3rd week of school for Claire - Awesome.

1st week of school for Jane, Hank and Kate - Fabulous.

5 days until the next season of Survivor starts - Unbelievable!

I am so super duper excited! Anyone want to invite me over to watch Survivor on their HUGE TV with DVR or TIVO? Just wondering. Because if you wanted to, I might like to come. We could make it a girl party. I'll put the kiddos to bed, bring the baby and some cookies and it will be so much fun! It's almost enough for me to just think of it.

This week we are....

memorizing week 1 memory work for Cycle 3 Classical Conversations

reading books about Christopher Columbus

completing math lessons

learning new poems

finishing The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis

hopefully moving into our new house

hopefully having a bunch of friends come help us move into our new house

growing mold on purpose in baby food jars

doing silly things to make Elsie laugh

inventing a potion to make Walter stop growing so fast

learning the Presidents and States and Capitals

wishing William can stay home from the Canada trip.

Of course, there is the laundry, dishes, sweeping, food making, blah, blah, blah stuff too. My goals are to stay healthy, poor William has bronchitis, and a few of the kids have colds, accomplish our school goals each day and be ready to move when the time comes. I can do it!

Oh, remind me to share with you how wonderful Henry's Special Baptism Day was. He is such a sweet boy. Love that guy.

Survivor Wanna-be is Me

Once again I am apologizing. Sorry for being so misleading. I really was just that excited over seeing Coach on the street though. I was literally shaking silly as it seems. :)

It has been my dream to be on Survivor since the first time I saw it, but I don't think it will ever happen. First of all I have five kids. I can't leave them for 39 days, are you crazy? Second of all, I think I would be weirded out by all the night time snuggling between contestants and be ostracized for it. Thirdly, the whole modesty issue. Seriously, have you ever seen anyone on Survivor keep covered up the swhole time they are out there? It's like they go back to their primal nature and just feel comfortable running around practically naked. The problem would be that I would join right in and then grimace with shame during every episode of Survivor I was on. Lastly, I have five kids....it's just not going to happen....unless they are all shipped off to boarding school and I only see them at Christmas and summer break.....not likely.

How about you? Have you ever dreamed of being a contestant on a t.v. show?

Guess what????

You will never believe it! It's so exciting...well if you are a Survivor fan it is. If you are not a fan, you might want to skip this post. OR....you could go to cbs.com and watch the latest season of Survivor, then come back and read this post and then you would truly appreciate what I am about to tell you. You might not even believe me because I don't have a picture to prove it, but I promise it's true. Unbelievably true!

Okay, so my sister-in-law Amy is in town from Washington and we decided it was time for a girl's night out. We talked cousin-in-law Kristie into joining us and hit the downtown for some fun. After parking we strolled to the corner with the freedom that comes with having no children hanging on your legs. We were giddy with excitement. A few yards ahead I noticed a man with longish hair pulled back into a half pony tail.

Me~ "Amy, is that Coach?"
"What?" asks Krystie.
Me~ "Do you watch Survivor Kristie?"
"What???"
Me~ "Do you watch Survivor?"
"Oh, yeah, sometimes."
Me~ "I think that's Coach." "Amy, is that Coach?" "It cant' be Coach."
Amy~ "I think it is Coach."
At this point we were standing on the SAME CORNER as said mystery man whispering like 6th grade school girls. The light turned and Amy took one brave look back as we walked across the street and said, "It IS Coach."
Me~ "No way! It's really Coach? Should I say something?"
The distance between us was growing as we approached opposite corners and I knew it was now or never.
"Hey Coach!" I yelled.
Would he turn? Would he answer? He did! He hesitated for just a split second and then his upper body turned toward us as he lifted his arm up for a friendly wave.
"Hey!" he called. I giddily waved back.
Me~ "Oh my gosh. I can't believe that was Coach!!!!"

As we walked into Jimmy John's for a delicious beach club I realized my adrenaline was pumping and I was nearly trembling with excitement. What is it with seeing a celebrity? (If you could even call him that.) I didn't even like him on Survivor. I mean, I liked him because he was truly entertaining with all his stories and dragon slaying and "integrity", but I surely hoped he wouldn't win. I actually vividly remember telling William one night while watching an episode, "I would be scared if I ran into him on the street. He's pretty creepy. Do you realize we have a pretty good chance of bumping into him?" And now looky here. I just saw Coach Benjamin Wade! We would have gone after him for a picture once we got our senses about us and recovered from the initial shock, but he went into a bar and I don't really want to go in there, plus I had left my ID in the car and people still don't believe I'm 21 sometimes. I think I'm still in a bit of shock. Maybe I dreamed the whole thing...but I'm sure it happened because Amy and I were still talking about it when she left my house at 1:45 in the morning.

What did we do all night you ask? Well we certainly were not stalking Coach I tell ya. What we did was head over to an awesome 80's arcade and played Pac Man, Ms. Pac Man, tetris, frogger, donkey kong, pinball and much more. Kristie enjoyed the 80's magazines and my hand is just a tad sore from trying to beat Amy in Tetris. I think we'll be going back before she goes home. After the arcade we headed to Andy's...of course. The straw-ana with hot fudge is delicous every time. Mmmmmmmm!

Krystie dropped us off at my house and Amy I spent the next two hours laughing till we cried (well I did anyways) watching YouTube videos of funny dancing sobriety tests, laughing babies, American Idol auditions of Mary and British cops wearing no pants pulling over women for a candid camera show. Then Amy drooled over my new sewing machine I still don't know how to use it all that well, but tonight I mad up my mind to follow Amy's amazing example by making a couple quilts, learning to knit and becoming crafty. Anything is possible folks. Man, I'm going to miss Amy all over again when she goes back home, dangit.

Can you believe I saw Coach? I was seriously on the SAME CORNER as him. What would you have done? I should have freaked out and gotten a picture with him right there on the spot. He would have loved it, don't ya think?

P.S. Sorry I hyped it up so much. It wasn't all that amazing was it?

Well maybe just a little.
For me.
You know.

P.P.S. No, it's not really 11:58...it's after 2am! (I changed the time so it wouldn't appear that I had been out on the Sabbath partying it up...wow I need to go to bed.) But I had to share. I could never sleep without getting this exciting news off my chest. Nighty, night!

I'm Addicted

By chance, might you have an addiction? I do. Come on, there is no denying it, I think we all have one...even if we're trying to rid ourselves of it. An addiction as defined by Merriam-Webster online is the compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance or in my words....something you just have to have (pretty often) and can't go without for an extended period of time.

You may think you can let it go, but have you tried? Your addiction might be different from mine. Believe me, there are many things to be addicted to these days.

Milkshakes after midnight,

eating your boogers, picking your nose,

smoking cigs, drinking tea or coffee, downing your daily Dr. Pepper,

pornography, gambling, sniffing your armpits, licking your finger after digging in your ear just to see if it still tastes so nasty, the list goes on....

mopping your floor three times a day (William secretly wishes this was me),

making yourself barf after eating, sneaking into the cupboard for just one more spoonful of creamy peanut butter and chocolate,

blogging when all other duties are being neglecting, consuming large amounts of alcohol every night, biting your fingernails,

watching SYTYCD

checking your email twenty times a day, checking your stocks fifty times a day, vacuuming your car every time you drive it and last but not least.....

eating large quantities of beans

just because you like the way it feels when you toot

are just a few examples of the myriad of things you might be addicted to.

I think the first step to letting go of an addiction is admitting you have a problem. So here goes nothing....I am officially addicted......drumroll please......to Sweets (chocolate in all forms, hard candy, cakes, cinnamon rolls with gooey frosting, brownies, cookies, cream cheese frosting on graham crackers, truffles, oh wait I guess that falls into the chocolate category, cheesecake, doughnuts, pastries, ice cream, Andy's Frozen Custard Concretes, basically anything containing sugar) AND Survivor (I haven't missed an episode in many seasons and if you watch also are you enjoying this season?). Did you really think I was going to have a major confession here? Are these bad things to be addicted to? You're right, any addiction is bad...I know. Am I ready to give them up? Not yet. Until that day, I will be eating my dark chocolate with hazelnuts from France (thank you Bernie) while watching Survivor late at night on my new laptop (thank you girls for homeschooling).

What are you addicted to?