Harried days and the long commute.

Cell phone~ white screen of death, fixed by tech department at verizon

Disposal~ refuses to grind up food or even rotate, replaced

Dishwasher~ refuses to drain ( directly related to new disposal put in over the weekend ) waiting on hubby to return from winthrop area... take out new disposal and pop out plug that is *supposed* to be popped out if you have a dishwasher feeding into disposal. With the plug the water cant drain. *sigh*

Loss of internet~ chooses weird times to just not work... and then is working fine 20minutes later

loss of phone~ someone unplugged the cord that goes from the answering machine to the wall... I kind of enjoyed the lack of constant ringing *smiles*

Check coolant light on car dashboard~ checked coolant... level is fine, sometimes the thing is on... sometimes the thing is off. I am ignoring it in hopes that it will just eventually go away.

Outside faucet (of course the one on the second meter for use on lawn and pool) wont shut off so every time we water i have to turn it off inside the house at the meter using the shut off valve.

wii wont connect to the internet~ probably related to the on again off again internet access.

I am afraid to even wonder what will go belly up next.

On a different note... hubby seems to be really enjoying his new job. The commute is really a lot to handle though ... especially on extremely busy days so he is staying up in winthrop area this week and will be home either tomorrow or friday after work. Once we can trade in his old car for a more fuel efficient one perhaps on less stressful days he can sleep here and commute... but right now they are smack dab in the middle of end of month/end of quarter for one of their biggest customers so its kind of crazy there.

I cant wait till we can get ourselves up there and in our new place. Havent found it yet... heck havent listed this house yet... waiting on this dang bathroom. Soon as its done or even at the stage where the walls are up but need mudding and painting we can list it. But with it not even close to being done we are in a holding pattern. Hopefully hubby can get the subfloor in this weekend. If things werent so expensive i would hire it out... but we just cant manage that right now.

Things are looking up for us... I just keep telling myself that we have to be patient a bit longer.

Endings and Beginnings...

The graduation party for teengirl and her boyfriend (teenboy) went very well, filled with tons of food, tons of loved ones, lovely neighbors, sunshine and an ever popular moon bounce. Hubby and I worked our butts off getting ready for the event, our yard never looked so fine, the house was ok as well... but the main setting was the yard. The peonies were beautiful, the lupine gorgeous and the lawn green and lush. We had so much food it was amazing, hamburgers, hotdogs, pulled chicken, shrimp, salsa rice, bean dip, chips, crackers, cheese, fruit salad, potato salad, grapes, strawberries and a host of goodies headed up by pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and a pumpkin roll. We had so much food that an entire dessert tray was forgotten inside the house and not missed. The graduates loved the moonbounce... they even shared it with the other kids... and some adults as well *ahem* Even Jasper the dog had a party guest... Teenboy's grammie brought her dog and Jazzy was in heaven.

The next day was fathers day and it was very low key... so low key in fact we are celebrating it next weekend. We had to run to the mall and get hubby all outfitted for his new job which started today. We got him lots of new dress pants, dress shirts, ties and so on.

This morning dawned bright and early in the Smaht household with a phone call at 5 am. Our lovely neighbors Linda and Maryanne kindly gave us a wake up call. They are up every day at that time... so they offered to make sure we were up too *smiles* I adore these women, I truly do. A few minutes later I looked out the kitchen door and what do I see on the porch railing? Two cups of coffee covered by tinfoil to keep them hot.

We have truly been blessed with these women as our neighbors for the last 9 years or so. I will miss them terribly when we move and have been trying to convince them to move north with us. So far they arent budging but who knows...

So hubby is off to his first day on the new job, I hope he really loves the place... Good luck baby!

*blink blink*

Teengirl has graduated, done her project grad thing... the big family grad party is this weekend... I hope i survive it.

Hubby got the job in Winthrop... omg... hubby got the job in Winthrop... omg. *smiles*

hubby got the job....

so we have to get the house ready to sell, Sell the sucker... find a new place to live, get caught up on the stuff that tends to fall in the wayside when you arent working... find him a car that doesnt guzzle gas... has airconditioning or at least windows that work right... and is road worthy (always a good thing) ...

omg hubby got the job in Winthrop...

The weekend of the 21st we have orientation at Leen's new school... she is going to be staying in a dorm... hubby and I will stay in a hotel, Maddy will be with her Mimi Linda.... and Jazzy is (hopefully) going to go stay at the kennels he has been to before where the doggies get to play in a yard all day long with other doggies... he loves it there so very much. They fit dogs that match in temperament... and have two different doggy yards. They sleep in individual large doggy crates at night with blankies they bring from home and their special toy. He will come home exhausted but in a very good way.

omg hubby got the job... WOOT!

Soaps are doing fine... I need to take teengirl to the fabric shop to get the stuff for her quilt... She wants a log cabin like maddys... but she gets to pick out the colors herself. Heck if i get good enough at this everyone will be getting some kind of quilted thingy for holidays... (just gotta get the quilting part of it figured out...)

Guess thats all for now...

~Regi

My Girlz...

This is what happens when your teenager helps to hold up the quilt so you can take a picture of it.



This is what happens when the preteen owner of said quilt sees the afore-mentioned teen goofing off and wants to get in on the action.



One is a drama queen and the other a goofball. Question is... which is which? Somedays it flip-flops so much that I have a hard time telling.

busy...

It was a busy busy day in the neighborhood today. We got the whole lawn mowed for the first time this spring... I cant believe we had to do it already, some of that grass in the back yard was as high as my knees. Well hubby would say it wasnt that bad... that in fact I am a trifle short but we just ignore him *snicker*

Worked a bit more on weeding the garden from heck... when we get a new place I swear im going to put in shrubs, and use lots of landscape fabric... forget the flower gardens that turn into weed gardens.

Maddy was busy today with her schoolwork... we did spelling, nonfiction reading comprehension, A History of US and 3 lovely chapters, 15 minutes of reading a journal about a little boy during the American Revolution and finally an investigation in her Saxon Math book. We have our portfolio review coming up soon so we need to get that thing in order. She recently did an investigation on probability so we are going to make up a poster about that for the portfolio. Its really just a matter of organizing the thing so I can have something to refer to, when I talk to the other parents about what maddy and I covered this year.

Leen went to work, got picked up from work and then we went to Target and filled out a college registry for the child. It was very strange to follow my first child around a store while she picked out things to take when she goes away to college. Its coming along so very fast and i just dont know if i am ready for it lol. Surreal is perhaps the word i was looking for... it was very surreal. Where did 18 years go? How could it have passed so very quickly. Its so very cliche to say but it seems like yesterday that she was learning to walk and so on... but honestly... when did the child... err young woman grow up?

We made peanut butter cookies... and they were so very good.

I made beer soap... and I hope that is so very good... will know tomorrow.

Im tired.. and rather then sleeping I found myself wandering around ebay looking at quilting fabric. Sheesh!

Hope you have a lovely weekend... wishing you peace

~Regi

And so it goes...

Things have been running rather smoothly as of late.

Math everyday began seamlessly, with only one squawk from her,and I let it pass over me. When the Madster saw I was firm on it she buckled down and the math time is happening even more quickly then before. Spectrum Spelling 5th grade is going quite well... and she is rather enjoying the nonfiction reading workbook we began this week. We are enjoying "The History of US", she seems rather excited by the chapters we have read so far... and the sidebars seem to be a big hit with her. We never did pick up the Rosetta Stone Spanish again... It was quite the investment and I know she wants to learn it, so its a matter of finding a spot for it. This week we worked on Owls, Bats and Ants (for science).. she has a ant project to finish up this week.

I really like the oak meadow social studies/english combo... not too sure about the Environmental science aspect of it. I think if we do homeschool next year we will find a different program for her science. Perhaps a more hands on one that has projects and puzzles and worksheets... she really seems to like that. The reason the SS and English is working I think is that we supplement it heavily with the suggested books and readings... and if we find something we enjoy (such as diaries of kids of the time, we devour them as well) I need to make sure we have a week where we do some of the projects for her colonial/revolutionary america section... making butter, embroidery , making candles, and so on.

I am getting tons of good ideas from the Homeschooling forum I joined. I just wish i had found it so long ago. Its called The Denim Jumper

On the job front I put in some more applications and I even got to speak to a manager... I was quite impressed... Hubby continues to look and actively seek jobs as well. Something has to break free one of these days... it just has to.

The upstairs bathroom is in progress finally... not sure if i mentioned it before but its been a bare shell of a room forever now.. in fact its the reason we couldnt refinance last summer. Heck the plumber has already been paid and the fixtures bought... it was a matter of getting it gutted and the floor ripped up etc. the plumber stopped by yesterday at hubbys request and so its begins... I cant wait to get that project done. That will be the last big, big project we do in this house. I so cant wait.

I guess thats all on this front... have been working a bit on my soaps as of late which you can read about in my craft blog which is listed somewhere here... Have a wonderful evening....

~Regi

Update from the homeschooling front...

Well the school year appears to be coming to an end for the known world... but not in ours *smile* We have so much we want to cover yet... well one of us does anyways. The other is grumbling and muttering under her breath as she stomps around the house.

I set the stage a few weeks back when at dinner at her grandparents house I informed the family that we would continue on with schooling till we reached the Civil war... She said no no... school ends when Leenies does... and of course Grammie and Papa were quick to agree with me, so maddy just sighed lol

We are just finishing up the American Revolution (this kid knows more about the american revolution then I did in highschool)... we are working on George Washingon currently...and will soon be onto Ben Franklin. We are also going to continue working in our Saxon math book ( i love love Saxon math)... She seems quite accepting that we have now moved to one lesson a day as opposed to the 3 a week we were doing. Science is rolling along merrily... as is art etc...

There is so much we could cover... so much we could do... but where do you draw the line. When do you say "enough is enough... lets break for the summer." Do you? Should you? I know after last summer we had the hardest time getting motivated to start again in the fall. On top of that whole scenario...I honestly thought we were going to be moving this summer.. and that Maddy would be going to a new school in a new town to make friends and get involved with activities to gain more friends and so on. My heart had accepted this... it was a done deal. If we moved it would be the best way for her to meet other kids her age.. It would be the only... ONLY reason she would return to public school. I have no doubts whatsoever that we can cover maddys education and do a dang fine job of it. If we are still in this town come September... what do i do then? She has accepted she is going to public school... I had adjusted to the idea... but we took her out of this school system for reasons that havent really changed... and I feel sick putting her back in to that same system. Perhaps it would be different, it would be a different school... different teachers, middle school, hormones... boys and girls... ouch!!! ( My baby is growing up)

I just dont know any more... I need to spend some time really soul searching this and figure out what is best for Maddy... best for the family... and best for me.

~Regi