sooo awesome!

Anyone can sign up for these races!
Register individually, or create a team!


Have you seen these pictures of USMC Cpl Todd Love?

He lost both of his legs and his left arm after stepping on an IED in Afghanistan. He raced a special Spartan Heroes Heat, along with his Team X-T.R.E.M.E, in August 2012.  

  So what do you think? Do you want to get in on this action? Can you push yourself to the limits and conquer things you never thought you could?   The people at Reebok Spartan Race are offering one of my readers a code for free race registration good for any 2013-2014 US Spartan Race!!!   This is your chance! Follow the instructions below to enter. And be sure to spread the word about this heroes discount!

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