In the News

Today we had a photographer from the Arizona Republic visit our home and take pictures of us homeschooling. The article will be in the Gilbert Edition of the Arizona Republic on Sept. 3rd. Several home schooling families were asked to respond to why they choose to home school. I was chosen based on my essay to the reporter for this article. Hopefully it will be a positive article. We shall see! There will be two pictures of us in the paper. I've never been in the newspaper before.

I'll post more about it when it comes out on Wednesday.

Movie Review: "Clone Wars - Star Wars"

The boys went backpacking last weekend, Sam was still with her dad, and that left Marly and I home alone. Marly has had some setbacks with her health and did not feel up to doing anything spectacular so we decided to see a movie. The only PG movie she had not seen was Clone Wars. Now, I am truly a huge Star Wars fan, but I was not interested in seeing the Clone Wars cartoon. But, I went anyway because Marly really wanted to see it and I wanted her to get out of the house and do something. She was not feeling well enough to do some other things I suggested.

The Review
Marly - "It was good, but it was corny in some spots."
Me - "The graphics where choppy in some parts and smoother in others, like the fight scenes. I don't think it is worth seeing at the Theatre, but a good rental for kids who love Star Wars."

The movie picks up after Star Wars - Eposide II - Attack of the Clones but before Anakin turns to the dark side. It is left wide open for a series of cartoon movies up until Anakin becomes Darth Vader so I guess we can expect several movies to come out in this format. I wish they had spent more time on the digital graphics. It looks more like a video game than a cartoon movie.

Book Review: "Breaking Dawn"

I have to admit that I got caught up in the Twilight series hype...until the 3rd book came out that is. I was a little uncomfortable with the idea of reading about vampires, even "vegetarian" vampires. I was hooked on the relationships and the writing in the beginning. By the third book I became disappointed that an LDS author would write some of the situations and innuendos that Stephanie Meyers was including in her books. By this last book, Breaking Dawn, I was truly mortified that this was still considered a young adult book. I am disappointed in myself for reading the book even though I skipped some of the worst parts. The only decent part of this book was the last few chapters.

No Spoilers Here - Just Warnings!

• This book includes gory subjects with descriptions.

• The sexual content is not even appropriate for adults. There is MUCH more than innuendos in this book.

I would not recommend reading this book.

“Whatever you read, listen to, or watch makes an impression on you. … Don’t attend or participate in any form of entertainment, including concerts, movies, and videocassettes, that is vulgar, immoral, inappropriate, suggestive, or pornographic in any way” (For the Strength of Youth, 11–12).

"How Many Rings Do I Have to Buy You?"

I looked down one day last week and saw this....

the middle stone of my wedding ring was gone!
This is the ring my husband bought for me two years ago after this happened....

my hand had swelled and my ring had to be cut off my hand. This ring was my original wedding ring. You cannot see it from this picture, but two of the small stones had fallen out of this ring. I had wanted to change to white gold as it matches me so much better. I really loved my second ring! I am so sad that the middle stone is gone. I had no idea that it fell out and have no idea where as we had just returned from a long shopping trip. I am so sad! :-(

Needless to say, my husband is wondering, "How many rings do i have to buy you?"

The Princess and the Pea

I have to explain this picture a little bit. Anybody who reads my blog knows I have a bad back. Hotel beds practically kill me as they are always rock hard, so I always pack an inflatable mattress. This is the closest I can get to my Sleep Number bed at home. This past weekend I went to Payson & Pine for a Provident Living conference. A friend and I stayed at the Super 8 in Payson. My very helpful husband packed my air mattress for me...but he sent the wrong one! He packed the double thick one he likes to sleep on.

Well, there was not much room in this hotel so I put the tall inflatable mattress on top of the queen sized hotel bed. My friend laughed and started calling me "The Princess and the Pea". We could not pass up the photo op. So here I am on top of my incredibly high bed. I had to climb up into it. It made me feel like a little kid again.

The conference was very interesting. I took away some information how to make cheese using powdered milk from my food storage. I found out that you can use milk that is past the date for cheese. Darn! I just threw out some expired powdered milk. They had samples and the cheese actually tasted pretty good. I also got some recipes on making dry-packed jar meals using my Food Saver and dehydrating my own vegetables. I already seal jars for items, so this list of recipes was very helpful. I have the appliances to do pretty much all the things I learned about.

First Day of School

Here are a few pictures of our first day of home school this year:

As you can see, Chris did not want his picture taken.

Marly basically humored me. She did not like how her hair looked and really did not want me to take her picture.

In order to get their pictures, I had to agree to allow mine to be taken as well. We had a great first day and we are getting back into the swing of things. I was excited to begin and invite the kids along. We are focusing on Genealogy as part of our writing and literature curriculum. The kids were interested in how we are going to do that and were also excited about the biology books, microscope, slides, and other science tools we are using this year. Our website has more on what we are doing this year for home school.

Sam is staying with her Dad for most of the month of August. She also started her first day as a Junior in high school. This is the first year that I have not been part of her first day of school. She is sixteen and so old enough not to need me really, it is just the principle of it that is hard for me. I feel like I am being forced to let go of her about 2 years too soon. I was not prepared to have to let go of a 16 year old. I thought I would have until she was 18.