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Good Home School Mama

I took the girls to the High Museum of Art today. They had a free day sponsored by Target. Actually, the first 4 Thursdays this month are free. There are several exhibits leaving this weekend and some that were just moved in and started so today was great because you got to see them all. I had never been. Always wanted to go but it's dang expensive most of the time.

Well,  we weren't there too long when one was totally bored and ready to leave now. Excuse me, the museum was free but we paid $10 to park - we will walk and see it all (because quite frankly, I really don't intend to go back). And so we did.

Of course I nearly got us all in trouble because I was taking a picture of the girls looking at something. Yeah lady, I ASKED the dude over here first and he said I could take a picture of my girls to document this field trip. I'm NOT taking a picture this art (because quite frankly, my girls can paint MUCH better than this). Dude finally came over and said "She is JUST documenting that her girls were here on this field trip. She is NOT taking pictures of the art work. Thanks for backing me up Dude. Maybe I can convince Skylar to share the pictures I took with me (she loaded them to HER computer) and then I can add them here for you to see. One day...  ;)

And I really didn't. But Skylar told me after we left she took 3 pictures. LOL She looked like she was texting but she got 3 pictures of her favorite things. Maybe I'll get her to let me have access to them one day so you can see the lips, Marilyn Monroe and bicycle she liked. In her defense, she was walking on an injured foot and it really hurt her to do so much walking. 

Sandi was basically her 15yo bored teen self. We were walking through one area where she said "it looks like they just stole that stuff out of a 1970's house and put it here." I must agree.  She did like the one exhibit by Radcliffe Bailey. "It was all sparkly. I like his use of glitter." His work was actually quite interesting and you could see the thoughts behind most of it. Also, he was there speaking to a group that moved through so we saw and heard him for a bit. Being in the back of the group though meant you didn't hear a lot so we moved on and kept looking.

So, I sufficiently bored my daughters for the year. Isn't that the job of every GOOD home schooling mom? Maybe now we can get busy with some FUN field trips. 

Actually, one day I would be willing to go look at more exhibits but I'll wait a few weeks or months. Just wish I'd worn my pedometer today. Sure would love to know how far I actually walked!

Dolphin Tale

It's been awhile since I posted a blog, but I just had to share this with you! The following was copied and pasted just as I received it.

We’ve got two fantastic opportunities to share with you! This weekend, Warner
Bros. is sponsoring free advanced screenings of Dolphin Tale for Homeschool leaders
across the nation. We’ve already seen it and we loved it! You can check out the trailer
for yourself at http://dolphintalemovie.warnerbros.com/ The screenings will take place
this Sunday in the following markets:

Atlanta
Baltimore
Boston
Chicago
Cleveland
Colorado Springs
Dallas
Denver
Detroit
Grand Rapids, MI
Houston
Kansas City
Los Angeles
Los Angeles/OC
Miami
Minneapolis
Philadelphia
Phoenix
Pittsburgh
Portland
Sacramento
San Diego
San Francisco
St. Louis
Washington DC
Salt Lake City


If you’re interested, please
hmcrsvp@gmail.com for the
When you rsvp you will get further
time and theater details.

We need all RSVPs by this Thursday, August 18.

We are also super excited about the second opportunity! Warner Bros. is giving
a separate set of screenings just for homeschoolers. Homeschoolers will have the
opportunity to see the film before anyone else! This is fantastic news to share with your
readers and other homeschooling families you may know. Make sure they register at
http://www.homeschoolmovieclub.com/join_us for a chance to attend the screening.

We’re so excited to share this news with you and we hope to see you there!

Your pals at Homeschool Movie Club J

Home Educating Family Publishing

Home Educating Family Publishing

Register to win their contest!! It's quick, easy and fun. :)

Three Things I Have to Do

Ummm... if I'd typed this earlier my list would have been different.  Here is how my day has gone so far. LOL

I got Terry out the door in a freshly starched and pressed shirt but we are out of bread and the carnation instant breakfast drinks weren't in the fridge. The girls didn't make his lunch quite properly either. GRRR I was ready for a nap already. ;) 

I had decided to let my buddies know I wouldn't be at TOPS when my phone rang and it was one of them saying her hubby is very sick - running fever since Sunday and they were headed to the doctor for the only appt. open today. I called another member and let her know I wouldn't be there due to my cold/congestion and that M wouldn't be there due to her hubby. She would make other phone calls.

I settled in to check emails, etc. and have a bit of a leisurely morning before my webinar. Sarah came in and asked for help releasing her parking break. Daddy set it too tight. I went out and got it released. When I let the door close gently, evidently I had hit the lock button (not a clue how) and now we were locked out of her car with it running and the spare key in her purse... also inside the car. We tried to use a coat hanger and get it open but I couldn't get enough leverage or pressure for it to actually push the button to unlock or roll down a window.

I told Sarah to drive Savannah's car to work while I figured out what to do. (insert whine, almost tears) "But mommy! My purse is in my car with my license and my money, and my lunch!"  So I told her I'd give her breakfast money and planned to have her car open within two hours so I could bring her lunch and she should drive very safely. They can verify you have a valid license if they need. And so she left.

I walked in the house to a ringing phone. It was Terry. I explained and asked for suggestions for something not much larger than a clothes hanger that would reach the buttons and push them. He said to call Paul and ask his advice. Paul is our awesome local mechanic. I called and explained and he said he would be right here. Literally, he is 2 minutes down the road. In 5 minutes he was here and had it unlocked!!! Boy does Sarah owe him! I told her, it may not be money but some brownies or pie or something! (She is an awesome baker!)

I jumped in the Mustang (convertible!) and took off to meet her at work and swap cars. She was in her store meeting and so I sat outside and waited patiently. A couple of ladies walked in (late for their meeting!) and I asked if they knew her. Nope. Okay. So I continue to wait. Then someone came by that said yes, they knew her. I asked that they simply let her know I was outside waiting for her if they saw her. Another few minutes and someone came outside and said that I MUST be Sarah's mom because we have the same smile and look so much alike. Sarah came up right behind her and I delivered her purse and lunch and swapped keys and headed back toward the house.

I also knew that first thing I needed to hit the pharmacy for Skylar some insulin. Turns out she ran totally out of Humalog yesterday. She needed it early this morning and found a vial and used a syringe instead of her normal pen needle. So I stopped there "on the way" home. I got home just in time to start my first webinar of the day.

Since then I held the webinar, checked out some things online and met my in-laws for lunch with three of my girls. We ran to Home Depot for a spigot splitter, hose, and sprayer (with a fire hose setting!). We needed those items so Savannah could clean off the patio. It had been covered with leaves to the point they were decomposing and so it is essentially covered with dirt and worms. ;)

Then back to my in-laws to pick up what was left of my father-in-laws birthday cake (since I missed his birthday and wanted a piece of that Italian Creme Cake!!).  Now I'm home going through emails, playing catch-up and getting ready for webinar #2 of 3 for the day.

I think it's a good thing we planned on chili dogs for dinner. Very quick and easy and if needed, my girls can get it ready.

This started off as an email to one of my groups in response to the daily email "Three Things I Have To Do" that makes us list the 3 most important things each day to help us stay on track. Yeah, you can see how much good it did me today. LOL

More travel fun!

Well, my travel woes continue with this latest trip. I traveled to Harrisburg, PA for another home school convention. :) SO MUCH FUN! But I must tell the story before we get to the fun stuff. 

Jennifer and I left on Thursday with tickets to Philadelpia, PA and then a connecting flight to Harrisburg. We arrived early enough to get checked in, grab some lunch and wait a few minutes before boarding. Hey, this is going smoothly! We were seated together with Jennifer at the window. The sky was clear so we took a few pictures while circling over Atlanta and as we were getting in to Philly. Nice flight! Even with the guy in front of Jennifer pushing his seat beyond where it should have been so he could sleep for quite awhile. 

Arrive in Philly and learn we need to go from Terminal B to Terminal F. Finally find there is a shuttle to get us there. 30 minutes later we are at our new gate and sit to wait the 20 minutes for boarding. We watched our luggage get loaded. That's a good thing - we know it will get there with us.  Then we hear the words, "your flight has been delayed. Your new scheduled departure time is 5pm. We are waiting on a crew to arrive." Not very comforting to know they are still waiting on a crew to arrive.

We decide to go get something to drink and a small ice cream. YUM! Head back to the gate to eat the ice cream when we hear "Your flight has now been canceled." Oh! REALLY? And so now how do we get to Harrisburg? You can go to gate 16 or the ticket counter for a new flight. So, we go to the counter. I call CP who handles this stuff for the company to find out what she needs us to do. It's finally our turn and we ask what flight they can get us on since the sign behind her says there is one at 5:24. Nope. Nothing until 8:24pm. Well, okay. Are we guaranteed that flight? Yes, unless it cancels. Gee thanks.

Ummm... what else can you do for us being inconvenienced? Oh, a $5 meal voucher. Nice. What can you get to eat in an airport for $5? Well, that 6oz bag of peanuts was $4.49. Yeah. That's good when you are hungry and won't be meeting up with your group for an additional 4 hours or so and they will have already eaten. And who wants to eat dinner at 10pm?

I called CP back to let her know we had a flight. She decided it was too little too late and she will get us a car. It is only about 90 minutes to drive. Now we need to let them know we will not be getting on that flight. If we just don't show up they will cancel the rest of our trip. We head to the ticket counter and talk to a lady who was nice and marked that we would not be on that late flight and tells us we are good to go for Sunday. We ask where we might use the meal voucher. Well, you need to go back through security. NOT HAPPENING! Where do we find the car rental area? She told us and we were on our way.

Ok - now to get the shuttle bus to stop for us. Thank you very much! Off to the car rental lot. Stand in line in a hot building and finally it's our turn. Sign my life way for the deposit. Learn if you don't put gas in the car they charge you for a full tank even if you only need a few gallons. And get brief directions to get on the highway - not quite enough to get us to Harrisburg though. Also, we realize each of us had taken a GPS out of our bag since we wouldn't be driving on this trip. Won't make that mistake again!!

I drive and Jennifer calls to let CM (who was supposed to meet us originally and who is now meeting us as we return the car to pay the fee) know we are on the road. She has someone else with our team give directions to get us to Harrisburg. All is good. They are heading to dinner and we will eat before returning the car. It was a nice drive and we enjoyed ourselves.

We get in to the Harrisburg Airport area and start looking for a place to eat dinner. In about 4 miles through this little township we were in, we drive past about 8 bars. Many of them we notice are across the street from funeral homes. We laugh about it but we can't find anything for dinner except Hardee's. Good enough so we stop and eat. 

We call LD to let them know we are on our way to the airport. They are about 15 minutes away. Perfect. We pull in to return the car and realize we neglected to fill it up. We head back to the gas station, fill it up and drive back. Turn in the car, walk to the building and wait for CM and LD to show up so we can pay out and be on our way.

We go in and the lady behind the counter said her passcode just expired. She tries to use the other workers and it also expired and now both computers are locked up. We step to the side while they deal with locked up computers and try to help other customers. I guess it took a good 20 minutes. FINALLY we can pay for the rental and be on our way. 

The rest of the evening was uneventful except that Jennifer and I were tired but in that mode where you just can't fall asleep. We talked until after 2am. It sure made getting up at 6am a bit difficult. Breakfast at 6:30 and head to the convention just after 7am. We had a great day, was halfway to our goal and headed to Red Robin for dinner.  Back to the hotel and had a quiet evening, going to bed a bit early.

Back up at 6am to repeat the day. We finally closed the show over our goal and got the booth packed and headed to dinner. Sometimes the GPS doesn't know the BEST way to go. Really? Must we always take detour through the worst part of town? After circling a few blocks for the grand tour we get headed to Benihana. After waiting a little bit we were seated. On the floor on a flat pillow. Getting your legs under that table was fun. We were punchy from being tired. It made for a fun evening.

We watched the chef make our dinner which was delicious, even though the chef wasn't so great with his little show. There was a mix up with a raspberry lemonade where it came to the table a touch frothy and we discovered there was alcohol in it. Lots of jokes, including how the chef might have had a nip or needed one. 

Honestly, at this point I have laughed so hard I can't even remember all that happened. I'm sure friends who were there will comment to remind me. ;) We did finish our dinner which included your choice of ice cream or rainbow sherbet. For the record, that sherbet was the best ever and several said it tasted like Trix.

Time to head back to the hotel but first another detour through the bad part of town where there were barber shops still open after 9pm, several fried chicken places within a block or less of each other, and one that would even cash your checks for you. We had to stop at Starbucks as well. Some people are addicted to coffee. 

To the hotel and find out our room keys won't work. Had to get them reissued. In the room, pj's on and a quick check on facebook and email. Learned that there was a problem with our tickets not being synced or something. Jennifer calls and learns we do not have tickets even though we have paid for bags to be checked on this flight. Evidently THAT triggered them to notify us about 12 hours later that we didn't have seats on this flight. She gets it all cleared up (we hope) and now, we are on the flights and prayerfully headed home on time tomorrow.

Stay tuned! You never know what else will happen before July 31!

Happy Birthday Sandi!

My 3rd daughter playing softball this year for the first time and having a great time.Today is her 15th birthday and I wanted to wish her a very happy birthday since I'm not at home to spend the day with her! She tells me that next week we will head to the DMV to her her learners permit. Hope she has studied hard!