A trip to the State Capital

You know what is the best thing for a day of hormones kicking it up in full gear?

A brownie fudge sundae.

Just kidding. It's a big hug and kiss and a sincere "I Love You mom, You are the best" from your child. Everything seems better after that.

Anyway, don't have pictures of my food. I've been too lazy to download and post. I'll post tomorrow.

I have had plenty of yummy food. Most good, some not good for me. But all so tasty.

We went on a field trip to the State Capital on Tue. It was so much fun. I never thought I'd say that History is fun because I am the one that flunked history and government in High School and College.

Even though the kids were young, our tour guide, the secretary for our State Senator, made it very interesting for them. She even had them role play so that they could understand how a law becomes a bill and trying to get them to understand checks and balances.

I do believe they all enjoyed themselves. We were able to meet Our House of Representative and our State Senator. The man this is our House Representative goes to our church so we already knew him, but were able to talk to him about Home school issues.

The State Senator talked to the kids first. He was sweet in that he commended us parents for Homeschooling and said wonderful things about Homeschooling. It makes you feel good to know that someone is behind you.

The Representative was as well. His wife was a Missions Kid and was Home schooled. He was a public school teacher and coach, so he has the knowledge on both ends.

All in all, it was a great day at the Capital.

Yesterday was spent mostly catching up on what should have been done Tue. It was a rough day in school. Both boys acted like they didn't know what they were being taught, when in fact it was just review. Days like that make me feel inadequate. My self-doubt sets in. All the pressure from the public seeps in takes over my thoughts. I question myself whether I'm actually teaching correctly. Am I not getting the point across the correct way? Am I doing the right thing?

We took a little break until after lunch and then continued with school. It was much better. The boys suddenly remembered how to do the lesson and all was good. Then the insecurities that I had earlier were gone. All was good.

I leave you with this little story.

Hubster and Teenster came home for lunch yesterday. Hubster had taken his motorcycle to work and therefore that is how they came home. UB made a comment about that to them and said, "Two guys riding one motorcycle? I just don't get it."

I don't think Hubster liked that comment.

Hands on Health Field trip

After a very busy week, we took a field trip to a hands on health place. We hadn't been on a field trip in a while and had been wanting to do this one.

I didn't know what to expect. Most health places are somewhat boring. Too much knowledge for kids to understand.

But this place was pretty cool. They had lots of hands on stuff for the kids and the kids all seem to have enjoyed it.

One of the purposes of this place is to show the kids all the different areas out there in the medical field and maybe intrigue their interest to do one when they grow up.

They even had a car where you would sit in and the video game was showing you how difficult it is to manuvour the car when you are drunk. They also had an area for those people that smoked. It showed the difference in healthy lungs and smokers lungs.

When they walked in, they encountered this slide. It was in a head and when they slid down, air would blow on them to signify the sneeze. The bottom part had a red punch bag that looked like the tonsils. Needless to say, this was a hit with all the kids.
They had places throughout the area where you could step into the doctors shoes. It showed a little video of the role of the doctor and told you all about it. You would step out and then step back in and it would be another doctor's role.

UB's favorite place was the pharmacy. He pretended to be the pharmacist and enjoyed it.

AB's favorite place was where you pretended to be a surgeon. They were able to keep the mask and cap and they were quite thrilled with that.

This surgery place had a plastic bin of some sort and you would stick your hands into the gloves that were there. They would actually perform surgeries. They could do heart surgery, knee surgery or something else. The video was performing at the same time and tell all about the surgery.

The boys enjoyed it, and they even learned a few things.

Great way to end the week.

Enjoying the Wildlife Expo Fair

On Friday, we went on a field trip to the Wildlife Expo Fair. We had gone last year with a good friend of mine and her boys, but she has moved. So, I recruited Hubster to go with me.

This Fair is all about trying to get people to enjoy the outdoors via wildlife way. They have so much to do for the kids and it's all free. My favorite word.

We were able to see some awesome birds up close.

Hubster did all the stuff with AB. They shot pellet guns, shotguns, they went fishing did archery.

Hubster even caught a fish. Right before this little fish was caught, a kid to the left of Hubster had just caught a big catfish. I guess the catfish scared all the other big fish away.

Let's take a closer look at the poor little fish.

UB didn't want to do any of the activities. He wasn't feeling good and wanted to eat oreo cookies and peanut bars instead of playing. But he was happy.

AB even did some kayaking. By this time, the lines were unbelievably long. Every school in the area wanted to enjoy this free event. AB made me stand in line for an hour just to do this thing. AB knew he had waited a long time so he went around the little pond 3 times.

The boys all had a great time. AB even did the javelin throw and the buffalo patty throw. They saw bats, snakes, frogs, butterflies, a 105 year old turtle and a baby alligator. They learned about so many different things. The poison control center was even surprised when AB was telling them about his scorpion bite. They couldn't believe that he didn't have an allergic reaction to it.

It was a long, fun, exciting and tiring day. I'm ready to go again next year.

Please don't make me sleep in that bed

After spending a couple of days with my brother and his family, we drove to Carlsbad, NM. But if you've never been to West Texas, let me just give you a tour of what you're missing.


On the road from El Paso to Carlsbad, you see miles and miles and, well, miles of desert. We did see this animal. I'm not an expert in wildlife, so I'm not sure if that's an antelope, elk, deer or a buffalo? I'm kidding, I know for sure it's not a buffalo, I'm not really sure what it was. It was on the side of the road trying to find some food in that desert land. We drove some more and we saw this. What would you call them, mountains or hills of dirt with weeds growing on them?

But wait! I think I see something other than dirt. Yes, it's some sort of rock formations.

And look! We even have some mountains. The Guadalupe Mountains to be exact.

Let's take a closer look shall we? They are pretty neat to see. To know that our God created all of that is amazing.

Now you know what the back road from TX to NM looks like.

We arrive at our destination. We had reservations, but the nice people (I say that with a hint of sarcasm) wouldn't let anyone check in until 4pm. So we waited with a bunch of other people, who were also hot and cranky, in the cool gift shop.

When we had decided to take the boys to the the Caverns, we decided to stay here. I had looked at the pictures, read what they had and decided that it would be a nice place to stay at. It was up the road from the Caverns, it had a water park for the boys to play at, there was a restaurant there, what more could we want.

Well, we finally formed a line at 3:55 in order to check into our rooms. Our plans were to get in the room, get in our swimsuits and go to the water park. We get our room key and drive over to where our room is located.

When I used to travel, I used to carry my own sheet and pillow and blanket because the thought of sleeping on something that was unsanitary just didn't appeal to me. Now that I have kids, we carry our pillows and some blankets.

When we got in the room, I had this weird feeling. I went straight for the bed that I was going to sleep in and pulled back the covers. I gagged. Now bear with me because I'm going to describe what I saw. If you are grossed out already, then skip over this. I have never stayed in a hotel room that was this nasty. I saw some dried mucous on the sheets and the pillow cases. Then there was some dried blood on the the pillow cases as well. I walk over to the other bed and find hairs all over that one. I told Hubster that we couldn't stay there. He said he was going to call the front desk. AB said, "well, you need to tell them that there's a problem with the shower." Since we hadn't taken showers yet, I couldn't understand what the problem was. I walk in there and find a used rag draped over the shower head in the shower and the sewer seemed to have backed up into the tub. Hubster was talking to the front desk and they said they would send housekeeping and maintenance over. I really don't think that would have helped us at that moment.

At this point, we are totally disgusted. We decide to go stand in line again and get our money back. We got our money back and went into town to look for another hotel. When we did find one, we looked the sheets over, as well as the bathroom. Everything was cool.

We assumed that the same people that owned the nasty place owned the caverns and since we were already thoroughly disgusted, we didn't even go near the caverns. I'm sure they were fine, but we weren't going to go through that again.

So next time you stay in a hotel, don't just go by the pictures, inspect the sheets first. You just never know what you might find. Or better yet, carry your own sheets.

Scooby doo, where are you?

Pray continually.

1 Thessalonians 5:17

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We went on a field trip this morning. While driving back home, I was behind a hearse that had the licence tag "gonhome". Then on the side of the window, it said "the land of oz hearse gathering".

This hearse was behind me at first, then it passed me, then it was in front of me, then I guess someone woke up in the back of the hearse, because it slowed down and I had to pass it.

Then I look back and it's gaining ground on me again. While it is passing me, it stays driving along side of me. I'm thinking that maybe it wants to go home with me, but I'm not really sure.

The driver and the passenger of the hearse were laughing and having a good 'ol time. I on the other hand, was not! I'm already driving 75 on the turnpike, but at that point I was willing to drive fast just to get away from the party hearse.

It finally finds an exit and I am able to go home (my home) safely. I thought that maybe I was in a scooby doo mystery.