Filed under: Shopping
Generally women like to shop while their husbands follow behind wishing they could go back home. I have the opposite problem. Boxman loves to shop. Me, well not so much. If I have something specific to buy, I’ll go shop for it, buy it, and leave. Not so for Boxman. We started out going to Home Depot to look for some new blinds for our bedroom. Doodles had accidentally broken ours a couple of months ago and I was tired of waking up with the bright sunlight shining in my eyes. Of course we couldn’t buy just one set because they wouldn’t match the sun-yellowed blinds on the other window. After seeing the cheapest real wood blinds that were the right size were $60, we decided to go look at Lowe’s. They didn’t have anything that cheap in real wood, so we spent way too long looking at some bamboo blinds before deciding that they weren’t what we wanted. We left to go back to Home Depot. Luckily for Buster, it was 2:00 by that time so we stopped for happy hour at Sonic to get some half-price drinks. We get back to Home Depot and Boxman can’t seem to just go get the blinds and leave. We have to go look at the ant poison and water sprinklers too. We ended up buying a few extra things besides the blinds. By this point I’m tired and ready to go home. The fact that it was 95 degrees outside and we took the car whose a/c doesn’t cool so well just made it worse. We had to stop and return some movies to Blockbuster though – no big deal there, I jumped out of the car and dropped them in the slot. Pulling out, Boxman starts thinking about the Memorial Day sales and decides that we need to go to Dillards. I tell ya, we never buy anything at regular price there, but when they are having sales, you can get some really good deals. I cave in and actually tell him we can stop there, but we aren’t going out into the mall. I can’t even tell you how long we were there. See, this man is not your typical shopper. The first place he wanted to go to in the store was the fine china/housewares department. He thought he hit paydirt when he found some Dansk Torun pattern steak knives for $1.87 each. We already have at least 12 place settings of Torun, but no steak knives. We now have 6 steak knives. I thought this might be enough to satisfy his shopping needs but of course I was wrong. We had to go look through the luggage, furniture and bedding. He tried to talk me into some purple luggage. I declined. Then we had to try out all of the different mattresses they have. Ours is heading on 20 years old and isn’t what it used to be. We would probably buy one with our stimulus check from the government if we didn’t have more exciting plans for it. After jumping on all of the beds, I had to talk him out of buying a down comforter that we don’t need. By this time, I really, really want to go home. Buster is in total agreement with me. Boxman is still shopping. He comes across some oversized bath towels and decides that the kids could use some new towels in their bathroom. Okay, I can agree to that if it means we can go home. Silly me. Do you know how long it can take someone to decide on how many of what color towels to buy? Eventually he decided to buy two different colors so we could decide which ones go in the bathroom better and just return the other ones. I’m okay with this because I know he will be the one going back to return them. The only thing I fear is that while returning them, he will see something else to buy. I might have to go with him to rein him in. On the way towards the car, we have to walk past the mens and kids clothing. Somehow he passes the racks with the 75% off and another 50% today sales without having to try anything on. Then he spots the boys dress shirts that are $3 and has Buster pick out a couple along with forcing him to get a $2 tie that he will probably never wear. Because we can’t buy something for one child without getting something for the other, I grab a few pair of 50 cent underwear for Doodles. I’m tired and just want to go home. Buster and I finally get him to the hot car and we start towards home. Yeah, we had to stop at the grocery store, which took entirely too long for the few items we bought, but we finally made it home. Those new blinds look great. The knives are put in the cupboard probably never to be seen again. The towels are washed and hung in the bathroom. And Doodles complained that the underwear are granny pants. How does she know what kind of underwear her grammy wears?
Filed under: homeschool
Well, sort of a plan. I signed Doodles up for Classical Conversations today. There are a couple of girls we know from dance who go to this and they talked me into checking it out. I like that it follows the classical model. I like that once a week Doodles will be in a classroom with 11 other kids discussing the materials they’ve been studying. I like that she will be involved in a mock trial with the other students. I like that despite them going over materials and having a plan for the school year that I am still the teacher and can do what I want how I want the rest of the week. I don’t necessarily like some of the resources that they use. I don’t like how much it costs. However, I might become a tutor with them which would not only give me a discounted tuition for her, but I could also make some money.
I think this might be what she needs this year as she was having a terrible time deciding about going to school. I feel very good about it in that regard. However, after signing her up, I felt so sad and immediately started questioning myself. I guess the sadness is just for the things I had already started planning for us to do next year that I’ll have to either squeeze in or set aside. I really can’t come up with any other reason for feeling this way. I had no problems 2 years ago when I decided to use Calvert with her for a year. I spent just as much money and strayed from the Well-Trained Mind more than this does. Maybe it’s just me trying to accept the fact that she is growing up and her needs are changing in ways that I can’t always meet as well as I’d like.
Filed under: homeschool
The public school year is almost over which means Doodles only has a couple of more days to decided whether she is going to middle school next year or staying home. I think the lack of decision is her way of deciding. I had told myself that I wasn’t even going to mention it to her and if she didn’t tell me she wanted to go, then she would stay home. However, we know I can’t just leave things alone. I questioned her on it the other day. She admitted that the worst thing about it would be getting up so early everyday as she would have to be on the bus before 7am. Right now she sleeps until 9 many mornings. I suggested she make out a list of pros and cons for both school and homeschooling. I even gave her a few examples to start things off. She didn’t much like it when I mentioned that Buster and I might do fun things on occasion that she would miss out on if she went to school. This made her a little mad – she took it as we would always be doing fun stuff if she wasn’t home and said that we did absolutely no fun things this year. Whatever. I quite trying to help at that point and said she needed to make her lists and decide within the next few days. I guess I’ll be a little surprised if she decides to go, but I’ll live regardless.
My parents were in MS last weekend so we decided to go meet them in Vicksburg. I had been wanting to go see the Civil War battlefield there so it seemed like the perfect opportunity. Boxman decided that we should all go camping rather than pay for a hotel room. I wasn’t too thrilled about that idea when I was only finding RV type campgrounds. He called up some of his Boy Scout buddies and got a recommendation for Grand Gulf Military Park about a half hour south of Vicksburg. Not only was it a nice little campground with clean restrooms, but they even had some historical things to see there.
Buster on some petrified wood.
While we were checking out this old church……
Doodles was doing some ballet.
The kids liked climbing up in the observation tower that allowed you to see over some of the tree tops. The people who work there were so kind and helpful. The best part is that the weather was perfect – it was even cool enough to appreciate the heat coming off of the camp fire. Besides camping and checking out all there was to see there, we went to the old courthouse in Vicksburg.
Doodles, Grammy, Papa, and Buster
Doodles begging for leniency in the courtroom.
They have a nice museum there that included more than just Civil War things. Of course we had to go to the battlefield too. Although we don’t know of any ancestors that fought in that battle, it was still an eye-opening experience. They have monuments scattered throughout the park dedicated not only to the different states that fought, but for the individual units too.
I think what hit me the hardest was when we drove through the cemetery and saw the small markers lined up in row after row for the men who died there. The row curved around with more markers around every corner.
It was one of those moments that you just can’t put into words….the realization that all of those people died fighting each other…. brother against brother.
Filed under: homeschool
When they first asked me about this, I thought they were using the usual birthday excuse. We take our birthdays off from school so they generally try to take off everyone else’s birthdays too – extended family, their friends, pretty much anybody’s birthday. May 8 happens to be my best friend/Doodle’s Godmother’s birthday, so surely that was their excuse. Well, I’m proud to say that isn’t why they think they should have the day off. We have been studying WWII and Doodles took note that May 8 is Victory in Europe day because it’s the day that Germany surrendered. While that is definitely a notable day in history, I don’t think it quite warrants a day off from school. Maybe instead, we can just spend some extra time learning some more about the war.
Filed under: family
And being the first of May, it’s also our anniversary. It was 15 years ago today that Boxman and I got married. Wow, time flies.
Don’t I look young in that picture? I was 25. It seems so young now, but at the time I felt pretty old. And Boxman has so much hair compared to now. LOL I wanted a far simpler dress, but the one I really wanted cost twice as much. No thanks.
Boxman and I met at Iowa State right before his last semester there. Perhaps it was fate that had me and two friends move into the apartment downstairs from him. My roommates and I were moving in and being the electrical engineering student I was at the time, I couldn’t figure out why the lights weren’t working in the apartment. Having caught a glimpse of one of the guys that lived in the apartment upstairs, I suggested to my roommates that we go knock on their door to see if they could help us. Okay, sometimes it’s fun to play the helpless female. We knocked, they answered, they helped and the beginning of some great friendships started. We would get together with them, go out to eat, all the usual college stuff. It was a lot of fun until my roommate decided that she kind of liked Boxman. Eh, I didn’t care. We were good friends, but I had no interest in him. Well, he had no interest in her and when he turned her down, she decided that none of us could ever date either of them. Whatever. Things never remain that simple though do they? After coming back from a friend’s party one night, Boxman and I locked eyes. I felt compelled to kiss him and he apparently felt the same compulsion. I really didn’t even know that I was interested in him prior to that. It just happened. I don’t think either one of us really wanted to fall in love. He was graduating and I still had two years left. It would be easier to not get involved. But we couldn’t help ourselves. Graduation was coming and he found a job that was over 3 hours away from Iowa State. Sure, we could drive to see each other on weekends. Neither one of us knew what we were getting ourselves into. Long distance relationships are hard. We made it through with a few bumps and bruises, but still in love. I graduated two years later and got a job in Des Moines – only half and hour closer to Boxman. We continued on how things had been, only now I could pay for my own long distance calls and gas to go see him. By that fall, I knew things had to change. I was daring him to ask me to marry him. We started looking at rings and at Christmastime, we were officially engaged. A few months later his work transferred him to Chicago – even further away from me. I decided to stick with my job until I had a year in and then move to Chicago too. Surely a computer programmer could find a job in the big city. So, I moved, found a job, and less than a year later we were married. And now 15 years later, here we are in Louisiana, homeschooling two kids, and still in love. Go figure.
