Mishmash of nothing

There is nothing really to talk about. I should be writing e-mails to all of my friends that I am behind on keeping in touch with. I need to be writing letters to various family members that do not have access to e-mail. I keep saying I will get to that. I have been going to write a letter to Stud's grandmother for about two years now! I need to get off here and do it, but for some reason am in the mood to just blab in here for a bit.

Stud has the younger three at the rink. Princess has her weekly hockey game and Jock has a practise. Clown goes along because he likes to play tag with some kids in the rink. I welcome it, because it gets him out of the house, which is an accomplishment. That boy is much more introverted than I thought possible!

So Cryptic and I get some time together. We went for a long walk and talked about family dynamics and his relationship with all the rest of us. We were wondering why he and Clown are as close as they are and why Jock and Princess rub him the wrong way. We both offered up some theories and had some good laughs. Now he is on his laptop doing school work. He has had some attitude lately and is getting harder to manage. So I took his lap top from him last night and just gave it back to him now so he can quickly get any assignments due today finished up and then I will take it back. Then maybe I will ask him to watch TV with me or play a board game or something.

Today while the younger three and I were doing our Science lesson on flight and making "planes" with balloons, straws, string, and tape, Cryptic just laid on the futon grumbling and insulting everyone. So I sent him to clean bathrooms and fold laundry. He seems to think that if he is not on his computer writing all of his stories, talking to friends on his role playing web sites or playing video games, that the world will come to an end! ARG! TEENS!

So I e-mailed people about Vegas but of course used all the true names of everyone, etc and I don't feel like editing it to put it in here. It won't make much sense anyway, since it was written to people who know the people mentioned, etc.

So just suffice it to say it was an experience. Jock was injured pretty badly during the last game, I cried like a dolt and he is fully recovered. We have issues with some parents taking everything too personally and not just letting the coaches coach. We had a meeting about that and hopefully things will improve. They lost every game they played, but we hope it was a learning experience. It is NOT the place to take pubescent boys, that is FOR SURE. Merciful heavens, as my friend Tim likes to say:) I had no idea the filth that was so IN YOUR FACE. I expected some, but that things would be more discreet I guess. NOT SO. Icky. Me no likey Vegas. Although, it was nice when Stud won about $300:) That was cool.

So here are some photos from our day. I got the younger three some more school books yesterday. This morning Princess was laying on her bed looking through one of them.









As I was taking photos of she and Brommy, Clown came running into her room, most animated. He explained to me that he discovered "Rounding" in one of his new books and how fun it was! I had to come and see, quickly!










Off we went, down to the Rec Room, where he showed me how fascinating and fun it is. He is my only child that has never, ever attended public school or preschool or anything like that. We don't often sit and do "school", we just learn as we live and play games and make things, explore, etc. He taught himself to read and teaches himself many things. I guide here and there, but mainly make the things available and he soaks it up like a sponge. Sometimes he gets REALLY excited and asks to learn more, so we get books out of the library, go to museums, make things, read more and more and on and on. Sometimes if I leave him on his own for too long and get lazy, he picks up bad habits (not making a 'g' correctly for example) and confusing certain math concepts. So I had wanted to look through the book with him first, but he was too excited. He told me that the directions were very clear and he was positive that he was doing it right. I checked and sure enough, he was doing it right and having a blast! Of course, as he is all excited, Cryptic walks into the room, moping that he doesn't get his beloved lap top until this evening. Clown gushes to him about how fun rounding is and of course Cryptic mutters something about it won't be that easy for long and of course it is easy, you are only eight years old. Something along those lines. *sigh* WHY DO OLDER SIBS FEEL THE NEED TO DO THAT!?!? They minimize and squish a younger sibs' zest for life and learning!

Anyway, here he is, showing me how cool it is!!











Then I went to find Jock. He was where he should have been, doing his school on the computer. He does some subjects on the computer and some that I do with him.







I am not surprised...*sigh*...I went to see how much longer Cryptic has left on his assignments and he was JUST NOW logging onto his school account. He has been talking with his friends on the computer...ARG! Any advice on how to handle this irresponsibility?? DO I leave him, not nag and let him learn on his own where the priorities are??

I think I will go cuddle in my bed with the electric blanket on and read some of the books Cryptic got from his grandmother for Christmas. I can't remember the names now, but will let you know later Tim, you may enjoy them as well.

Toodles!

Funny yet sad

I found this on my Home Schooling Website. All of the following were written by people from grade eight through to college. Enjoy laughing, but I think it is a sad state of affairs that people can be this clueless and ignorant.


My family never understood why we chose to home school our kids. I kept on telling them that the education system in this country was very flawed and I knew what I was doing. Then my brother lived in South Dakota for a few years and taught college students. He was shocked at how clueless they were and how many of them could not spell, etc. He then agreed that the American system is not as good as he thought it was, if the public school system was sending these people into college.

He has often said that Cryptic writes much better than his students. I know there are problems everywhere and do not mean to imply that Canadians are better than Americans or anything. There are clueless people everywhere! LOL

Ok, here you go. News on our Vegas trip coming soon, I have to clean house and take care of Princess, who was up puking all night:(






The inhabitants of ancient Egypt were called mummies. They lived in the Sarah Dessert and traveled by Camelot. The climate in the Sarah is such that the inhabitants have to live elsewhere, so certain areas of the dessert are cultivated by irritation. The Egyptians built the pyramids in the shape of a huge triangular cube. The pyramids are a range of mountains between France and Spain.



The Bible is full of interesting caricatures. In the first book of the Bible, Guinesses, Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree. One of their children, Cain, once asked, "Am I my brother's son?" God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on Mount Montezuma. Jacob, son of Isaac, stole his brother's birth mark. Jacob was a patriarch who brought up his twelve sons to be patriarchs, but they did not take to it. One of Jacob's sons, Joseph, gave refuse to the Israelites.



Pharaoh forced the Hebrew slaves to make bread without straw. Moses led them to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread, which is bread made without any ingredients. Afterwards, Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the ten commandments. David was a Hebrew king skilled at playing the liar. He fought with the philatelists, a race of people who lived in biblical times. Solomon, one of David's sons, had 500 wives and 500 porcupines.



Without the Greeks we wouldn't have history. The Greeks invented three kinds of columns-- Corinthian, Doric, and Ironic. They also had myths. A myth is a female moth. One myth says that the mother of Achilles dipped him in the River Stynx until he became intollerable. Achilles appears in The Iliad, by Homer. Homer also wrote The Oddity, in which Penelope was the last hardship that Ulysses endured on his journey. Actually, Homer was not written by Homer but by another man of that name.

Socrates was a famous Greek teacher who went around giving people advice. They killed him. Socrates died from an overdose of wedlock.



In the Olympic games, Greeks ran races, jumped, hurled the biscuits, and threw the java. The reward to the victor was a coral wreath. The government of Athens was democratic because people took the law into their own hands. There were no wars in Greece, as the mountains were so high that they couldn't climb over to see what their neighbors were doing. When they fought with the Persians, the Greeks were outnumbered because the Persians had more men.

Eventually the Ramons conquered the Geeks. History calls people Romans because they never stayed in one place for very long. At Roman banquets, the guests wore garlics in their hair. Julius Caesar extinguished himself on the battlefields of Gaul. The Ides of March murdered him because they thought he was going to be made king. Nero was a cruel tyranny who would torture his poor subjects by playing the fiddle to them.



Then came the middle ages.

King Alfred conquered the Dames, King Arthur lived in the Age of Shivery, King Harold mustarded his troops before the Battle of Hastings, Joan of Arc was cannonized by Bernard Shaw, and victims of the Black Death grew boobs on their necks. Finally, the Magna Carta provided that no free man should be hanged twice for the same offense.


In midevil times most of the people were alliterate. The greatest writer of the time was Chaucer, who wrote many poems and verses and also wrote literature. Another tale tells of William Tell, who shot an arrow through an apple while standing on his son's head.


The Renaissance was an age in which more individuals felt the value of their human being. Martin Luther was nailed to the church door at Wittenberg for selling papal indulgences. He died a horrible death, being excommunicated by a bull. It was the painter Donatello's interest in the female nude that made him the father of the Renaissance. It was an age of great inventions and discoveries. Gutenberg invented the Bible. Sir Walter Raleigh is a historical figure because he invented cigarettes. Another important invention was the circulation of blood. Sir Francis Drake circumcised the world with a 100-foot clipper.



The government of England was a limited mockery. Henry VIII found walking difficult because he had an abbess on his knee. Queen Elizabeth was the "Virgin Queen". As a queen she was a success. When Elizabeth exposed herself before her troops, they all shouted, "hurrah". Then her navy went out and defeated the Spanish Armadillo.


The greatest writer of the Renaissance was William Shakespear. Shakespear never made much money and is famous only because of his plays. He lived at Windsor with his merry wives, writing tragedies, comedies, and errors. In one of Shakespear's famous plays, Hamlet rations out his situation by relieving himself in a long soliloquy. In another, Lady Macbeth tries to convince Macbeth to kill the King by attacking his manhood. Romeo and Juliet are an example of a heroic couplet. Writing at the same time as Shakespear was Miguel Cervantes. He wrote Donkey Hote. The next great author was John Milton. Milton wrote Paradise Lost. Then his wife died and he wrote Paradise Regained.


During the Renaissance America began. Christopher Columbus was a great navigator who discovered America while cursing about the Atlantic. His ships were called the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Fe. Later, the Pilgrims crossed the ocean, and this was known as Pilgrims Progress. When they landed at Plymouth Rock, they were greeted by the Indians, who came down the hill rolling their war hoops before them. The Indian squabs carried porpoises on their back. Many of the Indian heroes were killed, along with their cabooses, which proved very fatal to them. The winter of 1620 was a hard one for the settlers. Many people died and many babies were born. Captain John Smith was responsible for all this.


One of the causes of the Revolutionary War was the English put tacks in the tea. Also, the colonists would send their parcels through the post without stamps. During the War, the Red Coats and Paul Revere was throwing balls over stone walls. The dogs were barking and the peacocks crowing. Finally, the colonists won the War and no longer had to pay for taxis.


Delegates from the original thirteen states formed the Contented Congress. Thomas Jefferson, a Virgin, and Benjamin Franklin were two singers of the Declaration of Independence. Franklin had gone to Boston carrying all his clothes in his pocket and a loaf of bread under each arm. He invented electricity by rubbing cats backwards and declared, "A horse divided against itself cannot stand". Franklin died in 1790 and is still dead.

George Washington married Martha Curtis and in due time became the Father of our Country. Then the Constitution of the United States was adopted to secure domestic hostility. Under the Constitution the people enjoyed the right to keep bare arms.


Abraham Lincoln became America's greatest precedent. Lincoln's mother died in infancy, and he was born in a log cabin which he built with his own hands. When Lincoln was President, he wore only a tall silk hat. He said, "In onion there is strength". Abraham Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg Address while traveling from Washington to Gettysburg on the back of an envelope. He also freed the slaves by signing the Emasculation Proclamation, and the Fourteenth Amendment gave the ex-Negroes citizenship. But the Clue Clux Clan would torcher and lynch the ex-Negroes and other innocent victims. It claimed it represented law and odor. On the night of April 14, 1865, Lincoln went to the theater and got shot in his seat by one of the actors in a moving picture show. The believed assinator was John Wilkes Booth, a supposingly insane actor. This ruined Booth's career.


Meanwhile in Europe, the enlightenment was a reasonable time. Voltare invented electricity and also wrote a book called Candy. Gravity was invented by Isaac Walton. It is chiefly noticeable in the autumn, when the apples are falling off the trees.

Bach was the most famous composer in the world, and so was Handel. Handel was half German, half Italian, and half English. He was very large. Bach died from 1750 to the present. Beethoven wrote music even though he was deaf. He was so deaf he wrote loud music. He took long walks in the forest, even when everyone was calling for him. Beethoven expired in 1827 and later died for this.


France was in a very serious state. The French Revolution was accomplished before it happened. The Marseillaise was the theme song of the French Revolution, and it catapulted into Napoleon. During the Napoleonic wars, the crowned heads of Europe were trembling in their shoes. Then the Spanish gorillas came down from the hills and nipped at Napoleon's flanks. Napoleon became ill with bladder problems and was very tense and unrestrained. He wanted an heir to inherit his power, but since Josephine was a baroness, she couldn't bear children.


The sun never set on the British Empire because the British Empire is in the East and the sun sets in the West. Queen Victoria was the longest queen. She sat on a thorn for 63 years. Her reclining years and finally the end of her life were exemplatory of a great personality. Her death was the final event which ended her reign.

The nineteenth century was a time of many great inventions and thoughts. The invention of the steamboat caused a network of rivers to spring up. Cyrus McCormick invented the McCormick raper, which did the work of a hundred men. Samuel Morse invented a code of telepathy. Louis Pasteur discovered a cure for rabbis. Charles Darwin was a naturalist who wrote the Organ of the Species. Madman Curie discovered radium. And Karl Marx became one of the Marx brothers.

The First World War, caused by the assignation of the Arch-Duck by a surf, ushered in a new error in the anals of human history.

More Hockey

In case anyone cares a bit more about hockey, you can go here and read a bit about this past weekend on Stud's blog.

If you don't care, please disregard:)

We are off to Vegas on Thursday for another hockey tournament! Never been there before, so that should be interesting.

Peace out!

Hockey Fever

As any of my regular readers know, Jock and Stud are nuts about hockey. Any Christmas/birthday gifts, usually have to do with hockey. Any spending money they get, hockey items are purchased. Any video games Jock gets...you get the idea.

As you also may know, Princess decided to try hockey this season. She is usually a soccer player/ballerina/horseback rider. Her Dad really wanted her to try and part of her wanted to as well. She agonized for quite a while and would pull me aside every few days and tell me she was not sure she wanted to, would Daddy be upset if she didn't??

I told her that no, he wouldn't. She said she loved soccer and wanted to stay with that. She knew she could not do both. I reminded her that she had tried soccer but never tried hockey and she is young and has lots of time to try various different things, but we can't do it all at once. I reminded her that she enjoys skating when Daddy takes her and that she may find she really enjoys it. She finally opted to try hockey.

After her first practise, she was hooked. I may have mentioned how before one practise very early in the season, Jock was getting her ready in her equipment and she made some dramatic comment about not being able to live without hockey, what would her life possibly be like without it, and on and on.

Well, last night was her first GAME of the season. Up until now she has only had weekly practises. As things stand now, there is no going back and if you were to ask her about soccer she would probably not remember what that is! She LOVED playing in the game and has already asked a few times when her next game will be.

It was SO CUTE watching all these little ones skating all around and falling all over the place. The local news always comes out and films this levels first game and has a segment on the news, during the sports time. We remember Jock and his buddies being on TV then, it was SO CUTE. And already here his little sister gets her turn! Time flies. I cannot believe Jock has been playing for five years already and he started later than most.


Following are some photos from last night,for your viewing enjoyment:) She is in White (DUH!) #12 with hot pink laces and stick tape:)











As you can see, Jock did not appreciate his father taking pictures of him in the locker room getting ready for his practise. He is quite a picky little fart. Pre-teen, you know how it is:) Sorry it is sideways...ARG! Blogger did that for some reason and we cannot figure out how to fix it. It is right side up in our album here. Weird. I contemplated taking it out, but by then I had done the following pics of the other two boys...whatever.

Well, since we showed them I feel the need to show how Clown and Cryptic are doing. Here is Clown doing research on my computer here for a penguin that he was assigned in his Monday morning "Adventures Around the Globe" geography class. Also Cryptic doing his school work in his room and playing a video game in his new gaming chair her got for Christmas. As you can see by his jaw line, he is not caring for his eczema like he should be...*sigh*.













Ok, I need to get off here. Clown and Princess have finished all of their school work and are playing in a fort they made from blankets and an end table. They are waiting for me to get off of here and do some Math and maybe Science with them today.

Hope all is well with everyone out there!!

2007 Condensed

So I have seen on other blogs I read that people are telling how their 2007 was. I thought it was a good idea, so thought I would give it a go here!

January ~

Went to a fun hockey Tournament in Rossland, B.C. Kids all wanted to move there. It is truly BEAUTIFUL! Jock's team did not do well against the Canadian kids, which we expected:) teehee Still, we had a blast!

Dealt with new puppy having Giardia on top of house training him!

February ~


Finally got Princess' room re-painted and organised and cutsi-fied/girli-fied since it had been Clown's nursery when we moved into the house summer 2000.

Stud and I each got a new tat:) Was the first one of mine that actually hurt me and I was wondering what on earth I was thinking!??! LOL

March ~


Clown started an Art Class. This was a very brave move for him. It was the first time in his life that he did ANYTHING without a sibling also being enrolled. He only lasted about 6 weeks, but I was proud of him.


Princess played soccer for the first time without her brother being on her team. She LOVED it and wants to continue.

Cryptic tested for a belt in TaeKwonDo got it! I was so proud of him when he broke that board!


At the end of the month we drove to Edmonton, Alberta for Jock's hockey tournament. We stayed with awesome friends and had a blast!

Cryptic and Jock stopped going to public school. We had hoped they would last a year, but it was not to be.


April ~


We were in Edmonton for the first few days of the month. We went to West Edmonton Mall and spent an entire day at the Water Park. Clown told me I had an irrational fear of heights! LOL

Stud turned 39!!

We spent an entire Day down in Seattle at the Pacific Science Centre.

May ~


We learned about metamorphosis by getting caterpillars, taking care of them and releasing the butterflies.


We got a ten gallon tank and some fish.


Clown turned eight!

Jock went camping with friends for three days.

June ~


Princess did a tap AND ballet routine in her annual Spring Dance Recital.

Princess was in a talent show at school. She also finished Kindergarten in June.

My niece Gillian moved back to Canada from Damascus, Syria. We had her down for a week long visit and Princess took her for show-and-tell in her class room. She taught the kids some simple Arabic and showed them some fun things from Syria. Princess could not have been more proud!


Jock turned 12 and it was very uneventful. Poor guy was born in a very busy month! Also, he has only wanted money and no party or gifts since he was about nine, so things are different from his siblings shin-digs!

We hired landscapers to do our yard and put in totally new sod on the front. Looks FABULOUS! We have the best lawn in the neighbourhood now:) Our neighbours were not happy with us.

It was bad in the way that my 37 year old cousin died of brain cancer after fighting valiantly for almost a year. She left behind a husband and three kids, the youngest of which is three. Not to mention her parents, siblings, in-laws and the rest of us who are still in shock.

July ~


We spent four days on the Oregon Coast with good friends of ours. Was very relaxing and fun!

Got a brand new washer and dryer (front loading) that I still pinch myself every time I look at them:) Not to mention use them:) Teehee

Had friends visit from Spokane.

Got a new pool set up.

Drove to my parents' in Saskatchewan, dropping Jock off at hockey camp in Banff on the way.

Had my 20th High School Reunion in Saskatoon. Ten of the fourteen in my graduating class made it! Was very fun to catch up with people I spent every week day of my life for years with.



August ~


Was the second anniv. of my baby brother's death on August 2nd. Not fun.

We left Saskatchewan and motored back home. We had picked Jock up in Banff and brought him back to my parents' for a few days in the meantime.


Spent the rest of the month swimming in the pool (the younger three kids anyway. We did not have a very warm summer and it was much too cold for Stud, Cryptic and myself) and hanging with friends.

Repainted the master bedroom and got night stands. FINALLY! After Eighteen years I have night stands:) I still can't get over it!!

Had a "fake" birthday party for Jock. Made him a cake, bought him some little gifts and doted on him. He had not chores and was allowed to have free time the whole day while we waited on him. He ate it up! We hadn't had a chance for his real birthday in June.

Princess went to horseback riding camp for the first time and was HOOKED!

At the end of the month, Princess started back to dance class and Cryptic received his lap top, printer and text books to start his on-line high school!

At some point this month, I discovered "Facebook". Various people had invited me and I kept on ignoring it. Finally accepted an invitation in August sometime, I believe.

My Uncle died suddenly of a heart attack this month as well. Sadly, this year we the best we have had in some time in the area of losing loved ones.


September ~


Stud picked blackberries and then made jam!


Took the kids to the circus.

Jock worked very hard and made it through all the cuts to be asked to join the PeeWee AA hockey team.

Jock and Princess did pottery for the first time.

Princess started weekly cooking classes.

Jock, Princess and Clown started a weekly class at a local church. Jock takes Math, the other two take "Adventures Around the Globe". They all three LOVE it.

Stud's Dad and brother came for a nice visit from South Carolina.



October ~

I turned 38 on the first of the month.

Brommy turned one on the fourth. Of course, we have pictures of HIS birthday but none of mine. Why you ask?? Because nothing happened on mine, really. Am I bitter?? NOOOoooo...not AT ALL! The dog had more of a party than I did. NO biggy!

Princess started playing hockey!

She also turned seven!

My oldest brother came for a short visit on his way back from driving his son to San Fransisco.

Friends from Spokane came for a short visit again. They got to meet my brother, which was exciting for me. I love to show him off:) He was also able to watch Jock play hockey for the first time, since he was unable to make the drive to Edmonton in March.


November ~

I shaved Cryptic's head at the first of the month. He was NOT HAPPY. Did I blog about that?? Maybe not, can't remember. He won't want me to anyway. It is a tough subject:)

Princess and I went to "Princesses on Ice".

Princess was permitted to take a friend to her cooking class. None of them could go so she took her brother Jock. Who loved it as much as she does!


Cryptic turned...GULP...FIFTEEN!! We have yet to have a party. The friends he wants to invite have been busy, we left things too long, etc etc. So he plans to have it ASAP. Three of his best friends plan to come, once we get the plans nailed down!

Stud and I left for a week in Hawai'i after getting my parents down here to stay with the kids! What fun all of us had. I only got a few days with my parents, since they had to rush home to take care of their little foster son, but we made the most of it:)

December~

Stud and I arrived back from Hawai'i. While there we snorkeled for the first time, each got a new tat, and saw Pierce Brosnan.

We got our Christmas Tree and got part of it decorated while Granny and Grandad were still here. That was very exciting for Princess.

The saddest thing was that Princess was sick on and off with something and was not able to go to the Nutcracker with me. It was her first year to see it and I knew she would LOVE IT. I was frustrated, because I was only going for her and then Cryptic and I had to sit through it. It was VERY good, just not my thing. I was thinking of her and then she could not even go. She was so distraught, I felt SO BAD for her:(

The highlights of December were taking the three youngest kids to make glass Christmas tree ornaments with our Home Schooling group, decorating a gingerbread house with Dad, playing games, baking the best gingerbread in the world (not to mention eating it!!!) and...of course...CHRISTMAS!!!

WHEW! What a year!