Zachary looses second tooth!

Last night our little Zachary pulled his second tooth. There was no 4 hour production, no tears, no running through the house screaming in pain (oh wait, that is Quentin): It was actually an uneventful pulling..... He laid down to go to sleep and came out, escorted by his brother and they both headed into the bathroom. (Seems Quentin needed to be there to "tell him how it's done") A few minutes later Zachary emerges with tooth in hand looking for an envelope so the Tooth Fairy could "buy" (yes, I said buy) his tooth. This morning he came out, proudly announcing; "Tooth has been SOLD!" Scott made the joke, "Will we find it on ebay?"

It Is Here!

Yuppers! Fall is officially here! With the fall comes cooler temps (don't see that happening any time soon) School work, Masters, soccer, raking leaves and of course! DRAGON*CON!! This year when we go a day early Scott, Quentin, Zachary and I will be taking (or carpooling with) Mr. X, Judy, Mom, and of course the S's will be heading up there as well (Walter, Kati, Bailey and Braeden). Pamela will be coming up after work. The show really starts on Friday but we always go down on Thursday to get set up.
We are so excited this year and we are looking forward to introducing Kati, Walter and the boys to D*C! It is so much fun when new people come!
Will try to blog through the weekend but don't know that it will be possible with everything that we will be doing!

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Another Baby!

They are falling from the sky!
On 8-21 our family welcomed another baby into the family! Bobbi Jo, who is the daughter of Dawn, who is the daughter of Aunt Joyce (Keith, my Godmother), gave birth to a beautiful daughter Rebeka Lynn Klug 8 pounds ? ounces and 22 inches long. Little Rebeka is pictured here with her (very proud) aunt and my best friend/cousin (since birth) Karoline.

I guess if you were to look at the family tree, it would be Karoline's (and Dawn's) grandmother and my grandfather (on my father's side) were brother and sister... So there are some once/twice removed stuff going on but I never knew that and they were always just "cousins" to me.

Congratulations to the Keiths and Klugs with their new little addition!

My Tax Trip

Robert (my tax boss) asked me to join he and Kala to learn the new software that he is planning on using this tax season. The meeting took place in NC and we were able to stay at a place called "The Dillard House" that is just over the boarder in GA. (see: http://www.dillardhouse.com/ )

Kala and I met Robert at his farm.... The "Barn" actually........ I say "Barn" because it is a 9 (8?) bay, living quarters, Entertainment area, work out loft, spare loft with bathroom and an outside shower, cooking area, etc.... It is like NOTHING you have ever seen..... It is just such a fun place! No cows inside the "barn" though, just people!

We headed to Dillard and got our rooms. Of course nothing can be easy and Kala and I had a chalet which had a fire place that had this horrible soot smell and would have made us both sick. So we went back and tried to switch it for a normal room which would have been half the price and the little dude at the front desk was so mean (of course, could it be easy?? no!) And we asked to speak to his boss and he said "I am the manager and I report to the owner who is in Sweden" Well, what we found out was the little jerk was not even a manager and the owner's son who was a co-owner was on site someplace! So, we ended up just buying a regular hotel room and figured we would dispute the charges.

We met up with a bunch of people from all over who were going to the same tax class (friends of Roberts) and had dinner. There were about 19 of us? If you check out that site, you will see all the food that they serve and I am telling you, I was sick from eating so much! It was amazing how good everything was and how much food they brought and kept brining (it is "family style") The co-owner, hearing there was a problem from someone in our party, pulled Robert aside and not only did he take the room off our bill but discounted the whole dinner meal!! HA! You should have seen the letter I was "writing in my head" about the little dude that was so mean to us! He is just lucky!

Kala and I walked (more like rolled) back to our room. I took this on the way back, it is not a good shot but the mountains were so pretty and the colors were amazing!

We watched the season finally of Big Love which was great! We hung out and laughed and chatted and eventually tried to fall asleep.. Robert wanted us up and ready at 6:45am! Omg... Kala wanted us to get up at 5:30! Yea, that did not happen.... Of course we were not ready on time but we did make it to breakfast just before 7am and the breakfast was just as amazing as the dinner the night before! I just ate a little eggs, some fruit and a couple pieces of bacon and passed on everything else! I did not want to get sick!

We got to the meeting on time (well about.... lol) and the class today was very, very long and there was so much information that it was hard to keep everything straight. I was amazed by the fact that we were there to learn the in's and outs of this new software and they did not have computers on all the desks so that we could walk through things. When I took a class for the old AS400 system from IBM (boy if that does not date me!) We walked in and there were about 40 computers in the room so that as they explained everything we could "walk" through it with them. I would have thought that a company that is trying to sell you software would want you to try it "hands on" right then! But again, thats just me!

The class was finally over and Robert talked us into stopping at the "factory" for dinner. see the factory
It was good but Kala and I were tired and wanted to go home! I missed Zachary's first soccer practice today and really wanted to see them before they went to bed.

I am very tired but feel like I learned a lot. It was pretty fun and I was glad that I went. I will install the software on my puter and see what I think about it when I can really get my "hands wet" working with it. ~~~ TTFN!

The Boys get their BobCat Badges!

The boys after Q and Z finished their "test"

Z answering questions. Q answering Questions about BS.





“The sport in Scouting is to find the good in every boy and develop it.

Sir Robert Baden-Powell

Today the boys earned their Bobcat badges and Z is working on his Wolf trail now and Q is working on his Bear trail. In order to get their Bobcat Badges they had to memorize the promise, the law, the moto, and learn how to salute, how to shake and the BS sign. I give you one guess who knew everything like he was born with it! Although both boys did wonderful (I was very proud), Zachary pulled out the win for the most fluent.

Q waiting to pass his badge.
“In Scouting, a boy is encouraged to educate himself instead of being instructed.” ada Sir Robert Baden-Powell

The Boys and their Friends!!

“Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget.”

Some good friends are very hard to find; thankfully we have found a family of 4 that is so much like us. We love having them around and can't wait to introduce them to all our other friends!

Quentin, Zachary, Bailey and Braeden all had fun yesterday hanging out. The B's are sons of Kati and Walter. All the boys had fun swimming twice, (We let them swim in the dark one time which they found to be very fun!) playing on the computers, sword fighting and RUNNING through the house chasing after each other!

We had a great dinner with loads of chicken that Kati and Walter brought, veggies, cheese bread, rice, salad, and chocolate cake for desert! Braeden very much enjoyed his chocolate cake (as you can see in the photo!)......

The 3 older boys love to do their own thing but by the end of the night had included Braeden in their game and had him running through the house "finding" them and chasing them down! It was fun to watch and to hear them squealing with laughter!

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Two of my Favorite Young Men.....

I would like you to meet two of my favorite young men in the whole world. I have known these two since they were about 5 and 7 and have watched them grow from wonderful little boys into fine Men. Betty and Rick have wonderful relationships with both boys and I have learned a great deal from them both over the years about situations that have come up with the boys. I am extremely proud of both boys (men) and hope mine grow up to be just like them.....

Bran is the youngest and he just passed his Personal Fitness Trainer test to get his certification. He is majoring in Exercise Sports and Science.

Cal, the eldest, worked this summer in Washington DC with the historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Servey, the oldest Federal historic preservation in the United States.
Cal's major is in Engineering Landscape and he attends University of Georgia.

I look for these boys to do wonderful things with their lives! Their mom, Betty is one of my closest friends and I don't know what I would do without her understanding of what it's like some days living in a frat house!

Our Trip to the Dentist.....

It has taken me a couple days to write about this because I HATE the dentist! Not just hate in the normal way but in the way that makes my palms sweat and I need gas before he even looks in my mouth. I have a "wimp" letter on me at all times, written by a doctor that basically says "If you don't treat me with kid gloves, I might pass out, fall out, or convulse in the chair" (no, seriously... I do..)

So, keeping this in mind, I have been taking my kids to the dentist since about age 3 so that they will not have the same fears. Zman is pretty fine with it as long as you bribe him but Q. just won't get past the fact that he is going to get hurt or that something will taste bad.

They both had a tiny cavity in the same back tooth that we had been "watching". I decided that the best thing to do was to bribe Zman with anything I could and get him to get it filled first, showing his older brother that it was "no big deal"..... I was proud of him; it took about 4 minutes to fill and he was bounding out of the office saying "do I get the game now?"

At our last cleaning the dentist decided that it was time Q's was filled and I set the appointment. I did not tell him until the morning of the appointment because he does not handle knowing about things early. We would have had to put up with days/nights of stomach aches, loss of sleep, and overall whining about the upcoming event.....

Quentin got in the chair and opened his mouth. It did not take long to fill the tooth and it was over pretty much before he knew what was going on. Of course he turned white during the process and when it was over I thought he was going to pass out. I asked him several times if he was okay but all he said was "I just want to sit here a minute"....

Then it was my turn and I sat very quietly so he would not hear me be a baby about it. I, of course, had gas and he had a million questions for the dentist. On the way home I told him how proud of him I was. I was proud, he made it through his first filling and all was okay.... Good thing he has good teeth, he is not going to do well if he has to go through that to many times.

Some of my Favorite Shots....

I love this photo of Miranda!

Here are some shots we took in Ct... I will add more but can only do a few at a time..
Just don't want to overwhelm you all!



This one of Mom and Judy is Great!

And of course, who could forget Leelou! We love her!

Grammie and Popey at mom's party!

My family is Devastated.. and it is my fault!

Yes, my family is in fact, devastated! Today while making tea, I broke our beloved tea pitcher. Actually, it was a Tea Container with a spout at the bottom that poured the tea out. (I know my mom is giving a full fledged cheer that it is now in the trash)

So let me tell you about this tea container that is probably as old as Zachary. At some point in its life I sat it to close to a burner and it melted, not all the way through but enough so there was a big indentation on one side. It has been bleached so many times that the design had faded long ago and there was a slight outline of what used to be on the outside. And my family loved it!
It was one of those comfort things, when you opened the fridge and saw the tea container there, life was good... especially if it actually had more than one glass of tea left in it.
Today I was getting ready for Kati, Walter and the boys to get here and I needed to make tea. I washed it as I normally did and noticed that there was a ring around the spout and I did not have time to bleach it so I pushed on the little button, sending the spout down as far as it would go so that I could clean it out the best I could. While pushing my finger slipped and I noticed the rubber button went almost all the way through to the spout! In a panic I got a knife and tried to pry it back out into position, cutting a slit through the rubber and thereby ending the seal that prevented the tea from seeping out the top!
I knew it was bad when Zachary came running out on the deck and with hands on hips and said "What is the tea pitcher doing in the trash?" I knew he was going to be upset because his fingers just got strong enough to do it by himself.
Tonight Quentin yelled from the kitchen, "Mom? Did you actually break the tea container?"
Scott's response was, "Can it be fixed? did you try to pull the rubber thing out??"
problem in this? I can't find another one, trust me, I have been looking and the only one that I can find that is similar is glass and, well, you know me.. I would drop it and it would shatter all over my kitchen!

A.. Ummm.. "Bonding" Moment w/ Qman

My Aunt would know what to say. My Aunt Tinka (pictured here with Qman) would know exactly what to say. Me however.... I was just not ready for this one.

I pick up Qman second from Karate. I enjoy our chats on the way home when it is just he and I. He had been reading about Family Trees in his new Boy Scout book and asked me if there could ever be an end to a family tree. I told him yes and gave him a pretty good example of a family we know who's family tree will end with them. Of course part of my example had the phrase "And they decided they don't want children". His opening for a conversation that I had been prepared for, just not expecting.

It went pretty much like this:
"Hey mom, what do you mean, decided not to have kids?"
'Well, they just choose not to have any."
"How do you decide not to have them?"
"What do you mean Quentin? You just decide not to."
"No mom, how does it happen?"
"What happen?"
"Kids? Where do they come from?"
"Haven't we been through this? They come from a mommies belly"
"Mom! I know that, but how are they Made?"
"umm... Well.... Ok, so it takes a man and a woman and they should be married."
"Ok, Ok, I know that but how are they actually made?"
"Hmm, ... ummm..... Ok, like I said, from a man and a woman....."
"And they should be married.. and they should love each other very much..." "And...... well,......"

At this point I was ready to pull the car over because I just knew that I was going to drive off the road..... Where was Scott???? I needed him now!!! Could he wait? knowing my son.. nope... SCOTT!!! I NEED YOU!! I was ready to go on and fully explain the birds and the bees but not wanting to yet in his young life when from the back seat I hear these words...

"So the married man and woman Bond?"

"YES! Thats it! You got it! They Bond!"
and then I get,
"Can I play computer when I get home??"

Of course my precious son, you can.

OMG.. Grats to John and Tracy!

We were supposed to go to TN last weekend to cheer on our friends John (shazz) and Tracy (Sinafey). Two wonderful people that we have met through WOW.... Unfortunately, because of financial restraints all around, we were not able to make the trip. From the looks of things, they both did very well and I was thrilled this morning to get this photo from the event!

John is 3rd from the left on the back row and Tracy is 3rd from the left in the middle row.

We are all very proud of them and their accomplishments, they have both been working very hard to get to where they are! They are both such a wonderful inspiration to the boys!

And So it Begins......

My mother-in-law (Judy, Mimi) just called me to let me know we were less than two weeks away from Dragon*Con. I knew this fact; I have been getting daily director updates for a while now. Dragon*Con is a happy event that we look forward to all year but also, for me, is a sad event because it means that fall is around the corner: summer over. (photo of the boys last year at D*C, with Anthony Daniels, C3PO)

With fall here it means our schedule gets crazy. From now until the end of soccer we will be running in several different directions! Master's will begin after Labor Day and of course, home school meetings already started. Not only have we added Boy Scouts this year but Zman is jones'n to get guitar lessons! I don't know when we will fit that in but it is something that we really want for him and MiMi said she would help with the cost.

In between everything else our school work plate is pretty full (the boys have a couple of projects that they need to do this year) and I am trying to write or do reviews every day which has proven to be tough the last few days. I hope that I will be able to focus and the boys will be able to focus and we will all get through the busy time.

Keep checking back on how we are surviving!

K's Site: Ah, the Good Ol' Days!

For those of you that are interested, you have to read K's post on Ah, the Good Ol' Days! Part One and Two!
ShackintheMountains's Xanga Site

This is what she said about it:
While in CT several months back, I found in among all the books left in the vacation house a folder filled with pregnancy and childbirth information. It appears to be from the 1960's, which would suggest it belonged to one of the daughters of the house. The folder contained several pamphlets and loose pages from, I would guess, the doctor's office and childbirth classes. They were a fascinating read. I'm glad I didn't give birth in a hospital in the 1960's, though I do wonder what my grandchildren will think of the pregnancy and childbirth info we have today.

Happy Birthday Mark!

Hey there Mark! Happy Birthday!!!

This is our friend Mark from Atlanta. Today is his Birthday and his celebratory dinner was Papasitos! Wish we could have been there with you! (not so much for the Papasitos but maybe Hibachi!!!) We Love You Mark!!!

A Wolf and A Bear....

Heyas! We had our first cub scout meeting today. It is a home school pack with only 4 boys right now but hopefully some others will join; if not, small is sometimes good and we will have fun with the whole Boy Scout thing and they will be able to participate with enough other scouts that having smaller meetings will be good.

I kind of threw the boys in with very little instruction, today was (quite literally) a sink or swim type of day because I actually had them test for a swimming "belt loop" without any instruction or warning! Of course, as most of you know, my boys have been practically swimming since birth so not only are they are very comfortable in the water but each swim very well.

Since I had just borrowed a book last night, we only had the car ride in to go over some of the boy scout stuff that they need to learn and recite back. (ie. handshake, the Promise, the Motto, the Salute, etc.) I must say that even with the short lessons, Zachary did very well. (his retention is amazing) Quentin needs to work on his some more but I am sure that they both will be on top of their game the next time.

Their "project" for today was to begin to learn how to whittle. They learned how to hold a knife and were practicing on a bar of soap. By doing this, they are working towards their "pocket knife card" which entitles them to carry a pocket knife to meetings. Zachary was frustrated but that is normal for him given his frustration when anything does not just happen for him. As they work on their project this week I am sure he will improve. Quentin, as always, got it quickly. (of course working with grandpa all these years with exacto knives helped) Even using a butter knife was able to work with the soap much easier than the other boys. But again, Quentin is all about the fine motor skills and using his hands because he has had so much practice with grandpa and he is a little bit older.
Bailey is in the photo with Q and Z and did very well with the whittling. The other little boy's name is Dustin and he is about Zachary's age.

Walter did a good job with instruction, with Kati's help :):) and you can see both of them (finally) in the photo. (kati is the one in the yellow scout shirt and walter is the one that is not Scott... lol.. Did ya have to have me tell you that??) The Den (??) leader is Ms. Diane, the woman standing behind Zachary in the tan shirt.

After the meeting we all had lunch. It was a very nice start to our Boy Scout experience!

Zachary pushes Ahead! Time4Learning is Working!

We are using Time4Learning this year for the first time. We tried the Lesson Demos and both boys did well with them so I contacted the company and we are on a month trial to see how it goes. We do supplement a bit here and there but I am please thus far with what they have been doing!

Each year there is the struggle to get through some days. Some days it took the boys a hour to do a handful of math problems or a simple English assignment! These days are calm around our house, With the Time4Learning program, both boys actually sit at their computers and I hardly hear a word from them about drinks, food, or breaks!

Zachary is doing Second Grade work this year. Thursday morning he sat down at the computer and started his work. He seemed frustrated so I looked over to him and asked him if everything was okay. He told me that it was a little hard but he was fine. It was then that I realized that he had switched to the Third Grade English by himself!!! He said that he wanted to try some harder work and that he would work in the third grade stuff for a while! For those of you that don't know, he is a self taught reader so I knew that he would whip through the Second Grade English work.

I could not have been prouder of him for taking that step on his own. The first day with the demo he sat down and wrote a story! (WROTE) He was able to "make" a picture on the computer and then print it off and write about it.

If I was using my old curriculum it would be very difficult for him because his fine motor skills have not caught up to his brain yet and he gets very frustrated writing. I was not looking forward to seeing him so frustrated sitting for hours trying to write down every problem, every assignment. By doing the curriculum on line he is able to be in his comfort zone and work on the computer, flying through lessons. (sometimes a bit to fast and I tell him to slow down to take in what he is actually learning, but he will get there.)

We do have other parts of curriculum that we are using to "fill in" but the T4L has given us a HUGE advantage and jumping off point for the year! I have got to tell you that this year is starting so much better than last year did!!!

Post-H S gathering....

Sooooo, our post home school gathering was to meet up with Walter at our house. I arranged for Kevin and Walter to meet there and talk about Walter's writing and Kevin's drawing. Hopefully good things will come from that meeting and I will keep you up to date on how that goes!

Kati and I rode from the meeting back to our house with the four boys who were excited to be able to spend the day together! It was all prearranged and I was looking forward to our visit.

K. and I chatted all day about this and that... Finding more similarities in our families, home schooling, what we like, dislike, and how we raise our kids. I still find it amazing that we have found them; or rather, they found us..... And I am overjoyed that everything flows so well with the 8 of us.

I am amazed at how well Bailey, Quentin and Zachary play together and little Braeden joins in when he feels like it. That little kid has my heart and I love being around him!

The four boys went swimming and Walter, Scott, Kati and I hung out on the deck and talked. It was a wonderful afternoon and addition to the home school meeting.

We threw some stuff together for dinner, everyone lending a hand and enjoyed a pretty good meal considering I pretty much grabbed a little of everything out of the freezer; sometimes those are the best.

After a bit of guitar hero, 80's edition, Kati and I decided to head to Dairy Queen and get everyone ice cream. I have to admit that I did partake in the treat and enjoyed every ounce of the creamy delight! On the way home we were met by a wicked storm and by the time K. and I got in the house we were soaked; everyone standing on the front porch to meet us, laughing for all they were worth!

Kati and I chatted about the Boy Scout meeting while Scott and Walter had a couple WOW lessons. We needed Walter to play a warrior last night with Jen and Cory but it did not work because they did not have BC (the newest edition) loaded on the computer. We sent W. home with the discs to load BC and S. gave him a few lessons on playing the toon.

The boys enjoyed every bit of today, (theirs and ours) and of course there was the normal "I don't want to leave, go to bed, etc.." But we will see them tomorrow at our first Boy Scout Meeting! Wish us luck...

School Year Kick off Party!

Today we had our Home School 2007-2008 kick off party. Because of some changes in "The Roc's" policies, we had to find a new location that would have us for our bi-monthly meetings.

A new family to the group graciously offered their Church/Gym for our meeting and we started this year in the new location!


It was a nice gathering of old friends and new ones. Many more girls than we have had in the past. My boys were happy to see some old friends and did well mingling with some new boys. It looks to be a great group of kids overall!

We did not do much today, filled bags for each child with goodies to start out the school year, had snacks and spent the rest of the time either in the gym or playing games. Today was a very relaxed day, letting the parents hang out and chat and get to know one another as well.

My New Sister-in-law and The Wedding!

Cory and Jen were married on June 15th. It was a great day, in a beautiful place, surrounded by all our wonderful family and their friends! It was not huge but there seemed to be a lot of people around.
Our Uncle Richard performed the ceremony which made it that much more special. I was so glad that everything went so well for them both.
At one point I heard Jen say, "It is even more beautiful than I imagined it would be!" That about made me cry to hear it in her voice. I miss them both so much and look forward to seeing them again soon...
Everyone looked so nice. I loved the little dresses for the flower girls. Of course I could go on and on about how my boys looked in their tuxes! Zman declared himself 007 the first time he tried his on and when he and Q were introduced, they played the song!
I loved being able to share in the day with them, I wish them a long and happy life together!

Jeffery Lee

Here is my Jeffery Lee..... He turned 16 this year and is now driving. It is weird having him with his drivers license. I still think about him being 7 or 8! He is doing well in school and finished out last year with straight A's! He is a member of the band, Rangers (ROTC), and Key Club. He is my most special and even though he eats me out of house and home when he is here I want him to be without his license so we get him more! When I talk about my boys I always say that I have 3; 2 by birth, 1 by default....... I am very proud of him! He is a most special cousin to Q and Z as well!

If I had $1,000,000,000

The boys are working on values. Zman is on 10,000 and said "I sure wish I had that much".... Lol... yea, mee too... Qdog is on 100,000,000 and said about the same thing. So, as I was doing laps in the pool I thought, "Gosh this is nice.. I wish I had a million dollars so that I could put a bubble on the pool and swim all year" Then I thought.. Hmm.. why stop there? The one thing I would buy is a bigger pool with a heater and a bubble for winter swimming! Wouldn't that be nice??? Oh to dream...

Just about the time I was deep in my dream and where I needed to be doing laps; I see my eldest child running across the deck with his bathing suit around his knees and holding his nose while jumping in the water...... ????? Are you kidding me?? I stand up and wait for him to surface; doing my best to hold in the laugher.. "What in the world son??" Seems a bee was "chasing" him while he was peeing.. (I have a rule, if you have the correct parts and need to pee while in the pool, you do so off the deck; being sure not to hit the dog).... And then I resume my laps... and in my little brain I think "life is good.."....

The Boat!

Hey there All!
Many of you requested some more photos of Dad's boat. This is a very good shot and gives you an better idea of the size and the craftsmanship. As you look at this, please imagine how much more impressive it is in person!

I can't imagine how he is ever going to put this in the water, but it is a boat after all; it needs water! I am passing comments on to dad and thank you all for the emails, im's and comments you have made!

Mom is working on the cushions and when she gets done with them I will post those to..

Oh, one last point? He built it in his shop.... Guess what that means! At some point we have to actually get the boat out of the shop... YAY for us.. :):) /hugs all....

Ryan's party Photos

Photobucket Album

The Boys and their new belts!

We were so excited that the both boys passed their test and advanced to the next level in Karate. Zachary is in the children's class and Quentin is in the adult class. It will be a very happy day when Z advances but for now he is doing very well where he is. Q loves being in the adult class! OOh, and Pat gave them each $10 for doing so well. They don't know about the money yet, I'm saving it for Dragon con!