Listen to the Experts

England's longest married living couple just celebrated their 78th wedding anniversary!! How's that for longevity?! In just two more years they may well be the longest married couple, the record now standing at 80 years. When asked how they made it this long, Frank Milford replied:

"We don't always see eye to eye and we do have a small argument every day." But that comes and goes. We are always here for each other." His 97-year-old wife (Anita) added: "The key is give and take and lots of laughter."

I especially love the laughter line. And this really says it all:

"These days marriages don't last long. A lot of people get married with the idea that if it doesn't work out there's no worry, but we can't understand that."

Yup, you got it right Anita. And it's a sad state!! I think it's always wise to listen to the experts!

Chincoteague Photos

Here are the pictures I promised of our little weekend trip. The one above is the girls at the Visitor's Center being geeky. I had to throw that one in.

Next we have Kt with the "vernoculars" checking out what she thinks may be distant relatives of Misty of Chincoteague, with the distinct map of the U.S. pattern on their sides. You can see that group pictured below.




Em liked the group underneath here because she is quite certain that Spirit is in that particular group. We saw him again even closer on our way out of the park. Spirit is a movie about a horse - and Em is a huge fan of horses. When she was 2! my mom and I took her to a local church carnival. They had a small pony and a huge horse (whose legs were as tall as I am!). She wanted to ride the horse, not the pony. I was not even sure they would let her and my mom and I were sure that once we got up to the front of the line, she would be too scared to get way up on that horse. She surprised us, though, by adamantly choosing that horse, and she didn't stop smiling the entire trip around the circle.



We ended our day with a few hours at the National Seashore on Assateague. It was beautiful. Very cool and windy, which made the sun more than bearable. The girls had a grand time catching sand crabs while T and I relaxed a bit. What a wonderful weekend away!! We all cannot wait to go back and hope to stay on Chincoteague next time we return.

Two Field Trips in Two Days!

This morning I went on Kt's one and only field trip this year - a bug walk in the woods behind her school. Yippee! Last night I was wondering why in the world I volunteered for a bug trip - I hate bugs!! It wasn't so bad, but then I got the note about Em's trip tomorrow, which I am also going on. "Wear old clothes/boot" - I don't even own boots! What am I going to do?? Of course, T is not interested at all in going, so I guess I'll have to go. I wonder if all these field trips are what is making my stomach so queasy.

On a funny note, Em told me today that they use "vernoculars" at school to look for birds, and that each child has a box that will have three eggs in them. Each morning they will check their boxes to see if an egg has "patched." She just cracks me up - I wanted to just leave her be, but instead I ruined it and told her they were binoculars and that eggs hatch. She was not impressed with my superior knowledge - not one little bit! I guess I better not bother tomorrow - in front of all her friends! - imparting any amount of wisdom on them during our pond walk. Those preschoolers can be such know-it-alls!

Aren't They Sweet?

Yes, I realize it's very late for me to be posting, especially when I have such a busy week ahead!! I just had to quickly put this up. My girls - being loving sisters. I have to admit, they are like this most of the time. It's nice because I don't really remember my sister and I being at all friendly like this!

They wanted their picture taken today at Wendy's, where we waited almost 30 minutes for our food. One long line.... It made our trip home just that much longer! But we had a super time in Chincoteague. We saw many, many horses - I'll try to post some pictures later. Kt especially loved the refuge visitor center, where she walked around the exibit three times taking notes! She turned her nose up when we said it would be educational, so we didn't mention how geeky she looked bringing in her notebook! Haha!

What a fun weekend - nice weather, family time, restful, and enjoyable. Now I cannot wait for our vacation - I'm really looking forward to getting away for a bit!

Opening Day!

Despite chilly waters and overcast skies (that happily cleared up for us!), we went to opening day at our pool!! I was given the option to stay home, but decided to go along since it was the first day. There were many more people there, but not many from last year. The neighborhood that our pool is in is being built, so this year many more residents are around. It's a lot more fun having other people to swim with!

T went in the with the girls - they were all freezing but managed to stay in for about an hour. I'm not sure how they did it! So this is where we will be hanging out all summer! I can't wait, as we thoroughly enjoyed it last year.

This is Em on "Charlie" the snake. The girls wanted the snake to have a name last year so that's what they called him. Last year Em could not stand in that part of the pool. Now she can and her whole head is above water. She was also able to get up on Charlie all by herself the first time, so I guess we are all growing up! Some of us are growing out, though - unfortunately!

I hope everyone has an enjoyable long weekend!

Staying Put

This is a strange Memorial Day, staying put at home, sort of. I love going to New England for Memorial Day, because they know how to celebrate this monumental day! Every town has a parade which includes anyone who applies and gets in. Last year, we took the girls because I had had such wonderful memories of marching in the parade (well, not all wonderful - but fun anyway!). We watched the first two hours of it, and decided when we found out it was the half way point we had better take off!! Good thing we parked where we did and were able to get out.

This year we decided to stay home, and that's a little sad for me, especially because we missed our last trip to Connecticut due to sick kids. Em did have a fever again this morning - kind of getting used to this! But we had decided earlier to stay home. Then, we got the bug and decided to plan a day/overnight trip to Chincoteague for the girls. They don't know yet, which is probably good because if Em gets sick we'll have to cancel again. Kt has been asking for a while now to go to see the wild horses, so we thought this would be the perfect time to go. Of course, now I'm wondering if maybe this was a mistake. Are we going to get stuck on the Bay Bridge coming home? Is Em going to get sick again??? We'll just have to wait and see.

It is strange to be so close to Washington, D.C. and feel like I'm missing a Memorial Day celebration up north!! No one here decorates, no red, white and blue, no school bands marching in the parade, or girl scout, brownie and cub scout troops. It's very sad. We'll have to visit again sometime and let the girls see how we, as a country, need to remember to thank those who served our country and are serving it right now in far away places and remember those who gave their lives so we could be free. It's a sacrifice that many choose to make for their country and we choose to honor that.

She Can Fly!

Today was Em's last day of gymnastics and all the kids were excited because it was their "flying" day. Each kid gets strapped into an apparatus that is used for more experienced gymnasts to practice landings, flips, jumps, etc. The kids get pulled up and get to swing. I tried to get a picture but it turned out really fuzzy because she was flying!!

Em loves the trampoline in gymnastics. She has always loved bouncing, so being able to do that with the added propeller is great fun for her. I wish you could see the huge smile on her face while she's up in the air. Such my adventurer, or is she? Just a few minutes ago, she once again came running in from the back yard, slamming the slider behind her. A squirrel. She saw one running up a tree and had to come in! She said down and said, "Oh, my best animals are dogs and elephants. Oh, and Max, B's cat." That was it. Squirrels, no way. Elephants, fine! One has to wonder....

The Principal's Office

Today, T and I went to the principal's office to talk about Kt. All in all, it was a good meeting. We accomplished probably more than I'd hoped and less than what I was afraid of. In other words, we only talked about Kt and left out all the other things I was afraid might come up. I think some really positive things may come out of this meeting, but I doubt that any changes in communication or education will change because of it.

One interesting thing that the principal mentioned was about parents having to be advocates for their children. I think having been a teacher, I'm maybe not very quick to jump in a "take over" where I think a teacher or school should be trusted. Unfortunately, in this situation, things have spiraled to the point where our child is having the time of her life in school knowing that she can get away with doing minimal amounts of work very unimpressively - and that is putting it mildly! She is no dummy! I think the missing key here this year was motivation fed by interest. Nothing, other than math, has held her interest in any way this year. Possibly science, but all the other material that has been covered is either a little too easy or just boring to her. We have tried all year to suggest to her teacher that she might need something more, but it's always been met with this idea that there is more, we just are unaware of what it is. That's been clear, because she brings home so little that I've been wondering most of the year what she has been doing!!

We have hammered this out today and I have resolved to be her advocate if need be. One of our smaller battles has been getting her into this GT enrichment class she applied to be in at the beginning of the year. She had filled out her "application" to do research on her favorite animal, the dolphin, before I ever even saw it or heard about the program. I signed the paper and she returned it the following day. Many of her friends who initially were not at all interested in missing 6 recesses to do this came in the following day as well with applications their parents had made them fill out. Kt, unfortunately, was placed in a group that was to meet last on Fridays in December and January. This group never materialized, much to Kt's dismay. She shed many tears over this, and after asking her teacher, writing the G/T teacher and finally emailing the principal, I still had not one answer on this subject as of last week.

On Sunday, I was talking to another mom at church about this and she mentioned that the G/T teacher started this program the first week of May (when Kt was out sick with her fever) on Wednesdays and never notified any parents. We contacted this teacher, who said the kids had all completed their three weeks of research and were planning to put together a power point presentation of their collected data. If Kt could do this on her own (before today!) she could join them. We went to the library last night, she found three books and two videos by herself!, came home and took notes, watched one video and went off to school with it all in her head, happy as a clam to finally get to join this group!

Her report when she came home? She was the only one in the group to have completed two slides and is working on her third. The G/T teacher told her she learned things from Kt she had never heard before. She found pictures on Google Images for her presentation and is excited to show the class what she has done when it's over. I'm really proud of her, and she is more excited than ever to go to school. She has gotten herself up three days in a row, made her own lunch and breakfast and gotten herself off to school. I'd say that this provided a small amount of motivation - finally doing something she enjoys! I'm sad to report that after finishing her Judy Moody chapter book in her in class reading group, they have moved onto a Magic Schoolbus book - I'm sorry, but have we just taken a huge step backwards, or what??

Anyway, Kt will be tested for reading and I'm hopeful that next year she will be in a group more suited to her abilities. As for math, well, I have no idea who taught her that but she seems to be doing quite well. I believe we've determined that she has her father's school habits, and she probably has his math ability as well. Since T and I both did better in math than reading, do either of our kids stand a chance in Language Arts??

Hopefully, no one in our family will be making any more trips to the principal's office, but somehow I think #2 might bring us right back there - but for very different reasons!

Google Mail bug?

I have this weird thing that happens with my google mail. My husband thinks I have just messed up my computer, and in reality, it's not a big deal problem. When I get spam, I go to the spam box, either choose all or check off each one, then hit "delete". It always loads but never deletes. I have to go to my inbox, then back to the spam box and hit "delete forever" again and even then, sometimes it does not work. Usually by the third time, they will all delete. Weird problem, not a big deal but annoying nonetheless!

The Bunny Mystery

Well, the nest is all back in order and the bunny has not been seen since yesterday morning... I'm not sure there are bunnies in that nest or if they are abandoned. The sad news is that Kt and Em were playing in a neighbor's yard and told us they found a "dead rat" in the yard. From the description, I'm thinking it may have been a baby bunny, but I'm not sure. I'll have to contact the neighbor about it.

The chipmunk is back, which is another reason I'm not really sure there are bunnies. He's guarding his strawberries! Soon he will move to guard his roses on by my front porch. He likes to snip them off as I'm arriving home. He always leaves them for me right on the ground there! What a sweet little chipmunk! (GRrrrr....) If anyone has any chipmunk deterrent advice, pass it along. And no, we don't own a BB gun!

Oh, the bunny is here! Wow! There may be some bunnies in that nest afterall!

The Best Thank You!

Today I went to the end of the year Parent Partner's party. PP is the tutoring/reading program I have been doing at Kt's school this year. I have been working with a kindergarten student, who has made some great progress this year although I would not personally send him on to first grade, and with a third grader, who has been the absolute sweetest girl to work with!! Before I went, I stopped at Target and picked up a couple books to give them for the summer and some fun stickers. Really, not a big deal AND we'd been told we could bring something for the kids if we wanted to.

This sweet girl came in, gave me a big hug and said, "I am going to really miss you. This has been the best part of my year!" I gave her her gift, a Judy Moody book, and she said, "This is the book I've always wanted - thank you so much. I'm going to take it to Atlantic City with me this weekend and read the whole thing!" Now, mind you, she was not coached. In fact, she was shocked we were even having a party! It was adorable and it definitely made this volunteer job worth it. M is a bilingual student, her primary language being Spanish, so it helped that she really enjoyed reading, and was not challenged other than in vocabulary and English. What a pleasure!!

My other student, who is in morning K and could not make it, has been another story altogether. He has struggled tremendously this year to the point of complete frustration and refusal to cooperate. At one point this year, I expressed to the volunteer parent who coordinates this program that I was not interested in forcing a child who was not ready to read to learn things that are inappropriate for him. I did not want to participate in teaching this poor child, who really was not ready for K at all, to dislike school. Very quickly, they changed our focus from forcing him to learn his letters, of which he knew only 4 by January, to helping him complete his work. This helped, but I think it's a weakness in our school system that this child, knowing maybe 20 of his letters by this week, will be moved on to first grade, where he is being set up for complete failure. This situation is not one that I am proud to be a part of. Of course, what do I know. I'm only a former teacher, "demoted" to parent.

I did enjoy today and M made it even more exciting with her adorable response. Whether or not I am in this program next year will depend on whether we send Em to kindergarten at this school or to a private school. That is actually looking pretty grim right now. I believe we will be looking at close to 28 kids/class for full day K with a shared aide for 1/3 of the day. For a highly acclaimed county, it's a shame that small class size is only a priority in the wealthier areas of our county, where K classes never go above 17. Just no equality. But then I have my husband, who is quick to remind me that most of world lives on $1 a day and is lucky to have their children go to even a little bit of school. So, in other words, stop complaining. (Sometimes, he's just no help!)

Psycho bunny!

Well, this bunny saga continues. Things are actually looking a little grim... After spending the day tracking this bunny all over my yard, watching her stomp on her nest, scare away birds and squirrels and hang out keeping watch under various trees, I began to realize that this was not ordinary bunny behavior... This bunny shouldn't be here. Last year, the bunny lady mentioned that the bunny will only come to the nest for about 5-10 minutes - that we would likely never see her, as he being near her babies would draw far too much attention to them. All this started coming back to me today, so I called our nice bunny lady.

I missed her call unfortunately, but I knew something was wrong as I listened to her message. This was a question for a more experienced bunny lady - one who lives in South Carolina!! I started writing down the new bunny lady's email when I lost it in some static. I thought it might be worth a call back except that when I came downstairs, something disturbing happened. Emily came in to tell the all the bunnies were gone. When I looked out, mama bunny was on the hill, but her nest was all in a shamble and there is no sign of the babies.

Were there ever any babies to begin with? I never did see any, only assumed they were there. Did she take them away?? Did a predator come?? I doubt this, but I guess it's possible... If they left why was she still sitting on the hill?? All very puzzling, but something is very wrong here. I have no idea what the deal is with our psycho bunny mama!! If you think you know, please fill me in!!

Bunny Update!

Well, that bunny is back, and she is defending her nest against all beasts, great and small. Well, OK - slight exaggeration! She is no match against her human foe, but she has scared away every bird that has attempted to "borrow" some of that soft furry nest for it's own. I've seen her bat away three birds and I have yet to see our furry chipmunk friend. I also saw a squirrel head our direction and quickly change route and take off for another yard!! Don't mess with mama bunny is the sign she has posted! How funny! Of course, when we went out for a brief swing, she hussled off, but not too far. As soon as we came in, she is back at her post, under our steps! just waiting for the next scoundrel to try to get a piece of her nest. That is some ferocious bunny! I will attempt a picture later today - but she's fast!

Church Issue

So, I have this little issue with my church today! Tonight, I went over to do childcare and I pulled into my usual parking space. I was wondering why no one else was parked there as there normally are only to find that they had removed the "Family Parking" signs and replaced them with "Motorcycle Only" parking signs. WHAT? What is that?? Prime parking spots for motorcycles? Closer than family parking??

Now, I'm not really that upset or anything - I'm actually kind of laughing at myself. One of our church administrators and her husband are bikers and they have a biker ministry. I cannot wait to go in and tease her about her parking spaces - for real! If you can ride a motorcycle, you are not handicapped or anything, are you?? Hahaha!!

EDIT: LOL - Now THIS is a church for bikers! So funny that it's on the WP front page today after my little biker post last night - weird!

They're Back!

Last year, right around this same time, I started cleaning out the weeds from my tiny strawberry patch. This patch is something I started when we moved here from a friend's kind donation of strawberry plants that thrived under their loving care. Unfortunately, ours has not done as well! I don't know if it is due to our lack of gardening skills or the relentless pursuit of our "chipmunks" that have wreaked havoc on our poor patch. They guard "their" berries day and night and happily pluck them just before they are ripe. The most strawberries I've collect in a year from this everbearing patch is 11!! And that is from 8 (now 7) plants!!!

Last year, as I was cleaning out the patch, I accidentally uncovered a small bed of baby bunnies! It was an unfortunate discovery, as I learned that once you touch this patch, the mother will not return. With the help of a local animal care person, we concluded after 24 hours that the mother would not be returning, and this woman came to collect and raise these adorable 5 bunnies. The were actually quite large, most likely 5 weeks old, so we did pretty good in not disrupting nature until the weeds got in the way!

This year, I thought we were in the clear. I'd pulled out all the fencing that had protected them last year, sprayed some weeds with weed killer early on and to me, there were few signs of a nest, although I did see a bit of fur. I left it untouched just in case! Yesterday evening, the girls were talking about seeing a couple rabbits in our neighborhood, and it reminded me of last year. I was thinking they most likely had found a safer location to have and raise their bunnies, especially after last year!

So, last night, when T went out to grill and had us come out to see the HUGE rabbit in our neighbors yard, I turned to peak at that strawberry patch right next to our back steps and almost lost my breath! There, still as ever, was mama rabbit, clearly feeding her little bunnies. I quickly motioned to T and Em to get back inside fast, and as they did momma bunny took off, leaving her nest in a shambles. The cute tiny babies made their own way back into the beautiful nest just after T took a picture. After what I had learned last year, we resisted the urge to "help" the bunnies, and left the nest just as the mama had. We knew that if we touched anything the babies would be abandoned. We also knew that if mama didn't return last night, we'd have to call our nature friend again.

This morning we were all relieved to see that mama had returned sometime last night and put that little nest back together. We are not going to touch it this time and pray that the snakes don't find those poor little bunnies. I have also resigned myself to the fact that once those little bunnies are ready to hop around and eat more than mama's milk, my strawberry plants will be history!! Oh, well - for the girls, this is a great lesson in being stewards of all God gave us and allowing nature to reign even in our own suburban backyard!

Over the Hedge

Just got back from going to see Over the Hedge - excellent movie, great storyline, non-stop fun and very family friendly - at least that's what we thought!! The girls loved it and T and I laughed through it. Great writing, a good lesson on suburban sprawl... and family, which is really what comes out in the end. It's a definite go see, if you can fork out the dough - which these days is ridiculous! A matinee - well, when I was younger, they were cheaper for kids as well, not you just get a buck off the adults. It was crazy! Anyway... fun for an afternoon that we didn't think we'd have off.

Our particular showing (and the theater was showing this movie almost every 1/2 hour!) was only about half full, but the one that started half an hour ahead of us was apparently packed. It was so full, other movie-goers were told they could join us if they'd prefer to find seats together!

Kermit is History!

American History, that is! Looks as though Henson's Muppets are at the Smithsonean and this one exibit I cannot wait to see. My girls love Kermit in the Muppet movies and Swamp Years. It will be so much fun to actually see him! Emily still calls him "Hermit" so we might have to work on that a bit before we head to D.C.!

The Irony...

Yesterday, I mentioned that my daughter Kt had a field day at school. This was run by the P.E. teachers and the conclusion would be that it would promote exercise and physical education, i.e. healthy habits!! Today, Kt came home with her two prizes - Werther's Originals (2) and a Starburst! Let me just remind you all of the excerpt I printed about a month ago put out by our P.T.A. president:

Current studies indicate that by 2010 nearly half the children in North and South American will be overweight... I can obviously monitor what they eat at home, but what happens when they are at school? They are offered birthday snacks, candy, and pizza in addition to the lunches they bring from home or purchase at school.... Parents of children with food allergies also have concerns.... The students who suffer from food allergies are often unable to eat the treats that are offered to them. As a result, these students may feel left out when others bring in food to share that they cannot eat.... When your child has a birthday, consider sending in a present for the classroom in lieu of cupcakes, cookies, and goody bags filled with candy.

How ironic, that we are foregoing all parties at school due to childhood obesity, yet the one activity this year that is promoting physical activity is passing out candy as a prize???

I, for one, am not complaining about this. My child was quite happy to get some candy and I see no harm whatsoever in her getting it! I do see a problem with claiming that parents who send in a birthday treat are the problem, however. And, as I stated in my previous post where I quoted this letter, the issue has more to do with allergies than it does with childhood obesity, the latter being the latest scapegoat for food allergy concerned parents. And why? Because no one takes them seriously when they share their fear of their children dying due to exposure to things such as nuts or eggs.

I wonder if anyone will complain about these prizes? I wonder if anyone will see the irony in this?? I, for one, am not complaining, unless a poor gym teacher gets in trouble for doing something nice for the kids. Personally, I know that those gym teachers spent their own measly salaries to do this and I think it was very thoughtful, but you won't hear any parents thanking them, will you?

Field Day

Kt has field day today. I don't recall ever having this when I was kid. I probably did, but I'm surprised I don't remember something this big of a deal! We always had a big school fair that was after school, families could come, you bought food (pizza, hot dogs, hamburgers), won games, and then we had the "Western Onion" - which was our favorite. You could send messages to your "friends" through the Western Onion for the price of one ticket, which most likely cost about 25 cents. I loved it because we lived so close to the school, that when the fair started I always knew because they would say, over a P.A. system, "(someone's name), please come to the Western Onion." If it was you, you'd run up and pick up your message, usually from some unknown love interest about how much he/she loves you and wants to meet you. No name, of course!! Such silly kid stuff! So silly that I'm sure nowadays, they wouldn't have a Western Onion anymore. Just way too much fun, not "educational" enough for a school fair or a field day!

Anyway, I surprised Kt with my visit. I sent her off to school this morning, sunny day in the 70's with a chance of passing showers. She was wearing what you see in the picture - t-shirt and shorts! On the way home from Em's doctor's visit (which was FABULOSO - no more ear infection, no more rash, no more heart murmur!!!), I stopped for a tank of gold, uh - I mean gas, and the temperature seemed to drop about 20 degrees!! I decided I ought to be a good mom and run some warm clothes over to Kt. By the time I got there, it was warm again, so she was flabbergasted that I'd intruded upon her afternoon of fun with a best bud!! I snapped a couple cameraphone pics and left her to enjoy her field day.

Field Day at her school was not at all like the field day where I taught. When I was a teacher, we had to take our students around to stations ALL DAY, and kids were timed at every event for ribbons - big competition! Then we had to eat lunch outside with them, typically in the heat! It was no fun for teachers and the kids might have it enjoyed it more without the competition aspect. At the end of the day, all the ribbons were presented - just more work for all the teachers.

At Kt's school, field day was more for enjoyment. They had lots of small stations, not a teacher in sight!!!, and the kids went around with a buddy to do whatever they wanted. No scoring, no competition, just pure and simple unsupervised fun! Well, not completely unsupervised because there are tons of parents there, but no one had a structure to the day for these kids. I actually think it's perfect, because these days there is no "free time" in school anymore, no time where kids can enjoy a couple hours of play with their friends. I think it was perfect!! I wish the kids had MORE time like this, which is why I think it is so tragic that school have taken to canceling holiday parties - just a real shame!

I'm hoping they didn't get washed out in that passing thunderstorm. I cannot wait to hear all about her day of fun at school. Fun is a necessary part of life, and if kids can't learn to have it in school, school will become dull, boring and unattractive. If you are a teacher or a parent, insist on some fun times for kids in school.

I wonder....

...when God will tell him to retire!