I have decided to pick  nicknames for all of us, for privacy, and so I don't have to write "13yod" etc.

Kitty, 13:

Lizard (his choice), 12:

Zebra, 10:

Puppy, 8:

Tiger, 6:

Dancing Bear & Mama Bear:

My clever sons made this chess game out of a quilt and Duplos:

My first born son is 12 today!  Here are a few photos over the years:

As a baby

Almost 2

4 years old

6th birthday

8 yrs old

9 yrs old

11 yrs old

I have so many projects and chores swimming around in my head, I thought I'd post them here.  I don't want to just write a normal to do list, I might get overwhelmed.  But it does help to clear one's mind, at least for a little while, to write it somewhere.

Work on quilts

learn photography

take portraits of boys

haircuts for boys

learn about soil and fix ours

adjust curtain rods

clean van

fix trailer to sell

find  a good Bible study

read Bible

plant more flowers

pull up ugly bushes

organize garage....again

fix bike tire

take more pictures

put picures in photo album which is backlogged from 2003

plan school

buy school supplies and books

buy bookshelves

remove wallpaper from kids' rooms

paint kids' rooms

shampoo carpet

go camping

oil change

laundrysweepmopvacuumdustfridgewindows

organize schoolroom better

file

clean off desk

plan a menu

cook

buy clothes for kids

read to kids

read, and finish, my homeschooling books

play games

paint with kids

teach kids to do their chores better

learn about herbs

eat healthier

go swimming

go bike riding

volunteer for outreach with church

get up earlier!

weed, weed, weed

clear off back patio

dust fans before the fan guy comes to fix them!

Well, time to get started!

We went out for pizza yesterday, after seeing Nim's Island at the movies.  It was huge, 30"!:

For as long as I can remember, I have loved taking pictures.  I finally got my first camera when I was 12.  It was a Polaroid, the kind that, right after you took the picture, you had to pull a white tab, then pull the picture.  Then you had to wait a few minutes, and  then peel the picture off of the chemical papers.  As soon as you pulled the white tab out, another one took it's place, so if you weren't paying attention, you would pull the second white tab out, losing a good picture paper.  But I took lots of pictures with it, I loved it!  Here I am, Christmas day 1974, taken with my brand new Polaroid:

During high school, I upgraded (?) to a Kodak Instamatic. I bought it with Blue Chip Stamps!   You had to be very still, or the picture would be blurry. I had a bad habit of taking a picture and  quickly moving the camera from my face afterwards.   I have lots of blurry photos of my high school friends :(  The camera got stolen from my friend's car, I wonder what kind of pictures I lost, I've forgotten.   Here is a picture of blurry me at school, about 1978:

For my high school graduation, I got a Canon AE-1.  A REAL camera!  I was so happy!  I have albums and albums filled with photos from that camera.  Pictures of friends, family, weddings, babies, kids, holidays, vacations, mission trips to Hawaii, Cook Islands, and Thailand.  I had the same camera at Bible school, almost 20 years later, where I met my future husband.   It was faithful to take good pictures of my first couple of babies. 

Raratonga, Cook Islands, with YWAM,1988:  (mmmm, I can almost smell those fragrant flowers!)

Falling in love at Bible School, 1992:

My first baby, 1995:

The trouble is, I never really learned to use the camera the way I could have.  I even took a photography class in college.  I just didn't get it.  Aperture, Fstop, exposure, iso, film speed.  Ugh.  I just wanted to take pictures.  For our final, we were supposed to make a box camera.  Too hard, I didn't do it.  I didn't pass.  But, afterall, the AE in my camera meant Automatic Exposure.  Why take it off auto pilot if I don't have too. So, I never learned. I tried, I really did.  I understood a little, but I wouldn't use it, so I lost it.  Then the photos starting having black shadows.  It was over.  I had to get a new camera.  I got a Canon Rebel sometime in the late 90s.  Again, I never really learned all of the fancy stuff I could have done with it.  But I have hundreds and hundreds of pretty good photos of my babies as they grew. 

My oldest son, 2002:

Then, the age of computers and digital photography arrived.  At first, we used our video camera for digital pictures.  We later realized that the quality wasn't very good at all.

A, 2002:

A couple of years ago, we finally bought a Canon Powershot digital, which was a lot of fun.  I took lots of pictures, though, I seem to have a harder time  getting them printed and organized into a photo album.  (Or it could be that I am now homeschooling 5 kids!)

B, 8th bday, 2007:

It was a fine camera, the Canon powershot.  I loved how small it was, fit easily into a bag, or onto my belt.  It was so small, I lost it last spring at a school field trip.  I would  post pictures of that, but they got lost, too.  :(  So after a few weeks without a good camera...oh, about the Canon Rebel, I would still use it now and then, but the battery seemed to die a lot.  I finally figured out that the Autofocus broke.  I will look into getting it fixed, for my daughter, maybe.  But then, it isn't digital!  As I was saying, after a few weeks without a camera, and wondering if we should get a good digital, we went ahead and bought a Canon Powershot again, but a little more up to date. 

It does take pretty good pictures:

S, 2008:

But when it came to taking pictures of fireworks, I was quite disappointed.  I mean, have you seen the PioneerWoman.com's fireworks photos? 

Here is mine, 4th of July, 2008:

I was beginning to regret our purchase.  E and I wished we had bought a better, SLR camera (interchangeable lenses).  So we took it back to the store.  But first, we had to have our replacement, so we bought a Nikon D40 with an 18-55mm lens AND a 55-200 mm zoom lens.  I am determined to learn all I can about this camera.  I know that talent is a biggie in great photography, but knowing how to use the camera properly has got to be a very big part of it!  I have been poring over the owner's manual.  One of my goals is to be able to take my own portraits of my kids.  The kind you can hang on the wall, but aren't from the studio.  I have a lot to learn, but this is what I did this weekend:

And remember that baby from back in 1995?  Here she is in 2008:

When I sent these to Costco, they touched up the colors, so we will see how they turn out.  My plan is to learn Photoshop to fix them up just the way I want.  The Pioneer Woman has inspired me to learn! 

I forgot to add that we watched America Rock from School House Rock.  I particularly love the song The Preamble, I get choked up everytime!  I just found the song and cartoon on YouTube  tried to get it linked here, but couldn't figure it out.  Here are the words:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

My friend just told me about this blog.  Since I had lost my camera in May, I checked it out.  I didn't see any of my pictures, but thought I'd pass it along.  The more people know about this website, the more people will find their lost cameras and pictures.

 ifoundyourcamera.blogspot.com

This is our fourth 4th of July in this town.  I remembered this year that in our former city, fireworks sales were illegal.  We rarely even got to see a nice professional fireworks show, only snippets from our back stairs.  Since moving here, dh has been having fun setting off our own booth-bought fireworks.   And we have tried to find a good place to watch the big fireworks shows.  In the past, we would go to the park next to the baseball field, where they would have a nice show after the ballgame.  Except they always went into extra innings.  Last year, I decided we should just find a park close to the college where they have the biggest show in town (that I know of).  Well, we ended up buying our house right near there!  So we had a fabulous fireworks show right from our own front yard!  Here are a few pictures:

A great summer meal: bbq pork chops, watermelon, salad, corn on the cob, macaroni & cheese, and yummy no-bake garlic bread (I toasted the sour dough slices in the toaster and spread garlic butter on them, so good, and my house didn't heat up)

Dessert didn't turn out as good as previous years.  I need to perfect this thing!!  But it tasted yummy!

Hanging out in the front yard, with Grammy:

A girl and her cat:

Flag football with Daddy::

Planning the next play:
Sparklers!

Waiting for the big show:

The "mini finale":

I tried to take pictures of the bigfireworks, there were some neat new styles.  But my camera wouldn't cooperate.  I did get this, and wanted to post it because if you look right in the middle,  you can see the crescent moon and it just looked cool as the fireworks were exploding right in front of it:

We had a wonderful time camping!  The weather was in the 70s, which is so much better than the 110 they had at home!  The tenting experience was fine.  I was cold the first night.  E didn't really like the inflatable, bouncable mattresses.  But I did, much better than the hard floor!  We went fishing on Friday and Saturday, in two different small rivers.  The second day, D caught two fish and E caught 1!!  They even cleaned them and cooked them.  And ate them.  We had bonfires.  And roasted marshmellows and hotdogs over the fire.  I must buy an old fashioned perkolater for my coffee.  In Yosemite, I always took our electric coffee maker.  We didn't get much hiking done, but they sure had fun fishing and splashing in the cold water.  At one spot, there were millions of ladybugs on the rocks!  I have never seen anything like it.  On our way home, we stopped to see some of the giant sequoias.  I am always amazed at the size of those things!  Some of them have even been growing since the time that Jesus walked the earth!  The oldest living things in the world, right here, just hours from our home!  Okay, here are the pics:

"Our" meadow:

Monster campfire:

Team work!

Roasting hotdogs:

Smoke protection:

GIANT Sequoias:

 I got a fish!

Millions of ladybugs:

We are going on our very first tent camping trip since our 10yo was a baby!  Since then, we have used our trailer, or stayed in Housekeeping in Yosemite, which has a cabin sort of thing, beds and electricity.  And showers.  We are going up into the Sequoia National Forest, to a campsite that has outhouses and no showers.  For three days.  I used to be able to camp for several days without showering, but the last couple of years, I just needed my daily shower to wake up and feel normal. But I'll manage.  As long as I don't have to touch any fish.  E is getting a fishing license today.  Hopefully, we (they) will actually catch something.  The boys want to even clean them and cook them for dinner.  Yikes!  I remember as a kid, going to our friends' cabin "in the mountains" not too far from where we will be, an hour maybe??  The boys caught some fish and we were walking back to camp.   They asked if I wanted to carry the fish, and for some crazy reason, I said ok.  They handed it to me, mouth wide open, and I had to hold it from the mouth.  Well, that was just too much for this girly girl.  I dropped the fish right in the dirt!  They were not too happy with me.  That was the last time I ever touched a fish like that.  We shall see what happens this weekend. 

When we get back, I will post PICTURES!!!  We bought a new camera to replace the lost one.  I have a handy camera case with a strap, so I can always be wearing it.

It's official! Summer vacation is here!  We did school this morning, then after lunch, we went to the library for a magic show.  I took my girls to Grammy's to spend the night.  My oldest boy, D, is going to a skating/sleepover/birthday party.  That leaves just  4 of us, so we will do something fun.  It will be cheaper with 4 than with 7!

Tomorrow, I will sleep in.  There is a homeschool graduation at 3, that I would like to attend.  I've never been to one, and I just read a blogger recommend going to one.  I hope we can.  I will relax on Sunday, after church.  Then, on Monday, we will plan our summer.  At least a week at a time, for some of the days.  What I really hope for is lots of nothing-to-do days, so we can say, "Hey! Let's go...........right now!"  I usually need lots of notice, but I want to be spontaneous for a change.  And have fun with my kids, while they are still kids!  I will post what we come up with.  And hopefully, I will have a camera, so I can post pics to go along with our fun!

Happy Summer!

We have just one week left for our school year.  We haven't had a break since the New Year!  But, with moving to our new home in Dec, we had taken quite a bit of time off, so we just plugged through the winter and spring, so we could have a nice break in the summer.  The kids did great.  We had our share of field trips and park days, plus all of our 4H projects, so they had plenty of out-of-the-house projects. 

We read lots of books on Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece.  We have a couple of more books on Greece to read this last week of school.  We will do a small Olympics study and races later in the summer, which goes along nicely with the actual Olympics in August. 

For science, we have been studying Apologia Botany and we all love it.  We aren't done with this book, so will continue for a few more weeks to finish it. Spring and summer is best for studying plants anyway. 

For Language Arts, we have used Handwriting Without Tears, Spelling Power, Journaling through the Year, Easy Grammar.  My two youngest are doing excellent in their phonics learning, with Alpha Phonics.  They were not quite ready for it when we started in the fall, but a couple of months ago, we tried again, and they got it!  So we will continue that through the summer, til they are done.  Can't stop now!  It is very exciting for me to see them read all of those words! 

For Math, we are now using Teaching Textbooks and love it.  I love how the guy on the computer reexplains the problems when needed, and their work is self correcting.  And keeps records.  The three oldest are doing great with it.  My younger two use Math U See and are doing well.

We have read lots of books outloud, and the three oldest all enjoy reading on their own, too! 

We included How Great Thou Art art curriculum, as well as a brief study on Claude Monet.  We painted with watercolors and tempera paints, & pastel chalks (messy).  The kids enjoyed the projects at the Sketch Tuesday Blog  at Harmony Art Mom. Now that we have a scanner  we can have our art work  added to her website!

Our 4H projects were:

Archery, Rocketry, Drawing, Photography, & Crafts.  We signed up for bookmaking and camping, but those never happened. While the children learned a lot and had fun with their projects, the running around to all of the different places was just too much.  I felt we were always rushing out of the door.  So, we will not be joining 4H next year.  We are quite involved in our homeschool support group, so doing both just didn't work.  Maybe in the future.  We will be busy enough next year with our homeschool group!

Next up, Summer Plans!

The three oldest sang The Pirates song at our homeschool fair:

My youngest two made chocolate chip cookies for the bake sale.  These aren't exactly uniform!

Taste testing:, yummy!

4H craft project, ladybug rocks.  Maybe they will be our "Living Stones" emblem :)

A week in our life:

Monday: 4H Rocketry Project, launch day at the fairgrounds.

Tuesday: A day at the park with our friends:

Wednesday, no pics, but my son had an appt. at a distant Children's Hosp. to have his adnoids looked at.  We stopped by some friends' house midway. 

Thursday, errands, dinner at Grammy's.

Friday: A day at a Wildlife place with movie star animals:

A Cervel

A Binturong

 Saturday: 4H Carwash fundraiser

 And later, a trip to the Army Surplus store

Daddy's new hat

Sunday: Daddy's 39th Birthday

I started posting a fun post with pics of one of our typical weeks lately.  But I am having trouble with the new Photobucket.  I finally got my computer to take my pics off my camera.  I figured out how to upload the photos the old way from Photobucket.  And I even figured out how to edit them smaller.  Or so I thought.  I resized a bunch last night and was about to post them here, but apparently, I didn't do something right.  They are not rotated or smaller!!  I didn't see a save button or apply button, so assumed it was one less step I had to take.  Ugh.  That's all for now.  I'll try again tomorrow night.  I really am trying.