Knock Knock!

The New Door

(which hasn't been painted yet)

The installation of our Christmas present on the coldest day of the year

My mom's present to herself...new windows and no more
cool breezes in the winter and hot air seeping thru in the summer!
The new door from the inside where the weirdos live

The new door was happier when they left to go see Avatar!

Sadly, I am at home nursing a migraine hangover. I was thinking about going and seeing Avatar showing in a different theatre not the Imax 3D running about 45 min behind the one everyone else was going to, but the migraine nixed that idea. 3D doesn't work for me - I see weird images overlayed and superimposed on each other. Not at all what YOU see!! Nothing jumps out at me or floats in the air. I keep shaking my head and squinting and closing one eye and then closing the other...to no avail. So this weirdo stayed home and looked at the new door.

Which also, did nothing in 3D...just so you know.

Christmas Installation

Today we are getting some Christmas presents installed. New windows for my mom - 4 along her living room wall and 2 in her bedroom. And a new front door for the house. I am excited for the new front door because the old one had cracks in it that you could actually see sunshine through. That can't be good. The new door will be basically the same only it's a 4 panel vs. the 6 panel Colonial. The constant in and out of the workers is letting alot of artic chilled air into the house but that offsets their ciggy smell so it's an even trade, and I have my heater cranking on me anyways. My feet are still frozen though.

Our new door will look funky for a week because my painter guy can't come out until the 4th. It'll all be pretty much the exact same color of super dark forest green because I love it. So almost the same door, almost the same color.... nicer door knob though! I'll take pictures!

I caught Chino trying to sneak into their truck so he is now sequestered with me. You'd think the sawing and smell and stuff would scare a cat away, but no.... Last week my neighbor had people working at her house and he did the same thing. I had to go collect him from the back of their equipment truck and lock him in the house. What a dufus. My mom's cat is hiding in my closet underneath Mike's new Dockers he got for Christmas. Typical, huh?! Not the old ones, not Chino's hiding spot I tried to put her in...but, she's been put in my closet before, so I guess she likes that spot and remembers it. Maybe Chino has some secret dibs on His Hiding Spot!

Christmas Photos

Christmas 2009

Dawn is breaking...

actually, the windows are on the east side of the house and

as you can see, dawn broke a few hours ago.

Mariah races everyone downstairs

She's so fast she's really just a blur

Gib sees chocolate and his new iPod and we

barely catch him on film as he takes off for his stocking

Everyone discovers the loot in their stocking

Mariah is happy with her new Flip video

I'm thinking Taryn can moonlight as a hand model for Apple

Does it get any better than this?!

Chino doesn't think so!

The traditional Christmas puzzle was started

But Mariah and Gib just wanted to open those presents!

"Let's get it started in here!"

The first gifts of Christmas went to Taryn and Indy

We heard it might start getting cold in Macon soon

Too bad the New Year's Eve dance is PJ theme!

Mike opening a classic gift for Dad

(yup...it was a tie! a pretty one too!)

Grammy got a gift certificate to her favorite store - Coldwater Creek

Indy just had to put the new ornament at the top of the tree

Chino just had to try out one of the new boxes

Yup - a perfect fit!

And they went back to their seats

Taryn's Big Present

One second it was wrapped and the next....

It's a bedroom/dorm room lounge chair!

Great for studying and laptop work from the comfort of your bed

Perfect for Taryn!

And now for Gib's big gift!

(oooh, and you can see the easy puzzle too!)

Another kid ripping into the paper faster than the eye can see

These two are so beyond that

And yet.... they play along too!

The presents have been unwrapped and the puzzle people return

Mariah lends a hand and a little extra sticking power if needed

For Kristin so she isn't left hanging!
The big box was this chair.

And that was the end of the camera battery for Christmas Day 2009!

Christmas Update

Another Christmas Update:

We've had a wonderful day so far! We did finally get to all those presents and had a great time unwrapping and watching each other discover what was under the tree this year. Our tradition is to have each person take a turn choosing 2 presents from under the tree for anyone other than themself and those 2 people open their gifts. Then the next person goes, and so on. It's fun to watch each other open presents especially when the number of gifts are limited. Otherwise, Christmas would be over in a few minutes of paper flying chaos. Chino continued to make himself at home in many places as you'll see from the photos when we upload them! It was his year to give the gift of his presence!

We just got done eating the scrumptious Alaskan King Crab (except poor Mariah who hates shellfish - she got chicken soup instead. awwww!). It was so easy to crack open after the stone crab fiasco and soooo delicious! Gib's face was priceless when he cracked open his first leg and had a 5" hunk of pure crab in his hand to show for it. Yum - I love it when that happens! We are so stuffed! Good thing I didn't make any desserts.

Mike and Taryn have been steadily working on the Christmas puzzle. We've got two puzzles this year - the hard one Mike chose AND one my mom and I saw that we thought we MIGHT get a chance at putting a few pieces in (because it will be sooo easy) before Mike and Taryn finish it! They are both 1000 pieces. It will be funny to see the time difference in getting them done. If I don't pocket a few pieces when they're not looking I won't get to contribute at all. Mike and Taryn are making fast progress on the harder one. They are uncanny puzzle do-ers.

Now the Titans game is about to begin and in a little while we will play another round of Killer Bunnies. And finish a puzzle.

We hope everyone had a very merry Christmas!

We Can't Unwrap Presents!

Christmas morning began as usual... we found our stockings filled and Santa delivered exactly what the kids had wished for! A flip video camera for Mariah, new iPods for Gib and Taryn, and a Mall gift certificate for Indie! Mike served us breakfast and we turned our heads to the pile of gifts and found... CHINO!! We are waiting for him to finish his nap before we get to the good stuff. Somewhere in there is Pixie too - she's a little more hidden. Mischievous elves live here - there are 3 bean bags of catnip in the present pile instead of in the kitty stockings this year! While we are waiting for Chino to come out of his stupor and remove his furry self from the front of the present pile, everyone decided to get beautiful since apparently Mariah will now be filming everything. Hmmm, that probably is a good idea. Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Eve

Just in case anyone's Christmas Eve wish was to read an update on the blog..... LOL

Thanksgiving dinner didn't quite cut it for me so we are revisiting the menu in a 2 part deal tonight and tomorrow! Christmas Eve dinner is ribeye steak. The BBQ is messed up so I don't know if we'll get them seared to perfection...bummer, but the weather is cooperating so maybe I can talk Mike into standing around outside and cooking them on the infrared element that is working. For Christmas dinner we are having Alaskan King Crab courtesy of our year end Costco rebate. I expect no whining about the difficulty level of lobster and stone crab claws, as everyone is accomplished with Alaskan Crab. Geez, Thanksgiving was a disaster. I ended up in the kitchen with a meat tenderizer whacking the heck out of the stone crab claws. It was rather scary how deadly I am with that thing. Hint: Alot of aggression can be taken care of with that thing though in case you ever need to release some!

Well, the call to spend some quality family time has been issued... We are looking forward to spending a great afternoon together, going to church with Grammy for the Christmas Eve service, then the wonderful dinner and some fun with Killer Bunnies and presents. We love you all and hope your Christmas is all you hope for!

Where in the world has Ringo been?

Well it looks like we have some catching up to do!

Thanksgiving was great. We had Indy home for a few days and Chrissie's Grandpa Gird came out for a week as well. We had another year of Surf n Turf for our TG meal instead of the traditional turkey.

Gib and I wrapped up the the wreath sale for the boy scouts on the Wednesday before TG. The boys sold 720 of the 850 we ordered. It was a good year, the rest are sold with the Christmas Trees. The Annual Troop 137 christmas tree sale began on the Friday after TG. Gib and I were on the morning radio that Friday morning promoting the tree sales. We were scheduled to work the tree lots from 9-3 on both Friday and Saturday, but Chrissie had to step in for me from 9-12 on Friday because I got called into work. I spent a significant amount time dealing with work on my scheduled time off that week!

The Monday after TG we turned our attention to the special board meeting that was being held to rezone the high school that Gib attends. The proposed change would send Gib and Mariah to a different high school. I was convinced that the deal was already done even though the official vote wasn't until this board meeting. Based on passed experience with the Williamson County School Board, these type of things are done often, and without too much concern for the disruption to the kids.

However, the sheer numbers of parents and children showing coordinated opposition to the proposal this time, I think, took the board members by surprise. The proposal was officially tabled until next year, to allow for a more thorough analysis of the growth issues county wide rather that just a school at a time. This works well for us, because Gib will be a sophmore when the rezoning is done and he will be grandfathered, as the rules currently allow, into his current high school regardless of the zone changes. Also, because Mariah will attend her first year of HS with Gib as a senior, she will be allowed to complete HS at our current HS as well.

Chrissie has been up to her eyeballs in preschool work. She teaches on Wednesdays and TA's the other two days. The teaching part has added a significant amount of prep time for her that she has to do on her own. That and keeping the house running smoothly has been hectic. Needless to say, this has impacted the attention to the blog that she usually keeps up with. She would say that it is my blog so I should be more involved any way - it does say Ringo's World! She is currently investigating the possibility of opening a small business sometime in the near to far future. We are taking a six week seminar on Tuesday nights on how to start a business. It is really an informal discussion with all the participants and moderated by a gentlemen that has his own business.

My birthday has come and gone and was just the way I like it, low key and with the family. We went to see the movie "The Blind Side". Now its down to picking up those last few items to finish off the Christmas lists.

Indy has her last final tomorrow, and Chrissie will be heading down to get her and bring her home. She has a three week break between semesters. It will be fun to have her back home. That reminds me, we were all sitting in the theater waiting for the movie to start on my birthday and I just had to text Indy to let her know that I missed having her there with us all. She has done very well this semester and I am proud of her ability to manage the stress and difficulties that are part of ones freshman year. Next semester will not be any easier. She will have an additional class and research work to do for the project she agreed to be part of. She will do just fine tho. She knows what it takes and is ready to tackle it head on.

Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving...

News of the Week

I'm putting on my shoes and blogging at the same time...that's not news, but it is interesting. I have to hurry and leave for preschool in 7 minutes.

Mike has been on the road for over 4 hours now on his way to pick up Indie at Mercer around noon when she gets out of her last class of the day before Thanksgiving break. They should arrive home in time for dinner. Hmmm, wonder who's night it is to cook? Oh, wait! It's Tuesday, which means it's Fend For Yourself Night so there isn't going to BE any dinner. Maybe I will make an exception and try to scrounge something up.

Great news from Indie this week. She was one of NINE students from the entire university's honors group selected to go on the Mercer On Mission trip to Kenya this summer! I think she was the only Freshman who made it on the team. They will be working really hard - and it was her understanding of this and willingness to do anything except eat "Survivor Bugs" which I heard helped cinch her spot on the team! Check out the details at www.mercer.edu/mom and click on Kenya.

Out of time - whatever else I remember I didn't have time for I'll blog about later!

Strength in Numbers

Fun times at preschool. Ms. Jane is back!! She is our P.E. teacher, for want of a better description, from November through February, one day a week. She comes up with all these wild games and movement to exercise the phlegm right out of those coughing munchkins!! Last week she had just about half of Pre-K hacking their lungs out and then she said time to stop coughing, and guess what?! They did!! Wow, the power of Ms. Jane!! We played alot of freeze tag games today. One version was where the teachers were the only ones who could unfreeze the kids who had been tagged by one of two giant neon green carwash mitt wielding kiddos. We have one little gal who just turned 4 - she is Japanese and English is her 2nd language. She's doing good with it, but speaks rarely. I think we wild Americans sometimes freak her out. Ms. Jane's P.E. class is way outside her comfort zone. She sits there and won't participate unless I hold her hand or carry her. For a little shorty, she has serious heft, lemme tell ya. Wow, she's heavier than you'd think from looking at her. After one back-breaking round of carrying her I decided she'd better run alongside me. Once we tagged a couple kids she got right into it and started giggling. Man is that the cutest - she is sooo yummy! Next thing I knew we snagged another little gal who was intimidated by the "run fast or be run over" momentum of the game. Then another gal hooked up to our chain of little girls. At one point I think I had about 5. Now, imagine trying to stay away from the giant neon green mitt freeze-tagging kids and all the running wild children while not tripping over the wave of tiny little girls holding your hands and maneuvering under and around your legs, in front of you, behind you (at the same time!), pulling you to the left, to the right and the screaming....my gosh, my ears still hurt!! Amazingly, we never did get tagged. I think the taggers were afraid of our chain gang! I decided my strategy was going to be to sacrifice the gals on the end of the chain gang and risk a hernia swooping up my little one and running like crazy while everyone else got frozen if a tagger got too close, but it never came to that! Of course, as long as she was attached to my side, my little friend kept merrily tagging everyone regardless of whether or not we were allowed to do so no matter how many times I told her it wasn't our turn to freeze people, so I had to keep saying, "you're not really frozen! RUN!" Ah, good times.

Then tonight was the protest/get to know your School Board members in the "special session" held at the high school where we could "voice our concerns" and see a map (whoo-freakin'-hoo)before they, in the infamous (and oh, so true) words of a German neighbor uttered, no shouted more like, (no lie) at an HOA meeting (you have to say it in the heavist German accent you have ever heard -hardly understandable) - "dis ees jus an twick...dey have an agenda and dey will scweeeew us!!!" I turned to my neighbor sitting beside me, gave her my blandest look, and I asked, "did he just say...'they will screw us?'" and she replied ever so dryly, "yes, yes he did. Gotta love the Germans." (They were kinda taking over the HOA meeting).

Anyways, tons of people showed up tonight at the special session. Mike, Gib, Mariah & I went. Let's hope our message to the Board swayed enough of them to at least table the discussion and not vote on it the day before the new School Superintendent takes office. Talk about trying to pull a fast one. From all accounts he wants it reviewed further and to have his own input rather than just inheriting the fall out.

Finding Time

I thought I'd grab a moment to provide a blog update to those who still bother to check back once and awhile to see if there's anything new here.

Mariah had a wonderful Veteran's Day choir performance. I will have to upload the Battle Hymn of the Republic and blog it this week. It was very good. The ceremony was also good, but very long. I think the whole thing was about 2 hrs. Oh, my aching back. I hate school bleachers. It was a real tear jerker too. As if the whole spiel about veterans wasn't enough to get me going...and I realized that we have family on all sides who are veterans or who served in the military: my dad, my cousin, Mike's dad Fred, a brother-in-law, his uncle and cousin on the Guth side, my paternal & maternal grandfathers, my great uncles, and a bunch of great-great's in historic battles that forged our Nation. I'm probably forgetting a couple, and I'm not at all familiar with the Coombs history of military service. So I was feeling very nostalgic as the band was playing the songs for the Navy, Air Force, Army and Marines. Then the speaker had his turn. He returned recently from Dubai. While he was overseas for 6 months, his Ididarod husky Maverick, who went with him to visit elderly in retirement homes, sick kids in hospitals, kids in schools, etc., passed away. He had slide show and everything. It was a total "Old Yeller" moment. But in all respects, it was a wonderful Veteran's Day ceremony and I hope next year maybe we might have a Veteran join us....then we can sit in the comfy chairs!

On the heels of the Old Yeller morning, I had a little scare with Chino that night. When I got home from work, he was acting very "off" and I realized he hadn't been himself for a day or so. After watching him for a few minutes, I called the vet. They were closing. So I watched Chino some more and then thought I'd brush him for a bit and see if there were any injuries once I was able to poke around. He yowled and almost bit me. I've never been bit and Chino is the most laid back of any cat I've ever had, so for him to do that I was super concerned. So we headed to the emergency vet. My guess was an injury or kidney stones/crystals like he had about 5 yrs ago which require immediate treatment. They couldn't find anything, but he yowled when they touched him in the hindquarter too, so they thought probable injury. X-rays showed only that he was "backed up" and the vet figured he wasn't going because it hurt too much with the muscle injury. The next day I took Chino to our regular vet. After a thorough check, it was determined there weren't any other problems. After 2 days of giving him a meds - which had the consistency of tree sap and of course it got all over his fur - he still hadn't gone & was in pain so back to the vet we went and he got the L.A. Treatment - colonics. Chino feels sooo much better now. I know many of you didn't want to know this but there are some of you who would know just how scary that was for me. When a cat starts acting "off" it's usually bad news and you can flip a quarter whether or not you come home with him. I'm very thankful this wasn't that day.
Between the vet bills and mega car repairs to get the van into "everyday transportation" shape, we don't feel better at all!!!!

Thanksgiving is right around the corner. As a matter of fact, I just got done cooking my turkey! For Preschool!! It's tradition that the teacher brings in the turkey and parents sign up for the rest of the menu that the Pre-K comes up with. Our class added mac & cheese and chicken nuggets to the turkey as main dishes. Parents will come join us for the feast. We made Indian ponchos today and will make pasta necklaces - one to keep and one to give away to a loved one. Mariah helped dye the pasta for me.

Our Thanksgiving will be the usual Surf & Turf and my grandpa will join us. This year I got Stone Crab Claws and Lobster Claw and ribeye steaks. Yum! We will be celebrating Grandpa's 90th birthday as well. Mike will leave on Tuesday to go get Indie and I think Grandpa arrives on Wednesday. It will be nice to have everyone around.

Indie's been doing great. She was chosen to be on a joint chemistry/psychology research team. As I understand it - and this is very rudimentary - she will create a molecule and then it will be reproduced (this will take about a semester) and in the second phase of the research they will study the effects of the chemical/molecule on the lab rats (another semester) which is the psychology part of the research and I imagine a paper will be written up and perhaps there is a chance Indie might get some research credit!

The big news that has been occupying our thoughts and time is a potential rezoning of Gib's high school. I have been participating in the neighborhood HOA push to organize a sound protest movement and flood the School Board with letters & facts, and logical arguments against their proposal. Whether or not this does any good is a complete 50-50; I've seen this happen many times and usually once its in the works, your chances are minimal. But still, you have to try or you will definitely fail. In the 10 years we've been here, I've seen 14 rezonings in our neighborhoods alone, and we've attended 9 schools. That's basically 3 schools more that we attended than we should have had to, not counting the move that added 3 schools to our tally.

Besides Preschool which is keeping me really busy, and my civic responsibilities, I've also been wrapping up college applications for Taryn. Top 5 colleges are: Missouri Sci & Tech; UAH; Tenn Tech; Colo School of Mines; UTC. Now for the scholarship applications - most are due somewhere between 12/1 and 1/15.

I'm also quite pleased to report that my Fantasy Football team is in 2nd place! So much to be thankful for, eh?! Mike has Poker Night here this Friday night. We'll have to see if he ends up with another win to be thankful for or not. If he does, I think the guys will stop coming here to play!

Blessings Day

The "big" blessings day at preschool went over...well, kinda in big way, depending on how you measure it! Actually, for some it went right over the kiddo's heads, but we start with a tiny mustard seed in preschool and it grows!

Besides the blessing theme, this month we are making something every week out of pumpkin since the kids made yucky faces and ewww noises during stories about pumpkins in October. Last week we made cupcakes. No pumpkin last week as the theme was Halloween and I used candy corn in our creative curriculum and we frosted and decorated our cupcakes at the end of the day with them. But this week we made vanilla pumpkin pudding. The making of it was much better received than the actual tasting of it according to 80% of the class. And, oh my gosh, making something with 10 children all wanting a turn simutaneously stirring, opening, pouring, sniffing, helping, helping, helping!!!! "Wow, that's about all I can say about that...WOW!" Back to the pudding, I personally thought it was delicious. But one little girl summed it up succintly "It's DISGUSTING!!!" I even gave them chocolate sprinkles to help them choke it down, to no avail.

At story time I read "What Mommies/Daddies Do Best". It's a cute story that tells the same story twice, once as what mommy does best, and then you flip the book over and re-read it as what daddy does best. Different illustrations but the story line is the same. Very fun and cute. We brought the discussion around to blessings and being thankful for blessings, how we have lots of different blessings, how our families are all different but similar, just like the book, etc. Then I conducted the interviews to find out what great and small blessings the kiddo's were thankful for, explaining that a big blessing is one that is very important to you and the smaller blessings might be ones that still matter to you but they might be lots of little everyday blessings that you are happy to have in your life. And no matter how you count them, they all add up to the fact that God loves us so much He gives us lots of blessings in just the size you need. Here are the ones that made me smile, minus the repetitive ones (great blessings followed by the small):

We Are Blessed In Ways

Both Great & Small

But We're Thankful For Them ALL!

"A big, big, big, big, BIG house is a blessing!"

"All my little toys"

"My mom and dad"

"I have a cat Tiger"

"Playing Baseball"

"I'm thankful for my dog Boomer"

"My bedtime story at night"

"Our little house"

"I'm thankful that I'm going to get a new pet!"

"I'm thankful that when my dad got hurt shaving on his cheek it got better"

"The trees are a big blessing and my heart diamond at home. The flowers are a medium blessing. The ladybugs are a small blessing"

This one little boy was sooo sweet, I asked 2 or 3 times for an answer I could use for a small blessing but he really wouldn't give me one, finally he said "I don't have one, this is enuf". How sweet is that?!

"Playing with my dad"

Quick!

I have just a couple minutes for a brief update...so I'll talk all about ME. That won't take long!

I'm feeling much better; just slower than usual and not alot of energy. Hopefully it will improve day by day. My first two Wednesdays of teaching went very well. Last week the theme was Predictions and we had a prediction chart about whether or not the kids liked candy corn, did some candy corn math/visual art project and made cupcakes, decorated with...you guessed it! Candy corn!

Tomorrow, my curriculum theme is Blessings: Great & Small going off the theme of the month which is Being Thankful. It's also the 30th day of preschool. So I am taking in 3 different sizes of plastic cups in stacks of 30 each. I need to see which kids can count to 30 anyway, so we will have a comparison/contrasting day of size and volume with the cups. We will build pyramids with them and pour liquids from one to another comparing volume and appearance and finally we will tie it all into blessings and how God gives us many different kinds of blessings that may seems great and some may seem small, but no matter how you stack them, they all add up to the same thing: Heavenly Father loves us (to inifinity and beyond!). I think I will do a blessings poster too because I love kid quotes, and have them identify one Great Blessing in their life and one Small Blessing in their life and write down their quotes side by side. That's always hilarious. I can just see it now. Great: My Mommy, my teddy bear, and my trick or treat candy. Small: My baby sister.

Tonight will be a busy night too. It's the part two of Activity Nights. It's my 3rd in a row planning and I'm ready for a break after this and hope my partner will do the Daddy Daughter Christmas Caroling and Cookie Exchange on her own. We are finishing up an Intro into budgeting and going on a field trip to the grocery store as a quasi-service project to shop for canned food for the Cub Scout food drive. The girls were all given 2 weeks to do odd jobs and earn money for tonight. I really hope everyone comes prepared or it will be a giant flop. I've been emailing reminders, and sent home fridge magnets from the budgeting night so they wouldn't forget. We will divvy up the earnings into equal amounts for each team and when we get to the store, the kids will be assigned an aisle number and they can only buy what is in their budget and only in that aisle. This is an idea I morphed from Kay or Linda - thanks! It's alot of fun. My kids enjoyed it a time or two so I hope it translates OK for the Activity Girls.

Well, I gotta get off to preschool!

The Reports Are In

Mid-terms have come and gone and we're happy to say that all the kids are doing GREAT in college, high school and middle school! Taryn and Mariah both brought home straight A's; Gib has an even split of A's and B's; and Indie is doing very well - not sure what the final gpa is yet. Well done everyone!

I love that Taryn is getting a 97 in her Honors Physics and a 92 in AP Calculus - that will help in her college application process to science & tech universities. She is very strong in English too with a 100 in Creative Writing and a 95 in English Honors, which should make her an attractive well-rounded applicant to any school. Waiting to hear back on the dreaded ACT from last weekend. It would be nice if it went up a bit, but at this point that's just a little more icing on the cake. She's in her #1 choice university and everything else just gives us some options and financial aid strategy.

Gib has high B's in Geometry (which I'm tempted to just say it's an A, but our county calls 90's B's), and English (89) - so both really close to A's. There's time to bring these up, and he should make a serious effort to do so since we've learned that even a Freshmen B can affect the gpa in the college application process. But, Mike and I both gave some grace since he is learning the high school ropes on his own and has all Honors classes. To us, what and how he is learning is more important than the letter grade. Also, he is getting a 100 in Spanish Honors and if you'll remember we had to jump through several hoops just to get him in the class they didn't think he was capable of! Oh, and let's not forget the 100 in Lifetime Wellness (P.E.)!!! His other A is in Biology. Good Job Gib!

Mariah has two 100's! In 6th Grade Reading and in General Music - her first semester elective, which isn't elective at all, but rather assigned. She's got a 97 in Language Arts, and that's before the super long scary essay gets turned in today, which I'm sure she'll get a high score on, even if she did kill off her mother in the first sentence. In math, she is working ahead of the class along with 2 other students at their own pace in an advanced math book. She's getting a 92 there, but since they are learning harder stuff, pretty much teaching themselves, I think this is a well earned A. Sure, she could have a 100 doing what everyone else is 3 chapters behind what she finished 3 weeks ago, but how boring is that?! Mariah is also teaching herself French since 6th graders can't take a Foreign Language, in preparation for 7th grade. She knows someone at school who has been teaching her some words and pronunciation. She has about 20 or so in her repertoire. Haha.

Mike and I are so proud of the kids. It's good to see Indie handling college so well. And Taryn has successfully added a part-time job to her highschool workload and early morning seminary. That is nothing to brush off lightly - it makes for a very long day!! There are so many choices competing for your attention, so many demands for your time. It takes serious organization and time management skills, not to mention maturity to succeed at the levels our kids today must succeed at.

Our parenting style is different from what I sense is the popular trend of the time; helicopter parenting where every aspect of a child's life is accompanied by an adult: Wake up, eat, homework, projects, studying, social life, go to bed, etc. We would rather they learn to be completely responsible at an early age, so we start backing off with the holding of the homework hand as early as 3rd grade unless our help is requested. By the time they hit middle school, they are flying mostly on their own. It takes some adjustment going from elementary to middle and then to high school - but there's satisfaction of knowing that grade is all yours and you know your stuff!!

We hope our wonderful, intelligent children are doing so well in part because we have been instilling personal responsibility at an early age. There is peace of mind knowing that your kids are as well prepared for as smooth a transition to college and independent living as possible, so they will enjoy the fun without the worry of losing scholarships and opportunities due to the fact that they weren't prepared to handle it by themselves.

The Last One!

Whew! I am so glad I just took the last Tamiflu! I feel really good this morning. I didn't even sleep in. Amazing! Of course, I just took the Tamiflu, so that really good feeling might've only lasted 2 1/2 hrs, but maybe the tummy ache won't be quite as bad now that I'm feeling better?!

Speaking of the "The Last One"....Mariah is working on a grisly story for creative writing. The assignment was to write at least 5 pages typed, narrative, descriptive SCARY story. Mariah must be on page 8 or 9 so far and is giddily writing the ending in school today. I don't like the story much. The writing is GREAT, don't get me wrong....I just can't get over the fact that Mariah killed off her MOTHER in the first freaking sentence!!!! And stuffed her body in the trunk of a Volvo!!!! Yeah, yeah, and get this, whilst dying of the swine flu I overhear Mike reading it and remarking, "your mother isn't going to like this much" but I was too sick to even reach for a water bottle that day so I couldn't get up and find out what they were talking about! Do you know how frustrating that is?! Then I finally got to read it a couple days later. Of course Mariah's alter ego in the story is the sole survivor of a murderous ghost and her father and brother skate off scott free! But the mother?! Nooooo.....and the mother didn't even get to be knocked off by the mystery ghost; I bought it by two stupid robbers. Geez. And I don't even let her watch CSI with us! She watches that one with Mark Harmon in it though - what is it NCIS?! I'm telling you right now, if she doesn't come up with some little twist at the end, like it wasn't HER mother's body bumping around with her in the back of that Volvo after all, my sweet child will find her television viewing habits severely curtailed! Kill me off, will you?!?!

Tetanus X3 & More Pain

Well, the next day, Mariah had her check up...ON meds. A much calmer experience I must say. It helped greatly that I was not having a migraine at the time. And then she got the news that her tetanus had to be updated AND she had to get the meningitis vaccine too. She is officially 5' 1/2" tall, and since we are pretty sure she didn't grow 1/2 inch in a matter of days, her comment was that Dad must have made her wait longer than needed to proclaim herself a five footer. Unfair!

What I find really unfair is that I met my mom and Mariah at the doctors office after getting my H1N1 shot. I got to go into the county clinic and get it for free because they were offering it until supplies ran out to daycare/preschool workers and Emergency First Responders. So I was all happy about that. And then the next day I woke up with a headache and sometimes had the kind of cough that makes you say to yourself "no - I don't have time to get sick!". But it didn't seem like a big deal. I thought it might be a reaction to the shot. Out on the playground Ms. Chrissie excused herself from pushing the tire swing because the sun hurt my eyes. That was my first clue that all was not well. I would have never imagined that 3 hrs later I would be in bed with a raging headache, slight fever and constant cough. I dithered about whether or not it could be swine flu and decided in the end just to get answers for the sake of knowing whether or not I had exposed my preschoolers. Turns out I have it. The day after I got the vaccine, I come down with the swine flu. I am now doubly inoculated I guess.

I think Taryn may have it as well. She is lacking the fever and the misery factor goes up and down, but all the symptoms are there. I have to say, that after 2 doses of Tamiflu I am ALOT better. The first 24 hrs were truly horrible. So maybe we got a mild strain of it or are just healthy people. Whatever, I am glad I feel better already. A week of what I felt like yesterday would be a nightmare. Taryn is signed up to take the ACT tomorrow, so we really need to know if she has it or not. At any rate, even if she can take the test, going in sick is never good for bumping up the score. Big bummer.

We are hoping everyone doesn't start dropping like flies. If Mike doesn't get it, it'll be a miracle.

Tetanus Times Two

Indie returned to campus with a miserable case of eczema all over her body. We aren't sure why but suspect somehow a load of bath towels might have accidentally been dried with scented fabric softener. Big Oops. I will make sure that never happens again! So, upon her return, she jumped into the shower to scald her skin because that is the only way to find a small measure of temporary relief until the next day when we hoped I could get her some Lipo cream called in. She had just barely gotten wet when she turned the knob, it came off, and her right thumb got sliced by the exposed metal pipe. 40 minutes later it was still bleeding and quite deep so a couple girlfriends took her to the ER. Before Indie left for college, I googled the nearest ER and Urgent Care clinics to the campus that accepted our insurance, map quested them, printed the directions and gave Indie a medical folder with all her shot records and stuff. I don't know if it helped, but she knew which hospital to go to - it is pretty close to the university. Her last Tetanus was in 2002, so I was pretty sure they would booster it. She was seen quickly and they were going to put in stitches, but Indie asked if it could be glued. They said it could and she said to do what they thought was best and she left with a Tetanus booster and a glued back together thumb. It still hurts ALOT though. Poor Indie!

Today I got in touch with her one of her allergy doctors. A little fancy footwork explaining why a patient they haven't seen in 2 years needs a prescription called in to Macon but it wasn't all that hard - polite and concise won the day; plus, I was ready with the long distance pharmacy phone number. It always helps to be prepared! Both the nurse and her doctor called me back personally to verify and I ended up having him call Indie directly after he gave me 3 choices of cream because no way did I want to make that decision and mess it up!

Then we had an appointment for Taryn's annual ADHD check up and physical with the pediatrician. It was rather amusing to see his reaction to an extra happy and bouncy 17 yr old on Fall Break and NOT on her ADHD meds. Whoooweeeee - and you thought 4 yr olds swing their legs on those tables like crazy?! You ain't seen nothing until you've seen someone who's 5' 2" swinging their legs on that exam table like they're on a swingset! I think I was starting to get a little seasick from it. So, yes! You read that right...Not that I expect anyone to realize it, but Taryn grew 1/2"!! And she weighed in at a perfect 100 lbs!! Taryn has consistently since she was an infant, grown in a perfect arc hitting the percentile range of 5% weight and 15% height (except for the early months up to age 2 or so when she was -% in weight!). The doctor remarked how amazingly perfect her growth arc and percentile range was to stay exactly in the same % for 17 years. No deviations at all - slow and steady in her little petite sort of way. Nevertheless, it was momentous to make the triple digits today!! We think it might have been the belt she was wearing adding a few ounces, but hey, we're taking it! She was uber-excited! The legs kicked even faster after the height & weigh in. Even the mention of having to update HER tetanus shot didn't diminish her joy. She just demanded (loudly I might mention) that she would be rewarded with a Sonic Sundae for her pain and suffering. I thought to myself "so will I, Taryn; so will I". Taryn got her tetanus with the pertussis vaccine and we were off to Sonic.

(I wonder if Indie's tetanus was the one with the pertussis protection or just a regular. I bet it's just the regular. Apparently, there's a return of whooping cough and the older kids didn't get that vaccine combo in their childhood vaccines. )

By then the migraine that had been building was pretty much in full explosion and I was done for the rest of the day. Even though I had taken some meds in the parking lot prior to T's appt, it just wouldn't let go. It's been a strong one. I dosed up on a Clint Cocktail and passed out at 3 pm hoping to get rid of it. I got up at 6 or so to eat a protein bar since I hadn't eaten anything except, oops, a protein bar for brunch and could that be part of the problem?! Yes it could. I also heard we have a warm front to replace all this freezing weather. Unfortunately, I still have the headache pounding away deep inside behind my left eye. It was kinda almost gone until we had to catch a difficult mouse. It took 4 of us. Gib and I both went for it at the same time - me with my preferred trash can, Gib with his square tupperware container. Mike was outfitted with his 32 oz cup and a flashlight. Mariah was on guard by the doors to the office ready to tap dance and scare the mouse back in our direction so we didn't have to tear the office apart to catch it. I am going to have to do something about the cat/mouse situation. This is getting beyond ridiculous.

By the time we caught the stupid critter, the darn migraine was back in force. If it wasn't for the large dose of daily Topamax I take, I can tell this would be the kind that would lay me out for 2 days. As is it, I can function, barely. I found what has to be the last Zomig and hope that Target has my $100 order of meds ready tomorrow morning. Yippee.

Pumpkin Day at Hicklen Farms

So with Indie home for college break we squeezed in a family day, a birthday dinner, and our annual Fall pumpkin fest into one fantastic Saturday. I say fantastic in its usual sort of fantastic way, others may have been heard to utter it in the "other" way. Yeah, it was super freezing cold, but since when do we not brave the frozen tundra for the annual Pumpkin Day with a positive attitude?! It was an experience, that's for sure!

Have to say, I busted out laughing when I stepped out of the car and heard the old man band singing old country music tunes This is me trying to talk Indie into posing next to the band(Ooh, check out Minnie Pearl in the background! Isn't the ambiance great?!)

Indie thinks to make a quick pick and getaway! (Hah)

Checking out the first of many possibilities

Oh, but wait, there's quite a few over here too. And Taryn is saying, "I'm kinda done Mom"

Long-Suffering looks may surround me but I will not be rushed

Mariah's face says it all but I can't figure out why...looks like a nice pumpkin to me?

So this Red Hat Lady lives here. She's the Farmer's Wife. Mike & Indie insist the farmers were keeping warm with some "help". So, I thought she was explaining about the different pumpkin varieties and trying to get me to "adopt" one, but what what she was really doing was apparently an amazing sleight of hand that not even the camera could catch that involved a little swig of the ol' whiskey flask!

Whoa! There's more pumpkins than I thought! Good thing for everybody I know exactly which variety I want or I'd have to look in each and every row!!

Mariah hits the Jack-o-Pot!

Indy has found a winner!

"Don't worry...it won't hurt a bit when I use the big knife on ya"

Meanwhile....Back at the Prizewinner Pumpkin Patch
Chrissie: "Nope, this isn't it either. I'm just not feeling it!"
Mariah & Taryn: "Mom!! We're not feeling our fingers & toes!!"

Gib goes for El Calabaza Grande

Indie, ah Indie....I love your smile!
She has settled in for a sarcastic wait I had no idea this was happening I do remember a rousing Johnny Cash song while I was trying to find a pumpkin - I bet this was during that

Look at the poor freezing kids

"Mike! Quit hassling me!!
My pumpkin is in THIS pile...I KNOW it is! I just haven't found it yet!"

Indy to Gib: "We're gonna die of hypothermia with the sound of redneck singing ringing in our ears for eternity"

Gib: "Look! Mom can have them dance at our funeral too"

OMG 1

Even bigger OMG 2

Taryn: "Gib! Save me! I don't wanna die!"

Gib the human windbreaker wasn't interested in saving anyone other than himself. C'mon Gib! Now that you're taller than ALL of us, you are honor bound to save us first! (at least this year those two didn't end up in the dirt)

The stress is getting to me...or maybe it's the yodeling. I do NOT like being rushed to find my perfect pumpkin. But the kids playing in the weird squash gave me an idea. I went back for the funky pumpkin Taryn's been pushing on me for the past 20 minutes.

Taryn: "Look Mom! It's a NOSE!"

BACK AT HOME:
The kids are thawed out and Indie's in a better mood
See?! (yep, her sweet lil pumpkin didn't feel a thing)

Scooping & Sorting for roasted pumpkin seeds
What a great batch we made this year too!

Taryn enjoyed making faces & sound effects for us. The seeds were soooo cold by the way. Except for my Gentry's Farm pumpkin that was in the house all week. So I kept hitting warm spots in the goo which of course made for a good joke or two. (hey, I can't help it)

Indie is such a pro. We're still scooping and she's free forming it with a knife and everything.

"First one done.....SUCKAS!!!"
Is that not the cutest little guy you've ever seen?!?!

I'm surrounded by kids with knives and I laugh in the face of danger...HAH!

Mariah did her pumpkin all by herself this year for the first time! No adult help...hey, wait how did that happen?! She left the knife in for special effects. Look at the gleam in her eye. You can't see it in this photo, but the pumpkins get to eat the smaller pumpkins. It's becoming tradition.

Mwa-ha-ha

Dental floss anyone?!

The wait is over!
Chrissie's Alien Pumpkin!

I should have taken a profile so you can see the Mohawk better.

Gib's Pumpkin eating one of the babies.
Sick little kids - gotta love 'em.
Pretty sure they get that from Mike's side of the family.


Grammy joined us a little bit later. Here's the pumpkin I picked for her.
See?! I was multi-tasking people!! It's a Cinderella pumpkin.
Ummmm, Grammy didn't go princess on the carving.

More Halloween later - Mariah has her pumpkin to carve (she did my Gentry's and saved hers from today for Halloween) and we haven't lit them up yet. And, of course, after T's Explosives Camp who knows, we just may really light them up this year!! P.S. In case you are wondering Where's Mike?! There is a Where's Waldo picture of Mike in here somewhere. Go find him. He's a bit of a pumpkin patch scrooge, but I have to say he held it in real good this year and put a smile on his face, pulled out the wallet when appropriate and even scooped when Taryn requested some help! Thanks for all the photos too! Great job Mike!!