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Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Some people just have no clue as to how easy and cheap it actually is to home educate. People have been home educating since the beginning of time. Today's dumbed down brain washed society now finds it as taboo. SMH
Organic food is now the fancy term for nonpoisonous non GMO food... my Grandmother just called that food!!!! SMH
It just baffles me that so many people this day in age just go with flow, do as your told!
How is sending kids off for a 2 hr bus ride, 8 hrs a day sitting in a stuffy overcrowded classroom, practically being raised by others! Crap food, exposure to things you have NO CLUE about....SMH
Parents saying "I'm not qualified to teach my children" "It cost too much to home school"...SMH REALLY!!!! AND YOU CHOOSE to have these kids???? Children learn every step of the way, all hours of the day...it's ALL a learning experience! I have an 8th grade education, GED, some college yet I do it!!!! We make it work! I learn right along with them. Yes it IS work! But isn't raising and teaching children the PARENTS responsibility? NOT the state or federal government!
I dunno...there's my rant for the day!!! People just cease to amaze me...I am loosing all hope in humanity and the genius of our species. Sheeple! These are the same folks that say "get your shots! They will save your lives!" SMH I won't even get into that....



♥♪♫•.•°*°•.¸¸♥. PEACE and LOVE .•°*° ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ Wendy

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

The Gilmore Girls reading list


The "Gilmore Girls" reading list...

Someone posted this awesome list of books mentioned on the tv show "Gilmore Girls." How many have you read?

** indicates the ones I've read
(A) indicates the ones I've started but abandoned
(A) 1984 by George Orwell
**The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
**Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
**Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Archidamian War by Donald Kagan
The Art of Fiction by Henry James
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
**Atonement by Ian McEwan
**Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy

The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Babe by Dick King-Smith
Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi
**Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
(A actually had to return it to the library)Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
**The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
**Beloved by Toni Morrison

Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney
**The Bhagavad Gita
The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews by Peter Duffy
Bitch in Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel
A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Brick Lane by Monica Ali
Bridgadoon by Alan Jay Lerner
Candide by Voltaire
The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
Carrie by Stephen King
(A) Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
**The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
**Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White

The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman
Christine by Stephen King
(A) A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse
The Collected Short Stories by Eudora Welty
The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty
A Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
Complete Novels by Dawn Powell
**The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton
Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas père
Cousin Bette by Honor’e de Balzac
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
**The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Cujo by Stephen King
**The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon 
Daisy Miller by Henry James
Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
David and Lisa by Dr Theodore Issac Rubin M.D
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
**The Da Vinci -Code by Dan Brown 
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
**Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
**Deenie by Judy Blume

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx
The Divine Comedy by Dante
The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
Don Quijote by Cervantes
Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhrv
(A) Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson 
Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook
(A) The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn
Eloise by Kay Thompson
Emily the Strange by Roger Reger
** Emma by Jane Austen
** Empire Falls by Richard Russo
** Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol
** Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

Ethics by Spinoza
Europe through the Back Door, 2003 by Rick Steves
Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
Extravagance by Gary Krist
(A) Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore
The Fall of the Athenian Empire by Donald Kagan
Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
(A) The Fellowship of the Ring: Book 1 of The Lord of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien
Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce
Fletch by Gregory McDonald
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
(A) The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
** Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger
Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers
Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
George W. Bushism: The Slate Book of the Accidental Wit and Wisdom of our 43rd President by Jacob Weisberg
Gidget by Fredrick Kohner
** Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
The Godfather: Book 1 by Mario Puzo
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Alvin Granowsky
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford
The Gospel According to Judy Bloom
The Graduate by Charles Webb
** The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Group by Mary McCarthy
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling 
** Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling 

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry
Henry IV, part I by William Shakespeare
Henry IV, part II by William Shakespeare
Henry V by William Shakespeare
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
Holidays on Ice: Stories by David Sedaris
The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton
House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
(A) The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer
** How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
How the Light Gets in by M. J. Hyland
** Howl by Allen Gingsburg
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
** The Iliad by Homer
** I’m with the Band by Pamela des Barres

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
Iron Weed by William J. Kennedy
It Takes a Village by Hillary Clinton
** Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
** The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
The Jumping Frog by Mark Twain
(A) The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito
The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander
** The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini 
Lady Chatterleys’ Lover by D. H. Lawrence
The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal
** Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield
** Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
** Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke

Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken
** Life of Pi by Yann Martel
** The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
The Little Locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway
The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen
** Little Women by Louisa May Alcott 
Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton
** Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
** The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold 
The Love Story by Erich Segal
** Macbeth by William Shakespeare 
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The Manticore by Robertson Davies
Marathon Man by William Goldman
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir
Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman by William Tecumseh Sherman
** Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer
Mencken’s Chrestomathy by H. R. Mencken
The Merry Wives of Windsro by William Shakespeare
(A) The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion by Jim Irvin
Moliere: A Biography by Hobart Chatfield Taylor
A Monetary History of the United States by Milton Friedman
Monsieur Proust by Celeste Albaret
A Month Of Sundays: Searching For The Spirit And My Sister by Julie Mars
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and It’s Aftermath by Seymour M. Hersh
My Life as Author and Editor by H. R. Mencken
My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru by Tim Guest
My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult – read
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
** The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin
Nervous System: Or, Losing My Mind in Literature by Jan Lars Jensen
New Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson
The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay
** Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
** Night by Elie Wiesel

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism by William E. Cain, Laurie A. Finke, Barbara E. Johnson, John P. McGowan
Novels 1930-1942: Dance Night/Come Back to Sorrento, Turn, Magic Wheel/Angels on Toast/A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell
** Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski
** Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Old School by Tobias Wolff
(A) Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
** On the Road by Jack Kerouac
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
(A) One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life by Amy Tan
Oracle Night by Paul Auster
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Othello by Shakespeare
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan
Out of Africa by Isac Dineson
** The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition by Donald Kagan
** The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Peyton Place by Grace Metalious
** The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington
Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain
** The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby 
The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
The Portable Nietzche by Fredrich Nietzche
The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O’Neill by Ron Suskind
** Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 
Property by Valerie Martin
Pushkin: A Biography by T. J. Binyon
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
Quattrocento by James Mckean
A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall
Rapunzel by Grimm Brothers
** The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
(A) Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin
(A) The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories From a Decade Gone Mad by Virginia Holman
(A) The Return of the King: The Lord of the Rings Book 3 by J. R. R. Tolkien 
R Is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton
Rita Hayworth by Stephen King
Robert’s Rules of Order by Henry Robert
Roman Fever by Edith Wharton
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
(A) A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
(A) A Room with a View by E. M. Forster

Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi
Sanctuary by William Faulkner
Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford
The Scarecrow of Oz by Frank L. Baum
** The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne 
Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
** The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd 
Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman
Selected Letters of Dawn Powell: 1913-1965 by Dawn Powell
** Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen 
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Several Biographies of Winston Churchill
Sexus by Henry Miller
** The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Shane by Jack Shaefer
The Shining by Stephen King
** Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton
** Slaughter-house Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Small Island by Andrea Levy
Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
Snow White and Rose Red by Grimm Brothers
Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World by Barrington Moore
The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht
Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos by Julia de Burgos
The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker
Songbook by Nick Hornby
The Sonnets by William Shakespeare
Sonnets from the Portuegese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
** Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
A Streetcar Named Desiree by Tennessee Williams
** Stuart Little by E. B. White
Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
Swimming with Giants: My Encounters with Whales, Dolphins and Seals by Anne Collett
Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber
(A) A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
** Terms of Endearment by Larry McMurtry
Time and Again by Jack Finney
** The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger 
To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
** To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee 
The Tragedy of Richard III by William Shakespeare
** A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
The Trial by Franz Kafka
The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson
** Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
Ulysses by James Joyce
** The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962 by Sylvia Plath
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe – started and not finished
Unless by Carol Shields
Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
The Vanishing Newspaper by Philip Meyers
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
Velvet Underground’s The Velvet Underground and Nico (Thirty Three and a Third series) by Joe Harvard
** The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
** Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Walt Disney’s Bambi by Felix Salten
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
We Owe You Nothing – Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews edited by Daniel Sinker
What Colour is Your Parachute? 2005 by Richard Nelson Bolles
What Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell
When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
Who Moved My Cheese? Spencer Johnson
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum
** Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
** The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
**The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole


This is copy & paste list, I have actually read quite a few of these ;0) It was to awesome of a list not to share. Now go get your read on!

♥♪♫•.•°*°•.¸¸♥. PEACE and LOVE .•°*° ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ Wendy

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Call the Networking Paramedics….Internet Down!

This post will be a day late (I hope only a day)
1/14/2013
Oh what a day! I wake up and the first thing I have done EVERYDAY since Joe’s deployment in July is to grab the laptop and check Facebook for any signs of movement or that little green chat dot. NO CONNECTION!!! UGGGG, ok, I can do this…I can…or at least I think I can. Dad was cooking breakfast as I was trying to figure out the internet situation, still nothing... Today I am having severe attachment withdraws. I love the fact that I can keep tabs on my son who is away at war. How families done it back in the day I will never know. My heart aches for them when I think about that.  I am a wreck, but technology makes it a lot easier to deal with rather than waiting months for a letter.
(Friday morning at my pain management appointment I was given the results of the previous days MRI. The Dr. proceeded to tell me that my MRI showed abnormal “spots” on my uterus and alerted me to contact my OB GYN a.s.a.p. to set up an appointment. I got an injection in my hip joint. By Friday night I was in more pain than the severity that had sent me there in first place. )
 As I am calling pain management the school calls to tell us N is in the office crying his foot hurts real bad and this was the second time he had complained about it at hurting and said it hurts more. So dad to the rescue! He came home and his foot seems just fine. I was transferred to the nurse’s voicemail and left a message.
I don’t have a phone book and rely on Google to look up phone numbers. No internet …no number. I tried calling information and they gave me 3 wrong numbers. I finally gave up and called my mother to look up the OBGYN’s number for me. (Guess what arrived in the mail today ~ a phone book LOL ) They couldn’t even set up an appointment for me. I had to call PM back and have them fax over the MRI report. Neither office called me back today =0(
Anyway I found more productive ways to stay busy. I did some well overdue cleaning, laundry, I baked bread, homeschooled Jax and N (since he was home), made homemade pizza, and caught up on a lot of reading material I have downloaded the past few months to the Kindle PC app. (Joybilee Farms puts out a daily list of free downloadable Kindle books from Amazon I try to share on the Living a Free Range Life Facebook page) I have probably acquired several hundred. Today I focused on the issues of Backwoods Home magazines. I really enjoy the actual magazine, but since we have cut back the budget I can no longer afford to subscribe or buy issues. Last week I was able to download about a dozen free past issues. So this evening I got my read on and boy did I. We have been throwing around the idea to raise our own beef and milk cow. There was a great article in issue #130 Jul/Aug 2011 all about the pros and cons, grain fed vs grass fed. I have to the conclusion that at this time it is best if we seek out a farmer who is already raising a grass fed and purchase one from them. I don’t think we’re quite ready to raise our own. There are still a lot of improvements that need done to the barn to accommodate livestock and the feed cost right now in our area is outrageous. Fence still needs purchased and installed. Cows are pretty pricey too and after reading the article a lot can go wrong. We just don’t have that kind of money to take any risk right now and with the news we got Friday, I’m in no condition to take on a task that big. Our new little guy Skittles has me on my toes as it is.
So tomorrow they are sending out a tech to check the lines. Last year around this time we had the same problem. After several phones calls someone finally came out to check the lines. They kept insisting it was a problem in the house lines. We had already checked them and they were fine, but you know how that goes…The tech went down the road checking boxes and lines and found that a mouse had nested in a box and chewed lines. I explained to the guy over the phone today about last years situation so he agreed to send out a tech. You’d think with all the money we pay for services they would be more apt to keep you as customer. There is no such thing as good customer service anymore.
J wanted to play an Xbox game online and couldn’t, the boys and I were lost without our bedtime Netflix movie. This day in age we sometimes forget the simpler way of doing things and get caught up in all of the technology and we sometimes forget how to act and live without it all. I found myself periodically checking throughout the day to see if the internet connection had somehow miraculously reappeared. A girls gotta try ;0)



♥♪♫•.•°*°•.¸¸♥. PEACE and LOVE .•°*° ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ Wendy

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

A great end to a crazy start



Oh today started off crazy! First off the hubby's parents are ill and couldn't sit with the boys. So I had to get everyone up and ready and out the door to go to a MRI appointment (I've been having a lot of severe pain in my left hip and tailbone for months now) We pull into the hospital lot and G starts vomiting all over. He got car sick. So the hubby drops me off and takes the boys to my mother's house. I'm standing in line what seems like forever. I get up there hand the lady my information and she tells me she can't find my file. After some phone calls, she proceeds to tell me my appointment is tomorrow. I had wrote down Wednesday instead of Thursday on my calendar. Sheesh! So I had to sit and wait for him to get back. Good thing it was only about 20 minutes. Anyway I got to visit with my mom for a while. That was nice. Then off to take G to school. Then we went to a friends new pet shop he is opening and Jax LOVED seeing all the fish. We had lunch then went to meet a lady to  pick up our newest family member!!! Meet Skittles! He is so adorable!!!!






♥♪♫•.•°*°•.¸¸♥. PEACE and LOVE .•°*° ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ Wendy

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Meet Skittles

This is Skittles! The newest member of the family. He is a wethered Fainting Goat. He should be lots of fun! We go pick him up tomorrow. We are so excited!

♥♪♫•.•°*°•.¸¸♥. PEACE and LOVE .•°*° ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ Wendy

Big things to come in 2013




It's pretty ruff and sometimes expensive trying to get to where one can live as self sustainable as possible, but it is so worth it in the long run! The health benefits, the freedom, and togetherness as a family.
I'm excited to announce we are taking the leap and have purchased a goat (this one will be our pet, a fainter), there IS a prospect milk goat and and baby we are trying to accommodate. Pigs arrive in March along with new chicks , turkeys, and bunnies. A pot belly piggy for the kiddos and buddy for the goat. Plans to expand the garden are in the works. Fencing still needs purchased and pens need to be built for turkeys and pigs, but we are getting there! It's a lot of planning, work, and money. I am so ready for this challenge! My "bigs" are considering going back to being home schooled in the fall. A lot of excitement right now on the farm. ;0)
♥♪♫•.•°*°•.¸¸♥. PEACE and LOVE .•°*° ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ Wendy

Been a LONG time since I said "Hello!"



*I started writing this while back and never got it finished. I wanted to add so many more pictures, but things once again changed withe sites  I was using and got got crazy busy around here. This was/is my rough draft, but to just get it published and move on and get back to blogging,  here it is typos and all ;0) Sorry.


WOW!!!
I haven't blogged since April!!!
Life just got swept me up under a rug and now here I am again! I feel the need to get back to writing each day, it's such good therapy for me!!! LOL And boy do I feel like I need some lately! Things are happening at rapid speed in my life right now!

Well, ALOT has happened since April...Here's my quick run down so I don't get too all over the place here:
 We done alot of fun end of the school years stuff! We had a "book fair", went to the Science Center, alot of fun and learning outdoors, GI Joe came home for a week to visit!!! Had a deployment party for him, I tuned 35, Zach turned 19, Found out I was going to be a grandmother, we went to NC, GI Joe deployed, , went to the ocean, had a little vacation, had a HOT drought summer season, garden burned up and we lost 95% of it, got a food dehydrator and dehydrated everything in sight, read more about GMO's and every poison known to man, still educating about hemp and it's benefits for this planet, trying to eat more clean and healthy, exercising more, fought a horrible bout of depression, stalked FB for days /weeeks for some sign of movement or a green dot from my GI Joe (still do this), Lost a couple of dear friends/sisters friendships over something so stupid and egotistic, Gabe started pre k at public school, I got accepted into a nursing school a week before classes started and could not afford it, Nate turned 7 had a Ninjago party, Justin turned 12 had a Rock n Roll/air soft battle/Avenged Sevenfold  party, been 3 months since deployment, next I have our Annual Halloween Party next weekend I should be preparing for, instead I have this crazy notion I can try blogging again...well, we'll see how it goes. Welcome back and Hello to those of you who are new here. Welcome to my crazy life!

Public School and Home school ended with my all my guys doin' great, straight A's and ahead of  where they should be! Smart guys! I'm proud!!! Gabe done testing to attend public preschool in the fall.

GI Joe came home for a short visit in May. We had a huge party here on the farm for his deployment. Joe's band and several others played. It was a packed house.

 This is the ONLY decent pic we got of all the boys together, but hey we did manage to get one ;0)
While GI Joe and Courtney was here on leave they wanted to go to the Zoo. The day we picked to go to Forrest Park it was a mess! I think everyone had the same idea. After driving around for 30 mins just to find a place to park we decided to head across the highway and took the kids to the St. Louis Science Center instead.
There is always lots of fun activities and exhibits to see and do. We had lunch and went off to explore. We had been studying fossils and mummies so it was awesome to see exhibits!



 Joe had to head back to Ft. Bragg

 The end of June we packed up the ALL 5 of the boys and headed to North Carolina to see our oldest son GI Joe and his wife Courtney, Joe was soon to be deploying to Afghanistan.
I made up each of the boys a back pack filled with activities, toys, puzzles, and snacks. I also made each of them a binder filled with maps, books, games, coloring pages, and stickers. All I could think was I had to keep them fed, BUSY, and quiet for a 16 hour drive.
Car trouble, extreme heat, and nervousness all around. We made it there in about 20 hours. LONGEST car ride ever!! It was a good thing I was heavily medicated and slept most of the way there!  We lost a few days worth of time and planned activities. We made the best of the short time we had to spend with them.

We rented a large hotel room from a great place in town (closer to Joe and Court this time) with a pool and had it to ourselves most of the trip. It was awesome! It was a little pricey, but it was worth every penny spent. It was CLEAN, had night security, and everyone was helpful. There was even a nice sit down breakfast place on site we tried out the morning we left.  We will for sure stay here again if we go back to Fayetteville, NC in the future. For you other Army Parents/Spouces, I highly suggest staying here if your kids are stationed at Ft. Bragg.
With car troubles and money being tight, this was the perfect spot for us all to just hang out and play. And oh boy did they play! We hung out alot at the pool cuz it was 110  + almost everyday so we just swam, BBQ'd and enjoyed each others company.  It was so nice to watch all 6 of boys play and crack up like old times. My two eldest reverted back to 8 year olds LOL It was great to see all of them laughing, joking, and playing around. The whole time in the back my mind, I knew it was going to be a long while before we all could be togther like this again. So I soaked it all in and cherish every single second of it. LOTS of great memories were made here! ;0)
 


We BBQ'd at Joe's for the 4th

Joe took us to the visit the Airborne Museum. Ahhhh nice and air conditioned! I think back and it was about 114 degree that day. It can be a little scary for lil' guys.  It was very entertaining to say the least. A lot of sound effects and some pretty mature scenes. We got split up once we got in. SOME of my children decided it was play time and ran off. Sped right through it and did not take it all in. I was taking the time to give the boys a good history lesson as we walked through, you just can't rush in a museum! So they were stuck out in the heat waiting on us for a while. Outside the lawn was adorned with row after row of American Flags. It was a very somber place to sit and reflect. So many lives lost for profit and greedy gain. I did find it to be a beautiful place for a photo op, but in the heat it was hard to get much cooperation out of my hot, hungry, stuburn children ;0)

(POST AIRBORNE COLLAGE)

Took everyone out to a fancy fun dinner at Chuckie Cheeze. Cheap fun and Air conditioned! My kind of place! So we ate and played hard. This year Jaxon wasn't afraid of everything and was runnin' amuck with all of the other boys.

(POST CHUCKIE CHEESE COLLAGE)

 The hubby and I even got a SHORT date night!  The big boys said they'd watch the littles after getting everyone settled to bed and asleep. So we ventured out into the nightlife...thought we'd grab some wine and a bight to eat...a little too late I guess, because everything was closing up. So we decided we were old,tired, and just ready for bed. We headed back to the hotel and crashed. It was nice though having close to 45 mins to ourselves in peace and quiet, even if it was just driving around.

(POST datenight pic)







Just a week before deployment my son and his wife found out they were expecting, That's right! I'M GOING TO BE A GRANDMA!!!)

The hardest part was deployment day...it was another scorching hot North Carolina summer day, emotions and stress levels were highly elevated. Just an all around strange feeling. not sure any other way of describing it. Here I was seeing my first born son off to war. I kept myself together pretty well until I stepped foot out of the car at the Army base. I lost it. I tried really hard to be strong and brave and not my little guys see me cry! It was a LONG wait as Big brother was getting himself, his bags checked in, and equipment assigned. It was HOTT! After about a 5 hour wait I'd had enough, the little boys were all tired and cranky. I felt the last few hours should be spent with him and his wife. They needed some time. So I hugged my baby, now a grown man going off to war and said our "see ys laters". The HARDEST thing I think I have EVER done!!! I am so proud of him! Stay Safe!


(POST COLLAGE PIC OF SEE YA LATER)




(PUT 2012 heart pic at ocean here)
We decided to stay a few extra days. We all really needed a vacation! We drove to Wilmington to take Zach to the ocean since he had never been. We hung out on the beach all day, enjoyed the fun in the sun.
PUT OCEAN COLLAGE HERE)


(POOL/HOTEL PICS)
We hung at the hotel another day and BBQ'd as we had the pool to ourselves again. I just chilled and reflected alot on all the changes that were takening place and where things were headed when fall hit.


(ADD MAYBERRY PIC)
On the way home we stopped in Mayberry. Everything was closed up due to the heat. I did mange to reek some havick in Andy's jail and we drove through town and had a look around.
 A week later Andy Griffith had died. RIP


It was a LONG ride home, traffic as usual in West Virgia.
(ADD TRAFFIC JAM PIC)
(add trip home highlights collage)

 We were glad to finally be home. There's lot's to be around here!
I'm excited! We started working on the house again. This time I picked my new bedroom! I ripped out the carpet in the old toy room.  We started building the closet and window seat. I didn't wait to finish either we've already moved our bedroom up there.
There are millions of tiny pin holes all over the walls it seems.
FINALLY a DOOR!
It's the little things that make a gal like me happy =0)
 The garden had burned up from the heat and lack of water. Weeds had over run it as well. so we cut our losses again this year. We did get a few cantaloupes, tomatoes, zucchini, jalapenos, green beans and a couple of football shaped water melon. The boys had already picked every strawberry and ate them right from the vine. Even while they were white. My boys LOVE strawberries.
I bought a food dehydrator a while back, got it out and started dehydrating. I dehydrated bananas, strawberries, zucchini, potatoes, tomatoes. Made some oatmeal and spagetti sauce. I ordered some new weeping willow trees to plant around the property too.

FOOTBALL FOOTBALL FOOTBALL
Poppa Bear has been runnin' lil man here around after working long hours with little or no sleep all football season. This year one of his buddies played so we had some help when Dad was on afternoons. This year he actually played and showed improvement. I'm proud of the drive and ambition he has this year to be a good player.







Jaxon and Gabe helped big brother practice all season 

School time came and the decision was made for Gabe to attend a public preschool. I'm still indecisive whether or not we made the right choice. Right now I am just so overwhelmed and he wanted to go. Socially I hope it helps him. He really seems to like it! He has had a few bad days since starting and really makes a point of getting a "green day".
I can't believe Nate is a 1st grader and Justin a 6th grader
First day of school
Man it sure is ruff getting up early LOL

NATE'S FIRST SOAPBOX DERBY
He hit the hay bails 4 times on the way down.



We found out "Jelly Bean" is a girl!!!
Welcome Alexis Nicole <3 Nana can't wait to meet to meet ya baby girl <3
Nate turned 7
 I whipped him up a cake on his Birthday so he could make his wish.
He wanted a Lego Ninjago Party. So off to pinterest I went. I gathered up some neat ideas and this is what I came up with.
(INSERT Ninjago collage pic)





Justin turned 12
(INSERT PARTY PIC COLLAGE)



Working on our Annual Halloween Party for next weekend. There's so much to do and so little time!!!

I have spent the last 6 months since my eldest has to deployed sort of a mental mess. I wonder how they did back in other wars where there wasn't any technology to have contact. I couldn't imagine waiting months for letters and postcards. I stalk and troll Face Book throughout the day to see if there is any movement from him or a green dot signaling he is on chat. This is my new daily life.
 I got a call from GI Joe last night a little after midnight!!! It was so great to hear his voice.
STAY SAFE!!!



Now I think I'm all caught up on the gist of things around here. Winter is on it's way and staying warm is top priority on our list right now. So Poppa Bear went and bought a few infrared heaters. He got me the fireplace model for the kitchen! I love it so far!!!
Hopefully I can start making some time and blog a few times a week again. It's very refreshing ;0)




♥♪♫•.•°*°•.¸¸♥. PEACE and LOVE .•°*° ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ Wendy