Ok, I know 2008 is not over with yet but the coupon for a free 8x8 had to be used by Sept 26 and I did it! I clicked order hoping that my coupon still worked one min after midnite and it did! So, may I present you my free book (s/h was 1/3 of the regular price of the book itsel ), but hey, it's still savings and it's memories here we are talkign about. IF there are more adventures to follow in 2008 I sure hope I stumble upon another coupon so I can make part II. Enjoy it all!
Ok, I know I didn't finish with the slideshows of the rest of our Panama adventure but I have an excuse, well sort of. I have been diligently working on a photo book with Shutterfly. The s/h was free thru the 15th ( I always seem to push the deadline but this time I was 3 hours ahead after many late nites, not tonite I hoped, but I am still on line and figured out how to embed the book itself into my blog, yeah!) and I had a coupon for $10 off that was expiring today as well. So, I had to hustle and save $21 to get a 12X12 21 page book. I've shared it with just a few friends but I have made just a few corrections in the new version last minute. I hope they print fine because I created the last page using a Scrapbooking software. It didn't show a little warning triangle so I went ahead and added that. It's not the best collage but I was really strapped for time today with a full school day and football practice, so bear with me and the color choices and you can always click on the bottom to see the book bigger directly off Shutterfly.
Anyway, without any further ado, let me share this with you and head on to bed to aleviate the headache and get some rest before 3 orthodontist appointments first thing in the am as well. Hope you enjoy it.
In a shoe giveaway of How the Scots Saved Christendom
Well, we are finally home, it's gonna be a week tomorrow and I still haven't finished blogging about our Panama month long trip. Shutterfly and snapfish are having a great deals on photo books and I am almost 99% sure I will fall for it if I can get it done by the 15th. So, I will share my photobook with all of you. Till then, I have a quick post. One of my favorite bloggers has this great giveaway. Please, see the rules at her blog here. Hope you are one of the winners!
Ok, this is a way overdue post. I have had so many pics to go thru and edit and tons of things to do wtih the kids. We didn't have a very picture friendly Sunday last week since it rained almost all day long. But that will be in a different post, I hope, not too long in the future.
I had tons of pics to go thru and still don't feel like I've done them justice. But it's high time for me to blog about it and move on. I am leaving in a few short days back to sweet home, Alabama and plunge into a flurry of homeschooling, after school activities, on and on. Please, don't let me bore you here.
So, our am started with a neat breakfast of egg burritos and freshly squeezed juice. We bought the beautifully cut pineapple from a street vendor on our morning walk.
Then we headed to Gamboa . A beautiful rainforest resort where we and two other cowerkers. Actually, we thought we were going to the mountains, but oh well. It was a great day, beautiful and we didn't get rained out in this very rainy season. The hotel was gorgeous with flowers in the lobby that I don't even know the names for. We had to wait for over an hour for the tour to start. The pool was so inviting but we weren't allowed to swim in it unless we paid the price for the day for one room around 120. So, we just sat around and waited. I snapped a few pics. The vendor with barely any clothes on charged me $1 per person for a pic. LOL!
We bought very expensive tickets to the monkey island. A tour no longer than 1 1/2 hours. The kids had a ball calling and feeding the monkeys some white bread someone brought. I was so glad for we had no clue and wouldn't have had anything to feed them. We got our life vests on and we were off to find the island where the white faced monkeys were the least shy. Hang onto your hats! We were off on a boat ride on the Panama Canal!
We retrurned to wait for another tour we bought even more expensive tickets for and waited while having lunch. The aerial tour included an orchid house, a butterfly house and some fish and snakes houses. I tried to divide the 300 and something pics into different folders but really ran out of time for today. The aerial tour tomorrow, Lord willing. Picasa is tired too. It won't let me do what I need to do in order to finish this slideshow rich post . Please, forgive me. That's all for now, blessings, N
Today was our 14th wedding anniversary. Let's see what did we do today?
We started the day with a walk. DH and I try to walk every day before he leaves for work. One of the last times we bought a piece of fresh pineapple from a street vendor and I have been looking forward every since to a piece every day. But on Sunday the vendor wasn't there as early as walk and today dh didn't bring quarters, so no pina for us. But I didn't let that ruin our day. I didn't have one in the fridge either but I cut up a bunch of yummy, juicy mangoes.
I did some school with the little girls-spelling and math, watched some Olympics and watched the rain pour 3 different times with the same intensity. Went swimming and jumped into the sauna for 20 min and that was it! It was relaxing though!
DH had to work of course, on both his BD and his anniversary, doesn't anybody care? But he was able to get off 2 hours earlier than he usually comes home. He changed and were off to our first movie. We barely made it in time with all traffic. The kids were starving so I bought them a quick burger and some freshly squeezed juices. We barely made it to the beginning. Tomorrow, Wednesday, the tickets are half off. Kids would love to go again but there aren't any more movies in English worth watching. The only ones right now are batman and Mummy 3. Not many choices. but for 18 bucks for all 6 of us it wasn't too bad. We finished our outing with a quick bite for mom and dad, belated popcorn (caramel was very yummy) and strolled a bit thru the huge mall. I got a nice new popsickle mold. I hope to use it as soon as I get some more fresh fruit. That's it for now. Pics tomorrow, Lord willing.
Here is a pic of the rose I got from a street vendor on the way to the movie theater. We came home without it, but I got another one a few days later-a yellow one, but it didn't last long and i didn't have a vase to put it in to take a pretty pic. I stuck it into a en empty gatorade bottle and that wasn't becoming for a pic. But the first one was so beautiful and the caramel popcorn was so yum!
After catching up on a few of my busy friends Carri, who is canning her garden and taking care of a newborn and Amy with her saga of being a Christian landlord and raising her army I feel a bit guilty about being on a month long vacation. But I've done the canning and tomatoes, cucs and peppers thing years ago. So I experienced that already. Landlord I doubt that I'll ever be. But I am not busy, for just this month I am doing nothing, no school, nada. I do feel a bit guilty. But what am I to do? I am in a foreign country, do not speak much Espanol and am trapped in an apartment on the 9th floor with 4 kids who aren't very adventurous. I offered them to catch a cab (last trip I was ripped off by being charged $4.50 after accepting without bargain a $4 price) to Albrook mall (a huge mall that also serves as a terminal for buses going into many directions) and drvie to a beach 9about 1 1/2 hrs). From the station we get dropped at we'd catch another cab to take us to the beach where we'd pay $2 a person to enter a beach area with showers and bathrooms. Do you blame them for being not very adventurous? I am fine in the apt nto spending money on taxi rides and tickets, etc but my dh thinks we should be a bit more advernturous and explore the country. Now, we are in the rainy season. It rains here any time of the day (unlike the www's quotes of short afternoon rains). Last Sat we tried to get a cab twice, unsuccessfully. Totally. It was pouring cats and dogs on and off, mostly on, all day long. I had to improvise dinner without much food in the pantry (cupboard) or fridge (huge empty machine). I had some eggplants and 2 cans of tomatoes and some onions, i was lucky to find a few small peppers that my girls didn't notice among all those mangoes. The eggplant pasta turned out so good. I just sauteed the onions with the garlic and eggplant, added peppers , later added tomatoes and just mixed the concoction with some bow tie pasta. DH hates the word eggplant and thus, eggplant dishes aren't very popular in our household, but due to the rain no other dish could have been served. ANd it was so good. I ate too much of it and was afraid the carbs will hurt my sleep. But I slept indeed!
Going back to those mangoes. Yes, my fruit drawer is still full of those after picking them at a local park with a sweet homeschool family. Deysi was the first one to welcome me to Panama. She is Panamania who lived and Hsed in the US. So neat! She is a great mother and homeschooler. She filled me with so much info about her contry of birth. Her kids are very sweet and kind. My oldest ds got to play with another boy his age. We learned about magoe pits sprouting and small plants called dormidores (sorry Deysi if I spelled these incorrectly, i forgot to double check with you last 2 times we talked and I couldnt' find any of those on www) They took us around the huge (park in the middle of this fast growing city) to where huge mango trees just drop their fruit to rot. Kids ate magoes right there. We picked from 3 different varieties. I don't remember the first 2 because they were too stringy but the last one called The quality was totally stringless, means no worry if you don't have dental flossers. I've been making shakes and smoothies every day. DH loves his with a bit of maracuja (or passion fruit). Kids hate the passion fruit. I am in fruit heaven. We just finished our last pineapple (bout 15 of them over a week ago) and am ready for some more. But I'll have to find out the name of the market another hs friend took me in her car last time. Then I'll have to get a cab to bring me and come pick me up later. We finishes the walk with a serving of shaved ice that was very yummy topped off with some sweetened condensed milk. That day was an experience I won't forget.
Next post is about the monkey island where the kids fed white faced monkeys and went on an aerial tour. Please, don't be too envious. This baby cost us an arm and a leg, literally. But what can I say-vacations cost!
We've been watching the Olympics since we have a TV in the apartment. It's in Spanish only but we've really enjoyed this once in a lifetime opportunity. Michael Phelps has been a neat Olympian to watch. We are rooting and cheering! I just missed a great pic of the kids on the couch yelling for the 409 hurdles men! I was too busy answering emails! . I'll get another one soon, I am sure! The other day after watching an hour of single and double water jumps (i don't know if I am saying it correctly) my kids decided to try it at the pool. It's very shallow so they are very limited in their jumps. The deep side doesnt' have a stand, so it was low key but I really had fun shooting.
Next blog about our walk in the local park and picking fresh mangoes with our new HS friends here. coming.
Ok, I got to brag on our own newspaper reporter-dd1 (10) and another Panama slideshow!
As I promised in my earlier post I am including a link to the article our 10yo wrote about Panama for the local paper and the one we managed to send out before we left. Oh, I sure do hope we have a hard copy. I better call my subleasers to make sure they are stil collecting our paper! This is her fist non-fiction article . YOu can read it here. Her first one was non-fiction and the link to it is here.
And here is the slideshow of the first day (Sunday). Hubby is drinking gunabana juice. I got a freshly squeezed one today as well for $2 and a mango for 1.50 without sugar and it wasn't near as good. Same for pineapples and other fruit. It is really good with sugar. Oh, and the pic in the paper of the local lady and of Anabeth, they cut the backgrounds out. I thought it looked cute with them. Anyway, enjoy! more to come, but I won't promise when no more! Bad example for the kids, right?
I just had to brag about her. Thank you for letting me,
Ok, I didn't memorize this one by heart (the spanish part of my blog title that is), I still have it in my notebook and for some reason find it too hard to memorize, but I thought it sounded so cool! Oh, what does it mean to those who do not speak much Spanish, like me. It means sorry for being late. I promised to post more pics (the next day after my last blog )of what's happening around here but failed to do so again. When my dh heard me repeat that phrase ( I was listening to a free Spanish podcast I got from Itunes, I found quite a few very helpful) he said that's the most important phrase for me!!! I didn't have anything around me to throw at him, so he had a good, hearty laugh. Here, in Panama, to be late would be even more magnified. Traffic is horrible and if I was a really crazy woman I'd be tracking all over Panama city with my munchkins and be always late. But I am a very precarious and frugal one so I stay in the apartment more than I go out. We did venture out to a huge Mall here-Albrook mall and ate lunch with my dh and his cowerkers and walked around in the humongous mall.
You never know how the traffic goes. Some schools here opened after a short winter break (2 weeks) and the traffic around 3 pm or 7am is pretty bad in front of our building, which is on the narrow street leading toward a large school we see from our porch. See the slideshow.
Last week we celebrated my dh's BD by going to a pizza place after dh got back from work. The pizza was really good and the owner used to live in the US and made great NY style pizza, thin crust and yummy. Same day we grieved with dh's cousin's family who lost their second born son-a young man who loved the Lord with all their heart. He drowned in a lake. It was hard for us to not be with my dh's family during that time. I don't know if it settled in my mind yet that Josh is gone. He always had a smile on hs face and was so good with younger kids. Even though we know he is in Jesus's presence he is sorely missed here. That is my main reason for not blogging. I just didn't have the heart to do anything.
We live on the 9th floor of a building after their parking levels and pool levels, counting 9 from there. So, we are pretty high. I don't like going out on the porch because it makes me dizzy. In close proximity to us there are building another tower (apartments). We can hear workers talk and the contruction noise is like our background noise we are trying to get used to. the windows don't provide any sound proofind. The floors in every house, apartment, office is tile. Because of the humidity here mold can easily form under carpets or linoleum. Tile is extremely hard to keep clean. It's not hard to clean, but it gets dusty and crummy in matter of half a day. The apartment come with a maid once a week. I filmed immediately as we got home just to remember how clean it can be. That same evening the floor was filthy and we don't wear shoes in the house. This is just one thing that bothers me here but I learned to relax. We don't have any visitors so I sort of slack on that.
We hope to go on a field trip with some Hsers Fri. Kids look forward to getting out of the apartment. We also hope someone will come swim at our pool tomorrow and play with the kids. It's been hard for the kids to stay in the apartment most of the day. But we've been watching the Olympics and trying to figure out what's going on since it is only broadcast here in Spanish. Today we can't even find the broadcast, oh life.
Our 2dd got published in the local paper with a short fiction story a few days after we left ( I sure hope to get that issue in paper form, not electronic format which I hope to be able to share with y'all ) and she was asked to try some non-fiction. I was going to use her description of Panama since I was too"busy" to blog but got convicted. I am going to post her Panama story in a separate blog after this one.
I think this is all my brain can produce at the moment. Kids have been waiting for me to take them to the pool and it rained in the meantime. Blessings. N
We made it safe to Panama! More pics to come tomorrow!
Well, we made it! That's all I can say for now! Here are a few pics from our trip and I will edit some we took today while touring with dad and post them next week. So, check back in a day or so!
For those of you who have no clue why we are in Panama City or what in the world we are doing there, here is the update:
We had a whirlwind of packing to do in less than a week. That had to be done around all the activities we still had going on! Such a blessing that we didn't have much going on in August. Well, nothing we could cancel for a month.
My husband got a new job in July working 8 weeks on and 2 weeks off. All his jobs are overseas. The first one happened to be Panama City, Panama. He left on 7/7. We couldn't go back to Ky because our lease in AL wasn't expiring till December. We tried to post to sublease it before my dh left for Panama but we weren't successful. The day he left an em came from someone wishing to sublease our house for 1 month. So after a lot of tossing back and forth (the price of tickets for 5 of us, you can imagine the toss) dh finally decided we can come visit him and sub for a month. So, we packed in 3 days and left yesterday. Dh had a day off today, rented a car and we just drove around a bit around the City. We got a quick look at Panama Canal and saw 2 ships going into the locks. Next weekend we hope to spend half a day at PC and explore the museum and learn, hopefully, all we can about this great project.
We had a safe trip without any delays to Atlanta! We had to redistribute 11lbs of extra luggage in 3 suitcases into the ones that were less than 50lbs and bring my dh's guitar to the oversized dept. That was about it! We were delayed departing due to the plane being overfueled so my son just boldly went to the pilots and struck a conversation. Being a fellow carming fellow, one the pilots, a lady let him sit in her seat, thus the photo of him grinning. Kids did awesome! Entertainment was a movie we really weren't willing for them to watch (TVs in the aisle, couldn't help but watch it) and I just started praying. Well, the movie didn't work. Their VHS ( I had no clue they still used those on airplanes) didn't want to play that tape. Instead they played a pretty safe one. Praise the Lord. I was very touched and humbled. DH was waiting over an hour to meet us. The apartment we are in is really nice. 3 rooms and 3 bathrooms. Brand new. We live on the 9th floor in a 18 stories apt block. Gorgerous view but traffic is heard even on the 9th floor. And it's only Sunday! I wonder what tomorrow will be like. I hate traffic after leaving in Jakarta and DC, so I doubt I'll ventrue out somewhere during the day. But I do have a few homeschoolers who'd like to meet us and hang out with us, so I know I'll have to take a cab. I hate bargaining though, especially in my broken Spanish! Well, till tomorrow, well I hope. We have a pool on the 5th floor and the kids love hanging out in the sun, so I hope to work on those pics we took today!
Last weeks with our dad, family photo and the latest developments in our lives
I can't believe it's been so long since my last post. Life has gotten way hectic around here. Now, with the ball season behind another busy season took the torch.
My husband has quit his job and took another one working overseas 8 weeks on and 2 at home. He has one more week with us before leaving for training and then leaving overseas for 8 weeks. We still don't know where he is going first. He thought Panama where he could bring us all for a few weeks but he got clearances for totally different countries. SO, I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Since it's one of the longest times we've lived in one place straight (17 months) and the city we live in has grown so much on us, all the kids voted they wanted to stay here instead of going back to the woods of KY. My bil's famiy won't be there either, nor our other friends, so we'd be on a hill in the boonies all by ourselves. After a very full social life we all agreed it'd be hard to be so isolated. We've made good friends and know our way around the area pretty well. We have till December of this year to lease the house or find subleasers and free to move wherever we please. We put word out for subleasing but nothing. So, it might be His will for us to stay a while longer in thise house till something transpires.
We've been toying with the idea of buying in this area instead of continuing paying rent. The last 2 weeks have been filled with www searching, realtor ems and house viewings. I am sure there are many of you out there who have gone thru this process. It's tiring and sometimes disapointing. Especially, when the price is not lining up with the house one likes, huh? Please, pray for our family as we decide on the right house to purchase or what is our next step if we aren't supposed to buy yet. I don't care what it is as lond as we hear God and stay in His perfect will. But I want to know and hear HIM clearly. Beyond any doubt! I want us both to know, not guess, not assume, but KNOW!
Pray for dh's safe travels please. I could use some prayer on having peace especially at nite. I do not like being in the house without him, even if the kids are with me. HE left for a few days to visit a friend and I am not looking forward to another night without him. He hasn't left for 8 weeks yet and I am already fretting! Oh, how dependent we become! Please, pray for me to be more dependant on Jesus.
Thanks so much for all your prayers, Bless y'all in the wonderful name of Jesus. Here is the latest pic of our family taken by a great friend I met here. Thank you, Amanda! I l love this picture
Kids photo contest pictures-even some winners and honorable mentions!
Long time no pics nor posts. It's been way too crazy around here with ball games and practices, gymnastics, sewing, guitar and lyrical dance recitals. But with the last 2 behind this past week I decided to take a few min to squeeze in just one tiny weeny post.
The arboretum at Auburn Universtiy had a photo contest for adults and children this past week. I just had to post the pics the kids entered! I didn't want to bore you with all the great pics we picked to choose from because they are too many good ones. SO, I limited myself to only the ones they entered. 3 per child. I put them in order from oldest (12) to youngest 10,8 and almost 7. Oh, and I guess I can throw my entries in there as well. Mine didn't get even an honorable mention. There were some professionals who have studios who entered and won, of course. We waited (should I just confess and say I waited?) till last day to print the pics and buy the mattes and title our entries. We delayed our friend who was entering with us till the last minute! The kids surprised me with their creativity in their titles! WOW! Separated! Monkey in the middle! Priviledge (our 6 yodd came up with that?) That's all the time I have for now though! Enjoy them. Like some kids' entries? Drop me a line and I will forward them (well,the 2 oldest have ems that they hardly have time to check these days during a busy ball season, but I will ask them) your comments. If you want to see the rest of the shots we took of God's creation a few weeks ago when the flowers were so gorgeous, please, head on to my Picasa web gallery. Enjoy them! N
Are all Orios sweet? Ours is! No, it's not bad English! Just read, will you, please?
Well, my blogspot blog did something really weird last nite and jumped the gun on my big news and posted a pic all on its own. I didn't upload it to the blog!!! I don't know how it happened. So, beware, all ya bloggers. That said I wanted to properly introduce a new member of our family. Orio! Yes, that's how one of our children spelled it in a hurry on the new tiny bowl! The child was a bit taken back when a few giggles arose but then assured us that was the way she intended to spell it. I have 3 shes so I won't disguise which she. But we love the name. It is totally different like the rest of our kids's names! Yeah! Spelling sometimes does come in handy, especially when not many oreos are ever present in this house (except when Newman's own mint ones are on sale at Kroger).
So, since it's really very late and I need to close for now I wanted to make up for my blogger slip the other day and let you properly see the latest news. More on our sweet, playfull, poopy baby later!
Blessings, most of the dog pics were taken by the children with a point and shoot camera, not bad, huh? Wait till you see their nature pics we took yesterday at the Arboretum. That is, one week is all you have to wait till I edit 400 something pics to choose just 12 to enter into a contest. I have to take school off this week in order to get this accomplished or count editing pics with 4 kids behind my back exclaiming: "I took this one! Isn't it good, mom. Yes, honey, awesome. to hear another one say: No, it was me who took it, not you!" SOrry if my dialog is not properly punctuated. Got to get in bed! Enjoy! Oh, yeah, and brace yourself for more pics. Not the fainthearted this blog is.
Ok, I had a few softball pics that didn't look like they needing a whole lot of editing so I decided to get them up asap. I know you all are waiting for wedding pics but I took those with no external flash and all on auto so not many good ones but hopefully I can edit some and get that project nailed down next week. Till then, spring is here! We got back from KY Sun and our oldest dd had her first Sball game the very next day and another one Wed. Talk about a crazy week of attempting to unpack, get meals and do school. Dearest oldest son's pics should be coming for his first game followed just a few short days later. I am hoping for an earlier game for better pics. It is really hard to take pics at nite in the field thru a dumb fence. Sorry about those interferrences. Enjoy! Natalie
Since we were gone to a wedding the majority of this past week I missed this cool contest that was posted on my local HS loop. http://www.storytubes.info/
It's for grades 1-6 and our oldest won't be able to participate in it. I wish we knew about it a week or 2 earlier. I've always wanted to make a Youtube video. We've attempted today but it will really take time. So, all of you technocrati wizes, have at it. Help your kids learn how to edit and make a cool 2 min movie about a book. We gave it a good try this am, but I just couldn't handle 4 stories with a dumb camcorder whose owner's manual I couldn't find anywhere. The exposure was so high we couldn't find a room dark enough to film, so we gave up. I hope some of you will decide it's worth it and enter. Another thing that slowed me down (on top of unpacking and doing loads of laundry and trying to consign some kids's clothes for KCC (kidsclothesconnection.com) after a weeks absence) was the statement in the contest rules that first 2,000 entries in each region are guaranteed a review for Top Ten consideration and subsequent voting in their selected categories. Entries beyond this number will be screened if possible, as determined by the regional library partner. So, that was a bummer. I figured to get into the 2000 one has to be mighty quick to enter first thing tomorrow am. But making a 2 min quality movie might be daunting to unexperienced parents like me. I know some of you are good and hope one of your kids enters. If so, please, count on us to vote for you. Let us know the category and when to vote! Have a ball!
I hope to mark my calendar for next year's contest and hope to put the movie making on my project list, like I don't have enough. But I plan on tackling it this summer after I get a gallon of blueberries picked and half in my tummy!
I entered Reading Rainbow's Story contest with our 1 and 2nd grader 2 weeks ago and we took 2 full days "off school" to get that done. Whew! One got her story back with a certificate of participation, another one nothing yet. So , we are hopeful. The youngest one doesn't know what to think about her entry-maybe it was disqualified. Both entries were in the same envelope. I hope that wasn't the prob. But she wrote it on her won and even typed it. I helped her choose her font and edited her grammatical mistakes and discussed syntactical ones on a 1st gr level. She illustrated it and it was a long process but we did it! I will try to take pics of the story and illustrations. So cool! You can view past winners and make your own story books. I bet RR has a contest in your state! Here is the link to the national winners http://pbskids.org/readingrainbow/contest/national.html
Just a few pics of our Homeschool Day-a bit boring?
Just wanted to add these real quick to let y'all in what we've been doing lately. Though we officially took the week off as the rest of the public schools did we didn't have time to be bored. Figured a few pics would speak more than my words. A little bit of bowling? Typing review spelling words? Sewing? Catching up on some math? Didn't edit any, they'd never make it on my blog if I did! Enjoy!
WIN the *all new* Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3 FOR FREE!
I hate that we lost the priviledge to use RS free on line this year. We didn't take full advantage of it for the past 2 years, in fact. When we moved to LA and lived there for just a short 5 months the Ascencion Parish Library allowed free access to patrons of the library to a database, which included RS. All languages. This year they disabled this feature. So, when I saw my friend blog about it I jumped hoping that we'd win a free copy. It is a pricey program. So, if you'd like to enter the drawing, please, read the instructions below.
Rosetta Stone has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while -- next week they are unleashing a brand new curriculum, and you can WIN the *all new* Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3… FOR FREE!
This is a $219 program (and believe me it's worth every penny!) and the winner gets to pick from any of these 14 languages: Spanish (Spain or Latin America), English (American or British), Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Irish, Hebrew, or Russian.
This will also include a headset with microphone, and students will participate in lifelike conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone still incorporates listening, reading and writing as well, in addition to speaking. Many homeschoolers requested grammar and vocabulary exercises, and with Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3, they're included! For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program and allow parents to easily enroll students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, and view and print reports.
To win this most excellent program -- in the language of your choice -- copy these (blue) paragraphs and post it in (or as) your next blog post -- then to enter the contest, go to the original contest page HERE: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/JenIG/501132/ and leave a comment with the link showing where you blogged about it. And please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post it.And good luck!The winner will be picked randomly on March 26, and will be notified thru the link they left to their blog pg. And if you have more than one blog, you can post them and enter those separately for more chances to win. Yay for free stuff!
Spring pics thanks to Picasa Web gallery - an easy way to upload pics and slideshows on your blog
I decided to update my old blog and give it another try now that I have learned to easily upload slideshows. My main reason being is that I couldn't display my slideshow pics at their largest. I kind of liked it with the black frame around it and large to view. Blogger wasn't doing that, maybe it was due to my 3 col template. At this poitn I got no clue how to get back to my 2 column. I cannot find my previous template saved anywhere . So, here I am again, for how long? Who knows? Keep checking. I'll add a note if I moved again. I love moving, didn't you know that? No, not moving to another place, like the whole packing junk. Oh, no, no, no! Nyet (russian for NO)X100 Nyet! But I do love moving furniture around to make more room or just do freshen up. So, please, put up with me till I settle down in the blogosphere.
I can't tell you how easy it was to add the slidesho to HSB too without going to Flickr or Photobucket (which lost all my pics and I got disgusted with it)! So, today I used Picasa Web Gallery on HSB and it worked fine. I hope I can change the header and the template easily enough. Enjoy the pictures. Calloways is a great place to bike with the family. We bring a picnic and enjoy the weather. This time we started our ride at the butterfly center, thus some butterfly pics. We ate lunch and watched a squirrel take off with our whole wheat saltine (healthy one, I tell ya). So, that's why that little critter is last in row. i meant to blog about that in my Blogger blog but forgot. So, here you go, another late nite post. Enjoy it! Leave me a comment if you liked the HSB page better or just cuz you wanted to say hey!
I just found out from my fellow blogger Carri about this neat place-the homeschool lounge. I had to run and check it out and I can't wait to get signed in and explore. Sounds like a ton of fun and support for homeschooling moms. But first I have to get my new pics uploaded. So, please, go check it out at http://www.thehomeschoollounge.com/
Born and raised in a communist country (till 21) I enjoy the freedoms we didn't have. Home educating our 4 children, worshipping God freely and being helpmeet to a hard working husband are more than I could ever dreamed of! How blessed I am! Thank you, dear Jesus!
), but hey, it's still savings and it's memories here we are talkign about. IF there are more adventures to follow in 2008 I sure hope I stumble upon another coupon so I can make part II. Enjoy it all!
. I'll get another one soon, I am sure! The other day after watching an hour of single and double water jumps (i don't know if I am saying it correctly) my kids decided to try it at the pool. It's very shallow so they are very limited in their jumps. The deep side doesnt' have a stand, so it was low key but I really had fun shooting. 
The kids surprised me with their creativity in their titles! WOW! Separated! Monkey in the middle! Priviledge (our 6 yodd came up with that?) That's all the time I have for now though! Enjoy them. Like some kids' entries? Drop me a line and I will forward them (well,the 2 oldest have ems that they hardly have time to check these days during a busy ball season, but I will ask them) your comments. If you want to see the rest of the shots we took of God's creation a few weeks ago when the flowers were so gorgeous, please, head on to my Picasa web gallery. Enjoy them! N
. So, here I am again, for how long? Who knows? Keep checking. I'll add a note if I moved again. I love moving, didn't you know that? No, not moving to another place, like the whole packing junk. Oh, no, no, no! Nyet (russian for NO)X100 Nyet! But I do love moving furniture around to make more room or just do freshen up. So, please, put up with me till I settle down in the blogosphere. 