School things

Today my sister moved in with us. She is going to be here for 2 months for sure. Maybe longer, depends on how long it takes her to save money and find a place she can afford. She and her husband are seperating, heading for divorce most likely. It is really sad. Anyway, we are all trying to make the best of it. It will be fun for me and the kids to have her here. She is going back to nursing school.

We went to the pool with our homeschool group today. It was great fun. We were there two hours and the kids had a blast. I think we will met there more this summer. It is just to hot to be at the park for any amount of time.

Our preschool coop is coming along. Now if we can just find somewhere to meet. It is going to start in September. I think it will run like the regular school year time. It is going to be a hands on, unschooling type setting where the kids have alot of activities and learning tools available but they learn and participate at their own speed. I think it is going to be just great.

I got tagged..

Ok so I got tagged by my friend Sarah to do a list of seven random thing about me. Hmm.. Lets see, I will try to think of interesting things.

1. I have a tongue ring, various earrings, one tattoo and I want another tattoo. I will get it, just gonna take some time and money.

2. I love to travel. Hoping to make it with the family to Italy this year, and maybe Cancun or somewhere warm next year.

3. I have a degree in Animal Science and twice I worked for corporate pig farms. (That was before my crunchy days. I could never work there now.)

4. I wish I never had to wear shoes, and I don't really care much for shaving. i do shave because my DH prefers it, otherwise I would just be hairy.

5. Every since I was little I always wanted to work with animals. I once tried to care for the following animals: Blind kitten (died), baby calf that couldn't walk (died) and a injured frog (i think it died). So maybe that wasn't my calling after all, or was I trying to fix the hopeless?

6. I love to sing. My kids love to sing. I can bust out some damn good Karoke songs. Word.

7. I love to read. Stephen King is my favorite, pretty sure I have read every book he has published, or really close to it.

The future

So gioia and I are talking about growing up. She was asking if I was going to have lots of birthdays. I said, yes until I am a really old lady. She said "I will have lots of birthdays until I am 10 then I will be a lady." "Then I will get married to my husband named Man." I asked her what she would do after she was married. She said "I would get a tongue ring!" LOL!!! Then she said, after that I would be a grandma. Funny kid!!


HA HA! ok. So perhaps I will leave this blog post going and just type what she says all day. Now she says about her brother "He is going to turn to a man. Then I will marry that man." I said you will marry him? "Yes, I am gonna marry my brother." she says. *No hunny, we don't live in Arkansas.*

TA-DA!!

My sister came to visit today. It was really fun. We went out for pizza and then swimming at the new awesome Aquatic Center in town. The kids had a great time too. She is going to be moving in with us for a couples months. She and her husband are separating. It is very sad and upsetting to us all. I haven't posted about it because it is personal and not really mine to share I guess. I have a friend who I can talk to about it and my husband of course. Mel, my sister, is going back to college to be a RN. She starts classes first of July. The kids will love having her around more, so that is a plus. We lived with her and her DH for 3 months when we moved back to KS from TX. So we definitely owe her.

Now the Ta-Da story. So like I said previously we went to eat pizza, then to the park and while we were at the park Gioia needed to pee. I took her potty, which required taking off her swimsuit and all that. No problem, we use the bathroom and go back to playing. After that we go swimming. While we are at the pool she looks at my sister and says TA-DA! AND..... pulls a marble out from inside her swimming suit. FROM HER PRIVATES! Yes, folks. The new and improved Ben-Wa-Ball. A marble! My sister about died. She came and told me, gave me the marble and we had a good laugh. She told Gioia in a serious voice, we don't put things in our privates. OK>>>> think back to where I said she peed and I noticed nothing! EEGADS!!! Marble privileges have been revoked. Putting things in her panties has been an ongoing issue, but always before she has used her underwear as a pocket. Like she would put the toy hammer in there to hold it because she didn't have a pocket. I had a friend a while back say that her daughter tried to do this very thing.

Mission accomplished

Fleas have been terminated! Our friend came and sprayed. I am so glad. We have to wait a few more days to make sure no more come back. He said we might have to spray one more time. Hopefully they are dead.

This weekend has been crazy busy so far. We had a preschool soccer playdate this morning. We attempted to get the kids to play soccer. They did pretty good. Then we went to KC, MO to pick up some old vintage windows. I am going to use them to make doors for a china cabinet. It is going to look awesome. I got 6 for $60 bucks. Whatever i don't use I will re-sell or give away. Then we rushed home to babysit for my friends boys. They were here for 5 hours. It was pretty good. Dominic was so tired that he crashed and went to bed at 7pm.

Tomorrow is Fathers Day and I am a little bummed because the gift I ordered for DH didn't come yet. It should be here Monday or Tuesday. He is being understanding. I think he will be excited when he gets it. I am not telling him what it is. The kids got him a card and we will make it a relaxing day.

Massimo went to an auction today and bought me a sewing machine for $1.00. WOW! It was an estate sale and this lady had tons of crap he said. Weirdest of all was a huge collection of porcelain puppets. The marionette kind with strings. I guess maybe she made dolls since there were doll parts new in boxes. So tomorrow we will try the machine out and see if it actually works, which I think it will.

Farmers Market

I love Farmers Market. Dominic and I went yesterday while Gioia was at Bible School. It was great! We got broccoli, lettuce, tomatoes, corn on the cob, watermelon, peaches, blueberries and zucchini. DELICIOUS! We went to the one in Overland Park. There is one in Olathe too that I need to try and one right next door to DH's work.

I have a few tiny tomatoes on my plants and some zucchini coming on. I am excited. I can't wait to make fresh salsa. We had BLT's last night and they were great.

We got the screen replaced in the patio door. Ran a bunch of errands this week. So today we are just hanging out. We tried to go get free ice cream last night but the line was 30 minutes or more wait, so we skipped it. It isn't worth saving $5.00 for that kind of wait, especially with kids.

THE BUMMER: FLEAS! I have fleas in my basement living room. YUCK! ICCKY! I itch just thinking about it. So I called my friends husband and he is coming either tonight or in the morning to spray the house and yard. Man it sucks to have something like that in the house.

Crash!

Dominics smooth move of the day was pulling the sewing machine over on his head. OUCH! We are talking the sewing machine that is built into the table, so the whole thing went over on him. He only got a little surface scratch on his head. It could have been so much worse.

Gioia is Dee Dee a "spotty dog" aka Dalmatian. She has asked everyone at Bible school to call her Dee Dee a well. It was really weird to hear them all calling her that when I went to pick her up. HAHA! She informed me that she wanted to stay at Bible School forever. :) Well we talked about how bible school was only for a week, and then we would get to go again next summer. Glad she likes it. Whats not to like? Yesterday they had M&M cookies for a snack at 10am. Nice. She didn't eat very much lunch. So i asked her teachers today if they were doing only cookies or what. They said the kids got to choose, and crackers and other things were a choice. I asked if they could try to direct her choice to something like the crackers or raisins. So today she said she had raisins, nuts and M&M's. *SIGH* Oh well. I am guessing it was actually some kind of trail mix stuff. She still ate a good lunch so I am not going to worry about it.

Vacation Bible School

This week Gioia is going to Vacation Bible School at our church. It is from 9-11:30 every day. It was really weird, but nice to have that time with just Dominic and I. We made a meatloaf, homemade mac and cheese, and cookies! Gioia had a great time at bible school. They sang songs, colored pictures and all that stuff.

I am working on steam cleaning the carpets. Got one living room and under the kitchen table done this weekend. Also got my wallpaper in the mail today. Yippee! So DH and I have to hang it this weekend. I have already painted 3 walls in the bathroom, the wallpaper will go on the 4th wall. I can't wait to have it finished.

We are also signing up to take Italian Classes for 7 weeks. It will be on Sundays and I am really looking forward to it. I hope this is the big busy DH and I need to get to speaking it more fluently and using it at home. We worked tonight on brushing up on our verbs and basic words and phrases. The classes start the 24th. SO I am hoping in the next two weeks we can work each night on brushing up and speaking with each other so we can fall right into the class.

Stress.

Well this week has been very stressful. Had lots of things going on with our extended family this week, both my husbands side and mine. Family stuff is very stressful. I noticed yesterday that the kids were acting up, especially in the evening when they were tired and DH just got home. I really think they were picking up on all the tension going around. SO today we decided to get out of our funk and have a great day. It was cool all day, started in the 50's early morning and got into the 70's at the highest. We ran errands, got some lunch, went to the park for 2 hours, and then came home. The kids took 2 hour naps, I printed pictures off and put them in albums. It was just what we needed. We had a nice dinner at home, then went to the mall. Both kids got new flip-flop sandals and we got Dairy Queen ice cream. Then we played at the mall until 9pm. The kids made some little friends, it was cute. D fell asleep on the way home, and Gioia went right to bed too. I am going to bed now as well. My goal for tomorrow is to keep my mind busy with positive things and have a fun weekend with my hubby and kids.

Oh hubby and baby got haircuts today too. We shaved D's head again and he looks so damn cute! Gioia and I also worked on an Addition Math workbook. She is getting it pretty good. She wasn't as interested as I thought she would be but it was neat to see her catching on and learning it. We only did one page.

Cave pictures and more

Well I have a few of our vacation pictures back. Here is a group picture in Jacobs Cave.














Picture of the Soda straws, that form Stalactites.













Playing at the Beach at Lake of the Ozarks State Park.

Homeschooling workbooks.

Today I decided to get the letters and numbers workbooks out again for Gioia. She has always loved doing them, but she is a bit of a perfectionist and would get frustrated and say she couldn't do it. Well we have reached a turning point! Today she would tell me to close my eyes and she would write her letters. Then I would open them and see how she did. After several pages of that, I said I would do the dishes and when she was done to tell me and I would look. This was fine and she is on the 9th page of her workbook. She wants to just keep going and do more pages. That is fine with me! She may finish the whole book today. LOL!

I am going to start her on the addition book as well. It is sums up to 6, then sums up to 10. I know she can do those. It also has pictures, so you can count the physical things and find your answer. Perfect for her age. Its says 1st grade book. She is 4. Yeah, I guess I am bragging a bit. Honestly, though I find it amazing and cool how she learns all this on her own or with everyday guidance from her parents.

Rafts and Rock Shrimp

We just got back from vacation today. We left on Sunday and got back today Friday. Had no Internet service and no cell phones while camping. So we really were AWAY from it all. :) We hit the road with our friends on Sunday and stopped at Jacobs Cave near Gravois Mills, MO. http://www.jacobscave.com/ Then we had lunch and finished driving to Tan-tar-a Resort. We had our own cabin/apartment type thing, it was nice. It had 2 double beds and a fold out couch. We went and watched some fireworks that night and just hung out. Monday (memorial Day) we went to the Timber Falls Waterpark. The kids LOVED it, and so did the adults. The big bucket would dump every 2 minutes and Dominic would say "WOOO" every time it spilled, even when he wasn't under it. Then that night we went to eat at a place called the Happy Fisherman. It was great local place and they served Rock Shrimp. I had never seen or eaten a rock shrimp before. They have a hard shell like a lobster and taste more lobster like than regular shrimp. I love them. Here is a picture of them. http://www.mbl.edu/marine_org/flescher/images/flescher/Hi/568.JPG

Tuesday we went to Lake of the Ozarks state park. It has some really cool trails. We started out on one trail and were having a great time, when we all noticed we were getting covered with ticks. RRRRTTT!!! *hear the tires screeching?* STOP! GO BACK! So we played at the beach instead, the kids got all wet and dirty. It was great fun. Later my friend watched all the kids at the hotel while Hubby and I went on a date! We rode Go-karts, played mini golf and shopped a little.

Wednesday we started our second half of our trip. We went to Bridal Cave, it was neat, but I think we all enjoyed Jacobs Cave more. Jacobs was longer and easier for the kids, plus the tour guide was better. After the cave tour, we went to camp. Our original plan was to camp the entire week, but rain forecast had us change plans to half hotel and half camping. We got to camp and set up. It was perfect and almost no one was there camping. The campground was large and beautiful and there was a little creek with about 12 inches of water in it. It was perfect and clear and cold. The kids played in it for two days! We stayed here Niangua River Oasis Thursday we did a float trip in a raft. A raft does not steer as well as a canoe so we had a bit of trouble with it. However, it was a good choice with all the kids. Dominic cried a bit cause he didn't like his life jacket. We went 7 miles and it was really fun. Lincoln (my friends son) fell out of the boat when we crashed into some brush on the the side of the water. His mama jumped out to get him and he was fine. He did a great job of not panicking and he grabbed a tree branch. His eyes were big as saucers and we were all scared for a minute. The river was not very deep and I don't think it ever was over any of the adults heads (5 foot) at any point.

Then Friday we woke up and busted our butts to pack up in the sprinkling rain so we could come home. I guess here in KC we got like 5 inches of rain. We got a few short showers at the hotel various times and NO rain what-so-ever during our camping, except during packing. So all in all it was fabulous and great fun for our friends to be with us.

We saw so much wildlife! Turtles galore while floating the river and otters and beavers. Then the first night at camp we heard this noise, I thought it was a coon, turns out to be a skunk! I was freaked out. I didn't want it to spray us. So I laid back down in the tent and waited for it to leave. Then about 20 minutes later a raccoon did come and dig in the trash. We scared it off and put the trash away. The second night that damn skunk came back. Making this crazy chittering sound and looking for food. We also saw deer, birds, crawfish in the creek, I caught a big frog tadpole at the river and OH THE BEST!!! Gioia had a leach stuck to her ankle during the float trip! EWWW!! She was calm and my DH removed it.

Whew.... I am tired. Going to bed to rest from my vacation! Pictures later.