We Made It

Everybody scowled at us when we walked in with our little parade and got in the baggae check line.  It was David first with his cart full of luggage, then Brittany holding Bela's hand, both dragging their backpacks along. Next came Kassie with her backpack and Gabby with hers.  Last was me, Danijela in the sling, pushing another cart full of baggage and making sure that all the girls stayed in their lines.  We stood in the baggage line for an hour and a half before they finally got us through.  It was 10:45, then they said we had to be at our gate at 11.  David walked very fast to get us there in time.  Brittany followed, dragging poor Bela (who was running to keep up), Gabby and Kassie kept the pace and I made sure nobody wandered off.  Those girls didn't complain at all. 

We got to the gate and just got seated and fed the girls their final "Maynard's Wine Gums" (they are gummy candies) when they started boarding.  We boarded first because of all of our kids.  We got in, got seated and left our home behind.  We left the place we had spent the last five years, all our friends, our house, the beautiful week long snow and North Yorkshire behind.  Flying over the sea to start a new life again.

About an hour into the flight Bela started asking, "Are we almost there yet?"  I explained to her that it was an eight hour flight and it would take a long time.  About an hour later she asked me again.  This went on for the remainder of the flight, betweenBela and Danijela crying because their ears hurt and Gabby and Kassie hollering across the plane that they had to go to the bathroom when the seatbelt lights were on.  When we were close to landing Bela looked at me and said, "This was a 20 hour flight Mommy!"

I didn't let myself really cry until the plane touched down.  Then it was like a wave of emotion washed over me.  It was relief mixed with sadness.  I think the girls thought I was crazy and they kept asking me if I was okay.  I kept thinking that the countryside had looked so ugly when we touched down and how nothing could ever compare to the beauty of what we had just left. 

Danijela will never remember her home where she was born and the memories will fade from the older girl's minds too.  I hope they retain something and when they read my blog they will have a chronicle of our last year there.

We are now settled into Ed and Bridget's house.  It has been a lovely time so far.  We are expected to get anywhere from 6-11 inches of snow today.  I at least thought that if I had to leave the beautiful English countryside it would be for somewhere warmer, but it is looking like it is going to be cold and snowy today.  We will curl up under blankets, recover from our jet lag (the girls were up at 3 this morning).  I am going to work on lesson plans and get the girls going on school tomorrow. 

All Done!!

Just wanted to let everyone know that we cleared housing this afternoon and are headed to the cottages in a little while.  We are at our next door neighbor's house for awhile till the lady who owns the cottages gets back.

I tried to make a post earlier with some pictures, but was having trouble with the laptop, I will post later.  Hopefully I will be bale to post again soon.

Next step, getting all the luggage on the plane with all the kids and their carry-ons.  Anyone who wants to volunteer for that job for me would be much appreciated!!!

We hope the snow stops before Sunday.  It has been snowing for the whole week so far and today they closed down base for snow.  It is still snowing, but projected to stop tomorrow sometime.  This is the most snow I have ever seen here that actually stuck!  Funny that it would be in our last week here.

More Cleaning and Scrubbing

Well it has been a long time since I last posted, so I thought I would give you a little update.  The house is nearly finished now.  I only have a few things left.  We clear tomorrow afternoon.  This morning my neighbors offered to drive us where we need to go so we don't have to rent a car tomorrow.  In the morning our second shipment will go, then we have a going away party with the home school group.  After that we clear housing.  David and I will go to the cottages and the girls are going with some friends to their old school to a pottery class.  Friday and Saturday we will have dinner with friends. It has been an experience trying to get ready to clear housing with all the kids in the house.  I wouldn't recommend it!  If I ever have to move out of a house again I will pay whatever it takes to have someone else come and do the hard scrubbing and I will take the kids to the park.  hahahaha  I may not get a chance to post again till after we are safely back in the states, on Sunday afternoon. 

No More Stitch

Danijela has decided that she doesn't like the Disney movie Lilo and Stitch.  Not only that, but she is afraid of Stitch.  The other day the girls put the Pooh Bear movie in for her and there was and advertisement for Lilo and Stitch.  I heard, "No, No, No, No, No!" I ran into the living room and there was Danijela standing right up with her face in the TV, shivering all over and shaking her head no.  We fast forwarded to Pooh Bear.

Saturday Night

Tonight was ladies night out.  Ten of my best friends and I all got together at a Japanese restaurant in town and enjoyed friendship and fine dining.  It was a lovely evening followed by a little surprise party for my friend Petra since her birthday is coming up and her hubby will be away for it.  As we were leaving everyone handed me going away presents and hugging me. Then I started weeping like a little baby saying goodbye to everyone.  There are some that I won't see again before I leave since it is only a week now.  It's hard to say goodbye to good friends. 

I had been planning this ladies night out for weeks and on Tuesday David looked at me and said, "You don't have any plans for Saturday night do you?" Apparently they planned his going away on the same night.  So we had to get a last minute babysitter.  It was someone David knew from work.  When I came home she was sitting at David's computer.  That wouldn't have been too bad, but after she left Brittany said, "The babysitter was on the phone all night to her boyfriend in Iraq."  Yikes! I hope he called her!!!!

On a lighter note, it is -1 degree outside.  I walked to the atm (two blocks away) in sandals tonight and then came home and decided to wear my trainers to the restaurant even though I was a little dressed up.  Warmth over beauty!!  It's a good motto to have here.  The wind is picking up and there is snow expected for tomorrow. 

At church in the morning they will have our going away as well.  If we make it.  Danijela is running a fever and Gabby has a sore throat.  Looking like we will be trying to get them better before we get on the plane.

wild and crazy week

Cleaning and scrubbing and steaming carpets.  I am still not done yet.  It is a large house and I have kids walking behind me messing up what I have done.  I have gotten most of the walls clean and also most of the carpets, which I will have to go over again because of some of the stains.  (Yes the kids are messy)

In the middle of all the extra cleaning I am trying to keep the regular stuff done.  Yes we still make dishes, need to eat dinner, have lots of laundry, and have normal spills and messes. 

Also I found that Brittany wanted to make more work for me and didn't do her Math homework for two weeks.  I have been assigning her home work and letting her do it while I work.  I tell the girls if they need help, to come to me and ask for the help.  I have been getting a lot of help requests from the other girls, but Brittany has been finishing very quickly.  Every day I ask her if she finished everything and she says yes.  On a normal week I would check every single day to make sure everything was done and understood, but since I have been busy with getting the house ready for the move, I haven't graded papers in two weeks.  Two weeks that Brittany decided not to do math at all.  She didn't understand it and didn't want to bother trying, so she tore out the papers and saved them.  Yesterday and today we have been trying to get her caught up.  It is a lot of extra time for me to stop what I am doing, but you can bet that EVERY single day I will be checking her work.

Gabby just came in from the park with a beautifully scraped up face from falling out of the swing and Danijela just walked in covered in chocolate because someone left their chocolates from Valentine's out on the counter.  I better go and attend to my children.  Soon I will be posting from the comfort of my mother in law's house and everything will be done.  Just over 1 week to go.  Hope everyone is having a great day!

Do you think we should go out more?

David and I didn't go out on Valentine's Day because the movers were here and we were just knackered (a great British word I picked up while I was here).  Anyway I have some friends coming over tonight to watch the kids so we can go out to dinner.  I told Bela that her little friend's Mommy and Daddy were coming to babysit so Daddy and I could go out on a date.

"You can't date Mommy, it's not like you are a teenager!"

Do you think we should go out more often?

A Lesson in time

Today I was reviewing a time lesson with Bela. 

Me: What time is it when the big hand is on 12 and the little hand is on 11.

Bela: 11 o clock

Me: What if I move the big hand to the 1.

Bela: 11:05

We continued on this way through 11:10, 11:15 etc

Me: What if the both hands are on the 11

Bela: 11:55

Me: Now what if both hands are on the 12

Bela: That means it's lunchtime!

The packing is done, now for the scrubbing

Wow what a weekend.  We spent the day on Sunday putting things in piles for the movers.  About 7am until 11 last night when I told David I was too tired to go on and we went to bed.  I say we went to bed, but technically David couldn't sleep and got up and worked until 3am.  All the work paid off though.  The movers were here bright and early this morning and asking for coffee.  Eight hours, four pots of coffee, 1 pizza and 1 huge mess later, we were completely done and just at the very right moment, the housing office showed up with our temporary furniture.  It worked out wonderfully.  I am so exhausted. 

Some of my friends helped keep the girls out of the way for part of the day.  My home schooling friend Shelia took the older three girls and her own kids to the library this afternoon and made them all do school work..  My other friend Petra took Bela to her house and let her play with her daughter's toys while her daughter was in school.  She then picked up her own kids and took all of them to story time at the library.  Now the kids are all parked in front of the movie Shark Tales, since Dad and I finally got smarter than the PS2 and figured out how to get past the parental controls so they could watch movies on it.

Two more dates to get past now.  The 24th our second shipment will go and the 25th we will clear housing.  Then we will fly out on the 27th.  Time came and flew and left me in the dust.

Hairdressing

Brittany tried her hand at hair dressing tonight.  We want you to judge what you think.

We think Kassie looks a whole  lot like me.

Bela swears up and down she does too.

And they both look a lot like each other.

Some pictures

I walked in the living room tonight to see Bela and Daddy watching TV together.  Aren't they sweet. 

I also found a few other pictures on my camera that I didn't know were taken.  Apparently Danijela really likes the entertainment center now that I took the shelves out.  The girls must have thought she was cute because they took her picture.

Today I went to take her picture in this cute little hat.  She thought she was a bunny with the two feather sticking up.  The only problem was, she didn't want Brittany to be in the picture with her.

Gabby wanted to take a picture too so here is one of Danijela and I, of course I was trying to get Dani down for a nap and we both look a little tired.

Here is the last one.  She was too pretty to pass this one up.  The girls think of Danijela as a Barbie doll and they dress and redress her several times a day fixing her hair to match.

Sleeping backwards upside down

Danijela fell asleep in my lounger last night.  I put the foot up and reclined it all the way and let her sleep and we were going to move her upstairs when we went up.  David and I were sitting there watching ER.  He was lying on the sofa right next to the lounger and I was across the room.  I saw her stirring and looked over just in time to see her go head first off the chair.  I hollered to David, who reached up behind his head and caught her by the ankle just in time.  There was Danijela, sound asleep, suspended upside down, in the air by one ankle and David still holding her with his arm up over his head.  I ran over and picked her up, put her back in the chair.  I was laughing so hard I could barely stand up.  She never had any idea of the peril she was in.

Lessons Learned

I met this lady the other day and every time I talk to her she reminds me that she has three children (always with the stress on the three).  Our first conversation went something like this.

Her: Hi Angela this is Lisa, I see you put an ad in the paper to sell a chair, I am interested in buying it.

Me: Great, when can you come look at it.

She:  Well I have three children so it is kinda hard to make a time, I will give you a call later today.

So later that night, at about 9pm I get a call.

She: Sorry I didn't call, evening is kinda tough when you have three kids. 

Me: I understand.  When would you like to come?

She: Well my three kids are in daycare tomorrow, maybe I can get over there then.

Me: That's fine, I will be home all day stop in whenever.

The next day she didn't show up and I got a call late that evening.

She: Sorry I didn't get over there, my three kids got really sick over night.

Me: Oh that's alright, I hope everything is okay.

She: Yeah they seem to be better I was wondering if I could stop by on my way to work in the morning.  My three kids are driving my crazy tonight and I don't think I want to get them in the car and come over.  I wil be so glad to get htem back in daycare tomorrow.

Me: No problem.

She came over the next morning and walked in the house.  All the girls were sitting around doing schoolwork.

She: Are these all yours?

Me: Yes

She: How many do you have?

Me: FIVE

The moral of the story is:  There is always someone who has more than you! 

Hahahahaha

Which end is up?

Sorry I haven't been here.  I haven't visited any of your blogs in days.  I am up to my eyeballs in organizing and cleaning and trying to get everything sorted and done before the packers come in five days.  I sorted and cataloged all of our DVDs, Cds, videos and software, finished almost all of the laundry cleaned the house from top to bottom, organized all the closets and are now trying to sort what we want to go and what we want to stay for the later shipment on the 24th.  I wanted to catalog our books, but there are way too many of them and it would take to much time.  I will probably do that as I unpack them when we get to wherever we are going.  (We still don't know yet).

Our housing inspection is this afternoon.  This is where he tells me everything I need to get done before I can turn the house back over to them.  Then I will have 15 days to get it all done.  I let the kids play outside all day yesterday while I worked.  I found it easier than making them help me.  Brittany came in and worked along side me for awhile and she got a lot done.  Gabby got up this morning and got a lot of work done too.  They all have their moments and every little bit helps.

I gave the girls the week off from school and they will have the first two days off next week while the packers are here.  I am trying to find someone to take them for those two days, but that might be impossible.  Bela is almost done with her kindergarten curriculum and she is now reading on a first grade level, so I ordered her ABeka first grade curriculum to start when we get to David's parent's house.  She is really excited about it.  She really enjoys reading and Math and wants to learn more.  Sometimes when I am working, she brings in her reading book and reads me a few pages while I work.  She still takes awhile to sound out the words, but it is getting a lot smoother and there are a lot of words that she just sight reads now.  Gotta love those phonics.  I think the Christian Liberty Press book Adventures in Phonics is wonderful.  I used it for all of my girls to teach them to read.  Coupled with their beginning readers, it is a very effective method of teaching kids to read.

Anyway, that is what's up at the Wilson house, maybe I will have some more computer time after the movers next Monday and Tuesday.

Good Morning Mommy!

Danijela woke up with a beautiful smile on her face.  She was in between David and I, since sometime in the middle of the night she woke up, and David went and got her.  She put one hand on David and one hand on me and laid grinning.

Me:  Hello sunshine!

Danijela: Ama (her word for Mama)

David: Hello my sweet

Danijela: Ada (her word for Dadda)

David: Who do you love more Mama or Dadda?

Danijela: Ama!

David: (snuggles in tighter to her) Who do you love more Mama or Dadda?

Danijela: Ama!

Me: Grinning from ear to ear

David; (snuggles in a little tighter) Who do you love more Dadda or Mama?

Danijela: Ama!

What a sweet way to begin the morning!

Kassie had a party

Kassie had a wonderful birthday party tonight at the Wacky Warehouse.  The kids had a blast and there was plenty for the grown ups to do too.  They have a wonderful play area and the staff there are warm and friendly.  They really went out of their way to make Kassie's birthday special.

The kids start out with an hour playtime in the play area.  They had very much fun!

The kids were then gathered into a little area to eat.

After the food, Wesley and Silly Sally brought out the cake.  Danijela was terrified of Wesley and Silly Sally and she had to be taken out of the room.  We bribed her back in with ice cream when they were completely out of sight.

Then Kassie blew out her candles.

The kids got to play longer than usual because we were the last party of the day.  The staff were so wonderful, we had a little boy who couldn't come because he had surgery on his leg a few weeks ago and they sent home a party bag for him.  They really went out of their way.

The kids played wonderfully and were all really good.  Another little boy who was there with his parents pushed Bela and she got a nosebleed, but all in all it was a great time.  Even Danijela enjoyed herself and the big kids were great in helping take care of her.

At the very end the whole family went down the slide together and our friend took a picture of us.

I will leave you with one final picture of Kassie in the birthday chair with a couple of her friends.

It's Friday!

Things are coming together for the move now, I am starting to feel like I might actually get done with everything.  It looks like we will fly on the 27th now, which is a few days earlier than expected.  David has to be in South Carolina to outprocess from the Army on the 28th. 

This morning Brittany and Danijela have been having fun together, Danijela asked to go "side" so Brittany took her to the park.  Dani doesn't like to be out in the cold too long, so they were back inside in 10 minutes.  Then Brittany taught Dani how to race on the Playstation.

As you can see she was more interested in getting her picture taken.

It's better than yesterday where I was a cruel mother and made her scrub the counters.  She had a brush and a washcloth and was scrubbing with the brush and then wiping it with a washcloth.  She had to wear her sunglasses for this job since the light in the kitchen was soo bright.  By the time I got the camera she was in the study so I didn't get a picture of her scrubbing.

Gabby has been regressing lately, I am getting a bit concerned about her.  Yesterday I heard someone say my name and I looked over and saw this.

I am beginning to think that by the time I raise all these creative genuis/ actress types you may find me in the loony bin.

Pre Move Inspection done

The packers called last night at about 5 and told me they would be here this morning at 10 for the pre-move inspection.  The girls and I cleaned early this morning and got everything ready and the inspection didn't last more than a half an hour.  He figured they might get all the packing done on the first day (the 14th) and then it would only be a half day on the 15th to load everything on the truck.  David has the temporary furniture coming in late the afternoon of the 15th.

Our quick shipment will probably go around the 23rd or 24th.  This will contain stuff that we need to stay in the house for a few extra days, like the playstation and TV to keep the kids busy, bikes, a pot and a pan or two, etc. We will rent a car tfor the weekend since we have Kassie's birthday party in town.  That will give me a chance to go on Saturday and get groceries.  I also want to go one more time to Darley Mill Centre and have tea and buy a few new dishes.

Home school post

I have had several people asking me what curriculum I use for home school and also why I do it.  Here it is folks, my first official home school post. 

First, I decided to home school for many reasons.  It was an accumulation of many problems in school with teachers, other children, and curriculum.  As most of you know, I had my kids in a British school for nearly 4 years here.  We were extremely happy with the school.  I was even a governor there (like the school board).  We loved the teachers and the headmaster, we loved the curriculum, and we loved the fact that the kids were learning so much British history.  The first few years in British school are very curriculum intense.  The kids learn a lot and we were very happy with their progress, after a couple of years I realized that we would need to supplement with American history, money, measurements, etc., but I was quite willing to put that time in after school and weekends, because the school was so good.  About two years ago our headmaster left and we hired a new headmistress.  She was a really nice lady, but David and I felt that things went downhill in the school when she came.  Bullying started happening which wasn't there before, and Brittany became one of the prime targets.  When I spoke to the headmistress about the bullying and how unhappy Brittany was, she looked me right in the eye and told me it wasn't an issue and Brittany was blowing things out of proportion.  In my heart I felt that if an 11 year old child cried when I dropped her off in the morning, and went to her room every night and cried after she came home then there was an issue.  Also Gabby was there and witnessed many of the bullying events that happened and told me Brittany was not making it up. 

We also started to notice huge gaps in the girls education, not just the American stuff, which I had been trying to work with at home, but also the math, spelling, and grammar.  I'm not sure if this was school specific, but it was almost like after the first three years of school the teachers started slacking off on teaching those things.  The kids would have months of studying one thing and the other things would kind of be left in the background.

Anyway, last spring was when I pulled Brittany out.  Between the issues with bullying and some other things class specific that I wasn't too happy about, David and I felt it was the right time.  The other girls started at the beginning of this school year.

The curriculum I am using is Christian Liberty Academy.  It is a comprehensive curriculum using ABeka, Christian Liberty Press, and Modern Curriculum Press.  As the kids get older they will use Saxxon Math.  The program I am using this year is an umbrella program.  The kids do the work, I grade the daily work and I send the tests back to Christian Liberty (also known as CLASS).  They keep records at their school and the kids could evetually graduate there and will have a diploma.  I am not sure if I will keep on using this program for next year.  I know a little bit more what I am doing and may want to pick my own curriculum so that the girls can do some subjects together.  This will make it a lot easier on me.  I keep very good records using Homeschool Solutions software.  It is very comprehensive, from medical records, to curriculum used, lesson plans, attendance, and grades.  You can use it to keep track of your field trips, software used, videos watched, books read and different school terms.

We are also part of a home school group, which is lovely.  Though it is small, we have done many fun things with them this year.  The girls have regular instruction in music (Gabby and Kassie in violin, and Brittany in flute) and have been involved in soccer, and tae kwon do this year.  The only thing I think they are missing is art.  I just let them create things whenever they want to, keeping many supplies on hand.  When we get settled somewhere back in the states I will look into art classes for them.  If you are looking in to home school, remember that a lot of local schools are required to let home schoolers come to do "extras", i.e. PE, art, music, band, extra activities like spelling bees, and a variety of other things.  Don't forget to check into these things as well. 

The girls and I spend anywhere from 2-9 hours a day on school.  We count any cooking, babysitting, trips that can be considered in any way educational, and other things as school.  When I take them bowling, that is PE.  Cleaning the car over the weekend was a lesson in car maintenance (something they will need to know when they get their own cars).  The regular home work that we do every day of the week takes an average of five hours, not including breaks, which I give them a lot of.   Sometimes it is a strain having four on different levels and it takes a little longer because I need to help each one of them separately, but it is very rewarding for me seeing their wonderful progress and knowing that everything they learn is from me.

I have included a bible class that I make them do each day as religion and christianity was one of the deciding factors on me home schooling.  The best thing about home schooling is you get to decide what you feel is important for them to learn.

This wouldn't be a complete home schooling post without mentioning two helpful websites, a website where you can find all the different state laws on home schooling and the other is HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense Association) this is a group that helps out people who have problems with the local school district or the government concerning home schooling.  I don't know anyone who has ever had to use them but it is good to know they are there.

A little side note about Christian Liberty Academy, if you sign up for their umbrella program it includes legal advice and help.

Sunshine for awhile

Yesterday afternoon was beautiful.  We actually saw the sunshine and it was pretty nice weather.  The girls and I were out walking all afternoon in just our jackets.  We walked to the bowling alley and had slushes and then went shopping at the PX.  Then I went next door to the PX to the little British pottery shop and I bought myself a going away present.  After that we went out to the track and the girls climbed trees while my friend and I walked 2 1/2 miles.  After that I took the girls to the park.  It was nice to enjoy the sunshine for a few hours.  I hope it stays this nice the whole time we are here without a car.