hello! this was supposed to be a picture laden post. one filled with gobs of pictures of my favorite people on this earth (if you have to ask who they are you simply do not know me) ;-) but alas...it appears that our hard drive is acting up so, no pictures can be posted for now. hopefully, my computer genius hubby can get that up and running soon. ;-) yep, he's awesome like that. love that man!
i'll get up some pictures soon...i tell you..i absolutely love taking pictures and i am blessed with some amazing subjects to photograph. God is so good!
so, for this post i'm feeling all musical.. i will introduce you to my current favorite song. yep, i have been in a 'drew holcomb and the neighbors' kick lately and i'm okay with that. love their music! love this song!
you are a novel in a sea of magazines
you make me nervous, you make my heart beat
you are red in a sea of black and white
you are a fire, you are dynamite.
yes yes...another song dedicated to my love, rocky!
i have started to work with little man on an amazing book! teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons by siegfried engelmann.
i first heard about this book from multiple friends, including my sister, who either homeschool or are preparing their kids for school, and i was honestly quite impressed with their success stories from using this book.
little man is progressing right along..i believe to date, we are on lesson 14. we have been working on two or three lessons a day, depending on how interested he is. some days we do only one, which is just fine.
i saw a drastic change in his reading skills even after lesson two or three. amazing!! he was quite shocked, himself. ;-) i could see shock on his face.
it uses phonics to help the reader-in-training to understand and recognize the letters as sounds, instead of simply letters. phonics is the way to go! highly effective!
so far so good...will let you know more about how little man is progressing in reading as we move through the book.
oh yes..i promised you some randomness in the form of pictures,right?
so..what compliments learning how to read better than skateboarding? yep, these kids lead very well balanced lives, that is for sure. ;-)
more pics to come soon from our trip to the cousin's house this past weekend...stay tuned. more skateboarding pics to come as well..
have a lovely day!
blessings,
kelly
p.s. i normally do a fairly good job with correct punctuation, spelling, and capitalization (way to pat myself on the back, huh?) but, beware that for this blog...i have thrown capitalizing words to the wind to sway among the wildflowers...;-) maybe it is me trying to be less picky or call it laziness or maybe it's because i do not have a great deal of time to be picky...maybe it's a combination, either way...it works.
If I had a great big mansion I’d rather live in a shot gun shack with you
If I drove a red farari
I’d rather ride in an oldsmobile with you
If I won a million dollars
I’d give it away to spend more time with you
If i had a million lovers
I would trade em all for just one more night with you
With you I can be myself
With you I don’t have to be somebody else
It’s like puttin on my favorite pair of shoes
I’d like to be with me, when I’m with you
If I owned the finest vineyard
I would rather sit and drink cheap wine with you
If i could live on the moon
I would rather stay in Tennessee with you
If i could sail across the ocean
The ocean would just be blue without you
If i could climb up Mount Everest
I would turn around and climb in bed with you
With you I can be myself
With you I don’t have to be somebody else
It’s like puttin on my favorite pair of shoes
I like to be with me when I’m with you
If I could be like Albert Einstein
I’d rather just be dumb and be with you
If I could sing like Frank Sinatra
I would rather sit and talk to you
With you I can be myself
With you I don’t have to be somebody else
It’s like puttin on my favorite pair of shoes
I like to be with me, when I’m with you
~I Like to Be With Me When I’m With You – Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors~
just stumbled across this song today...LOVE. sorry...i think i'm still stuck in lovey dovey romantic valentine's day mode?
Can you believe it? A decade!! Rocky and I started officially dating on Valentine's Day and we got engaged two years later on Valentine's Day! It is a very important day, to say the least.
Our first date occurred earlier that week before Valentine's Day. The weekend prior to Valentine's Day we went rock climbing with some friends. I knew that this man was a special man after talking with him during the ride to and from our climbing spot.. and I wanted to get to know him better..A date was going to have to take place. ;-) Being the forward person that I am I asked him out. Yes, I asked him out. He said 'no' because he already had made other plans with some friends of ours. Okay, that won me over even more..I mean, some people might have changed their plans if something else came along..but not him. I admired that.
So, don't believe for a second that I gave up. Oh no no...I asked him if he'd like to come over for dinner at my apartment later that week. I had discovered that he had never tried cous-cous and well, I had to make that happen for him. I had also discovered through research that pumpkin seeds are good for the prevention of prostate cancer, so I had to share that bit of health news with him. Whoa, talk about jumping the gun a bit early, huh..already concerned about the health of his prostate. ;-) He laughed. Yes, I have always been a bit health nutty.
So, he said 'yes'.. YAY!!
The dinner was great, maybe not very filling, but great mainly because of my fabulous company. We had toasted pine nut cous-cous with salad, and of course some pumpkin seeds. He seemed to tolerate it well.
After we ate we were going to go play some roller hockey (Rocky was going to teach me how, as I had never played before). Unfortunately, it was raining so the game was cancelled. No worries...he brought the goals, sticks, and puck into my garage and he taught me how to play there. We talked and played, and talked and played some more. We were in the garage for hours. It was the best, most romantic date I had ever had!!
Let me share a bit of the first official-boyfriend-girlfriend date, and then the engagement in case you are unaware..
Let's go back to Valentine's Day 2001..I was working at the Village Market at SAU. Rocky went through my line (I have no clue what he was buying) and before he payed or after (can't recall) he pulled out of his coat pocket a rose, but the stem got caught in his jacket so when he pulled it out, all that was left was a beautiful rose and a stub of a stem. Oh, this was precious. So precious!! He also set out a CD of music for me that he put together...love songs and the such. I still listen to these songs to this day, and am brought back to those moments in memory.
So, this was when we became official...also the night of our first kiss, which (okay, prepare for too much information here) lasted for I'd say an hour. No joke. It was magical!
Now fast forward to Valentine's Day 2003...The night he popped the question!
We were going to go camping at Chilhowee State Park at the little spot where we had camped together for the first time ever (just the two of us). Now, it had been pouring rain for a long time and that night (it was a Friday) there was a flood warning issued for our area. I thought we might just bail on camping...you know, with flood warnings it just made sense. But, we went anyway since we would be hanging out in the back of Rocky's truck (he had a camper top on the back of it). And Rocky was persistent we go. ;-)
So, that is where it happened. He had it all set up..candles, toasted pine nut cous-cous, the works...it was beyond sweet. And then came the box..Let's back up for a moment...
Some time prior to this (some time during our two years of dating) I had heard about a couple who got engaged, but instead of giving an engagement ring, the man gave the woman a wooden chest for storing things of significance of their lives together. I thought this was an amazing idea. Rocky apprarently took note of this. ;-)
So, back to the engagement night in the truck while camping...
So, he pulls out a beautiful little cedar box he had made just for me. It had the initials in it, 'KBC'. I looked at the box and was a bit puzzled..I thought maybe he had forgetten that my initials were 'KYB'. Hmmm..surely not. ;-) He said that he was hoping those would be my initials. My new initials with my married name. I opened up the pretty box, and the amazing smell of the cedar was breathtaking. Inside the box was a rose, with a stubbed stem (awww..how cute!) as well as a ring box. He slipped the gorgeous ring on my finger and asked me to marry him. The sweetest moment. My heart melted. There I sat with this incredible man and he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me...I couldn't believe it! Oh, and I said, 'yes!!'
Now...fast forward five more months ...July 6, 2003. The day we got married. (I wanted to get married on Valentine's Day, but couldn't stand the thought of waiting that long to get married to this man)
A beautiful day. A day unlike any other. I often think about that day and have been doing so much more so lately. I think about the look on his face as I walked down the isle. It was amazing!! I think about our special back breaking kiss (you had to be there)...let's just say that we put all other wedding kisses to shame. ;-) I love him more today than yesterday.
I am thrilled to be his wife and am so incredibly blessed to have him as my husband and best friend. I am a far cry away from deserving such a wonderful love...I am so thankful to God for His love for me that He would place this dear man in my life.
Now, understand our life together has not been perfectly smooth sailing..there have been some storms and rough waters, but what couple hasn't experienced those? Some may go through rougher storms, some not as rough, but I do believe all go through some..I mean, it only makes sense because Satan does not want the sacred institution of marriage to continue, let alone flourish and thrive. But, I believe with all of my heart that it is those storms that can make a couple stronger, if they let them and trust God to get them through TOGETHER.
Rocky's heart is full of love and compassion for others. He is always thinking of other people's well being before his own. He is truly an inspiration to me. These past ten have been filled with love beyond belief. I can truly say that am a much better person for having known this man. Though, I am not perfect, (who is?) I can see how he has influenced and changed me for good. Just being around him and his loving heart is a blessing.
He is an incredible father and husband. Blessed I am.
I look forward to many more decades with this man.
Happy Valentine's Day, Rocky.
Loved You Are!!!
**************************************
Now...for your listening pleasure this Valentine's Day...A couple sappy songs..the first one holds a special place in my heart as it was sung at our wedding. Thanks, Melissa. ;-)
Okay...I'm a hopeless romantic.
Here are some lovely love quotes..
Grow old with me! The best is yet to be. ~Robert Browning
Who, being loved, is poor? ~Oscar Wilde
I love thee - I love thee,
'Tis all that I can say
It is my vision in the night,
My dreaming in the day.
~Thomas Hood
A man is not where he lives, but where he loves. ~Latin Proverb
A baby is born with a need to be loved - and never outgrows it. ~Frank A. Clark
The most beautiful view is the one I share with you. ~Author Unknown
Hello all...I'm really not sure if I can say "all" quite yet as I am pretty certain only a few of you are actually reading this. Those reasons are most likely due to lack of time (I know, life is just sometimes too busy to catch up on a blog) and well, only a handful of people even know this blog exists. That's okay with me.
Well, I started a good portion of this post last week...but, am finally finding time to finish it up. ;-)
Before I begin my wordy homeschooling post...let me share some pictures with you...
One of our two new family additions, hermit crabs..Rocky and Little Man picked them out.
Little Man: deep in thought..
My handsome little man
She says she wants to be a civil engineer when she grows up...random,huh? ;-)
Love the tongue twirl
My precious babies
Tire swings make them smile, which in turn makes me smile ;-)
Anywho..moving onto breaking news. We are about to embark on a new journey. Little Man is about to start school. Yes, school. But, not the kind of school, which is confined to walls of a classroom. He is soon to begin "official-for-the-records homeschool."
First let me say that I am thrilled that I can stay at home with our kids and now be able to homeschool my oldest one. I realize that many families would like to be able to do this, but can not. I am aware of just how blessed I am and do not take this privilege for granted.
We have decided to go with an umbrella school, which is a homeschooling school you register with who will deal with the state on your behalf. Also, we will be keeping a record of grades through them. We will be using Homelife Academy. You can check out that umbrella school HERE.
So, before we officially register Little Man, I am working on coming up with curriculum that we will use throughout this educational journey. On that note, one of the many good things about homeschooling is that we will not be tied down by a curriculum or benchmark standard. We will have the freedom to explore and go beyond what is "expected". There is so much freedom in homeschooling.
So...that is where we are at right now...swimming in the pool of homeschool curriculum.
One book that is amazing for breaking down the best-of-the best homeschooling curriculum picks is 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum by Cathy Duffy. I once checked this book out at the library in Collegedale, and am sad to find out that I can't check the book out here in Gulf Shores (someone once checked it out along time ago, and apparently lost it.) This is saddening because it is now when I am knee high in research of homeschool curriculum. Yes, we could buy the book on Amazon, but we were hoping to snag a copy free somewhere like a library...unfortunately, this doesn't look promising.
I do know that I do not want to spend a lot in curriculum for Kindergarten...I mean this is kindergarten after all. Most of what I can use to teach him can be found in nature. Kindergarten is still supposed to be fun and enjoyable..so, making sure that I have an adequate amount of educational crafts for him might be the hardest part, well...that and sticking to a schedule. We do have our schedule for daily living, but now we will adjust that to include kindergarten. Once again...I say, that is the beauty of homeschooling.. it is not rigid, but instead flexible yet functional. ;-)
Other than keeping track of grade level and grades, not much will change..we've been teaching him since the day he was born...lots to teach with lots of love. ;-)
So, as I decide on what I will be using for curriculum I will share those with you on future posts...
