From the mouths of babes...

Here is a funny thing that one of my kids said today.

I was going through their math book and saw that they are having a "test" tomorrow. When I was doing the pre-day planning this afternoon, I said, "Ok, they have a test tomorrow". One of my girls said "Mom, will the test hurt?"
Wait until they get to college, then they will truly understand the "pain" of a test.

I thought that spoke for itself.
One of the girls has allergy tests a couple of weeks ago, which is drawing blood, so in their little minds, tests hurt.

Well, we started school last week and it seems to be going well. There are times that I feel as though I want to tear all my hair out trying to teach 2 5 year olds how to write certain numbers and letters. It can be somewhat difficult.
So far I think they might be learning something. It seems as though each day their letter and number writing does get a little bit easier.
First time homeschool mom and first time schoolers can be somewhat interesting. My degree is not for this age group and there is a reason for that, but the teaching aspect is the same none the less.
I did realize that I forgot to take a picture of their first day. I cannot believe that I did, but I did. My husband cannot believe that I forgot either.

We'll see how this year goes as to whether or not it has been a success.

Go Sarah Go

Here is my two cents.

I was not sure about John McCain. He appeared to be the better of two bads initially. I personally thought my candidate of choice (Mitt Romney) was better back in February. Maybe he still would have been in certain areas of leadership.
I became more convinced that John McCain was the person that he claimed to be when he was interviewed by Pastor Rick Warren at Saddleback Church in California. I thought he gave the better answers. He was clear and concise and shared his view points on certain important issues to Conservatives, such as myself.
I had decided at that point that I was going to vote for him and of course hoping that he would choose a good Conservative running mate and not do his "maverick" thing of choosing someone who would help gain those more moderate voters who would probably vote Democrat anyway (like Joe Lieberman for example) --though he did give a good speech at the RNC convention last week.
I certainly did not expect who John McCain did pick to be his running mate. I had heard her name once or twice thrown around on Conservative talk shows, but she was not on the short list for them.
After hearing Sarah speak, I am convinced that she can do the job. I am also convinced by some of her testimony as shared by the pastor of her church (that she grew up in and attends when she is at home in Wasilla, AK) that she is a woman who is trying to follow God's direction in her life -- though she has made mistakes as have we all.
John McCain not only did meet expectations, but he did far better. He did choose a Maverick like himself -- in Sarah Palin.

Sorry, more politics. It is in my blood, what can I say?

I am glad that both party conventions are over and we can move on to the real stuff -- the debates and negative campaigning (just kidding on the last one).

I think all of our (the Republicans, duh) speeches were just "too hot for the Dems to handle". I am not a HUGE McCain fan, but his choice of Sarah Palin for VP was just over the top for me. By choosing her he has shown a choice for Conservative values and after hearing both speeches the past couple of days, I love the reform idea. We do need LOTS of reform in the Congress and the White House.

Happy 9 weeks until the elections.

New McCain campaign slogan

For those of you who hate politics, this post is not for you.
I, personally, like it to a point. By November, I will be ready to get the election behind me as the negativity and ads will get to me by then.
You also know that I am a Republican by choice. My first allegience is to God and those things that are Biblically sound -- such as pro life and pro marriage between one male and one female. My pocketbook comes in also as I do not like to pay high taxes and I am in one of the highest taxed states here. I also like to choose my own healthcare program and do not need the government telling me that I can't own a gun. That is usually the political party that stands behind all of those things. I also have to vote my conscience in what I believe that would best honor God.

I am also not an Obama kool-aid drinker. He believes in nothing more than a Communist Utopia. He wants everyone equal even though he owns a multi million dollar home that he had to have help buying. He wants higher taxes for what he calls the rich (if you make over 150,000 --does that include himself and many of his colleauges in Congress). Apparently in his lack of experience he fails to realize that it is the rich who pay the most taxes in this country.
He is also very extreme in his abortion beliefs -- abortion after the baby is born by letting it die.
He has no experience and has done nothing for the state of Illinois. There is no such thing as the Land of Lincoln.
Because of the Republican party he can stand where he stands today as a presidential candidate. It was the Republican party under the great Abraham Lincoln that freed the slaves in 1862 and 1863.

After hearing Hillary's speech last night. I got all fired up. Here is the new campaign slogan.
NO WAY, NO HOW, NO BAMA. Go McCain. Never thought I would hear myself say that one. I want the bumper sticker.

New Lifestyle

As some of you know (okay, maybe only one), I have been trying to figure out for the past few weeks what was causing the eczema and coughing of one of my children. A friend suggested that it could be allergies (I had never thought of that) and she suggested that I take her off of milk for a couple of weeks and see what happens. She left me with a couple pints of rice milk to try.

Lo and behold, suddenly my child does not cough all night, something that she has not done in several weeks. Her coughing had kept us all up for nights on end and it was nice to finally get a night sleep. For almost two weeks this went on and when I would allow her to indulge in cheese, ice cream etc... she would then cough at night. Her eczema started clearing up also.

Things then got out of control after we re-introduced dairy and I did not know what to do next so I called the doctor and he suggested the blood test.
We finally had a blood test last Friday and we found out that sure enough, she is allergic to milk and egg whites. Now life will get easier for us as now we know what not to give her. It is a mild allergy, so having either of those two items will not kill her, but she will just get the uncomfort that comes with it. It does not mean that she cannot have ice cream with Grandma, but it means that if sherbet or sorbet is an option, she should have that instead.

The egg whites is going to be a little harder to do as there are eggs in a lot of things. There will be some lifestyle changes that will need to be made feeding my allergic child and I may need some guidance on that one.

Update on the Update.

We finally got the infamous car home. He picked it up on Saturday morning and got it as far as a mechanic about half way to the house from the dealership.
He looked at it over Monday and found it to only be a cadyllic converter flush was needed (that dumb eco friendly unnecessary part anyway). Cost us a measly $58.00. Thankfully, after my husband talked them down at the dealership $200 on the price of the car and we still came out ahead.
Now that the car runs well, and my husband made it the 25 miles one way to work, we priced it on Kelley Blue Book and it is valued over twice what we paid.
I definitely think that car dealership knew it had a problem and didn't want to fix it and wanted it off their lot. They could have made a lot more on it if they would have just fixed it up. How much more time, effort, and money would that have truly taken. And, they would have made their customers happy and kept their reputation in tact.
If it lasts a few months, or even a year, this hassle will be but a happy memory as we tootle along in our new van-- that hopefully won't be a hassle as this little car was.
If I could drive it, I would show it off to my two readers, but since it is a manual transmission, I have to just look at it from a distance (until my husband has the patience to put up with me behind the wheel so I can practice on it).