Just breathe

Some days I don't know how I do it. By the end of the day, my head is pounding, it hurts think. Then my head hits the pillow and my brain comes alive and I can't sleep usually for another hour, sometimes two. I don't have a TV in the bedroom anymore, when we moved, I opted not to have one, and even when the hubby retires and moves back in full time, if I have any influence, we will still not have a TV in the bedroom, it's just not necessary. But, anyway, so after I lay there a while, I usually get on my iphone. I don't know that I'll ever ban phones from the bedroom, lol....

Besides school with the kids, I'm working on several projects right now. I am working on my first custom crochet project, a blanket for a pregnant friend. It's my first paying gig. I have money on the way for my next three projects which I will probably be starting by the end of next week. It's rather exciting. And of course, I have my own projects to work on in between paying projects. And then on top of that, I am working on getting everything together so I can start school either this summer or fall semester. I'm not sure which will work out money wise, so it's kind of up in the air right now. The nice thing, is that as long I get my request to transfer credits in, I already have one semester completely done, plus an extra half a credit. But, that leaves me with three semesters to complete for graduation with an AA. Not that I can do much with an AA, but it's a start. After that, I will have to figure out funding for the next two years, but I am hopeful that by the time that time rolls around, I will have it figured out. 

So, yea, busy busy busy around here....

Some days I have to just think about breathing.

Opportunity Knocks......

It's been a very interesting week. I have a new opportunity knocking on my door. As some of you know I've starting taking custom orders for my crochet projects, and I have my first couple of orders. It's absolutely amazing. Once I get some clipart for my website and get my things in the store, I'm hoping I will have so many custom orders my head will spin. It's good to be successful at something. And while I have much to do with home schooling and teaching and caring for the kids and trying like hell to keep up on the house. So, among all that stuff, with the hubby being promoted to Warrant Officer, I now qualify for MyCAA. I never thought I would. I've requested transcripts again and submitted paperwork. I have a few more questions for the MyCAA people that aren't answered in their FAQ and as soon as I put those to rest, I just have to decide if I'm really going to use it. And if I'm going to do it, am I going to follow through? I'm really bad at follow through. If I start this program, I want to do it and get through it and finish it this time. The time for starting school and stopping and starting again, I'm just too old for that at this point.

On the other hand. I starting using a different book for Killian's reading. I'm using Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. Killian is doing really well with it. I would very much like to find a good program to use for speech therapy since Tricare does not cover it. So far one that intrests me the most is very expensive. I know it's just because he is not forming the letters or blends together properly, he can hear it but he can't seem to imitate it, or I can't help him imitate it properly. I kind of feel that is a reflection on my teaching abilities. He has grown out of a lot of his speech issues, but the ones that are lingering still make him difficult to understand at times. I don't know if he would be any better if he was in public school though. I mean, he is just in Kindergarten. I just don't know how much time it should take and everything, I don't want him to have an permanent speech problems.

Anyway.

Crocheting

I've been super busy lately. Okay, well that was kind of a joke, when am I not busy with something? That was also more of a rhetorical question....

I have been working on several crochet projects for my kiddos. A blanket for Meg and a blanket for Keeley. I have several other projects for the kids planned as well. I'm hoping at some point during the year I will have enough time to get some extras made so I can maybe take some custom orders.

We've been watching Secretariat lately. I love horse movies. And Secretariat is an awesome horse movie. He was an awesome horse and no horse has ever come close to him since. Just an awesome story all around. I think we will watch this over and over and over again. It's no surprise that Meg loves the movie as well, but the other kids actually enjoy it too.

Well, the husband get his appointment tomorrow. I wish the kids and I could be there for it. It seems like we can never be where he's at for anything of importance. It's kind of a downer.

On my own again....

I don't know if I mentioned it before, but I'm on my own again. The husband is at WOBC. Graduation is supposed to be in May. We wanted to fly the kids and I to Quantico for his graduation so that I could finally be part of some kind of graduation/promotion, and then we could spend a few days doing the tourist thing because I have always wanted to see Washington DC and all the historical stuff. I have loved history for as long as I can remember, but particularly US history. Unfortunately, I have resigned myself to the fact that this trip is not going to happen. Becoming a Warrant Officer costs a lot more money than one might think. We won't really see much of the raise in pay until next year probably. Between uniforms and dinners and all the other crap they make them pay for, it's almost like we are paying them to to give him a promotion instead of them paying him for taking on the responsibility. That's our government for you.

So, as disappointed as I am that I'm not going to get to go, it's just like pretty much everything else we try to do. Things just never seem to work out exactly as we wanted them to. It's kind of tiring.

Happy New Year!

I realize that we are already half a month into the New Year, but it's taken me a while to get into this. My mojo is seriously lacking. Could be because I miss my husband. Could be many things, I suppose. I can't exactly put a finger on it. There is so much to be done around here as far as the house goes. So much I'd like to do decorating wise. And just honestly, so much more upkeep than I can really keep up with all by myself. And I've been letting it go. For more than a week now. I started getting it together the other day. But, yea, that didn't last long. At least school is going better than the housekeeping. We have been doing good since the holiday's have been over. We are on a good roll. I would, however, like to find a different program for Killian to learn reading. I don't actually think we are making the progress we should be. That and I feel like he should be getting some kind of speech therapy. I've tried to find something online I could use, and yes, there are all sorts of things I could buy, but they want a lot of money for most of them, and I don't want to buy stuff that doesn't work. Of course, the husband and other's seems to think he will outgrow most of it, and while he has gotten much better, I'm worried that he won't speak correctly. Insurance will not cover speech therapy, so I'm not even sure what I should try next. I'm not putting him in public school just so he can have an hour of speech therapy every week, that's ridiculous in my opinion.

There is probably a lot more I should talk about, but this is going to be it for tonight. Maybe I will start doing this regularly again at some point, I don't know, the last year or so blogging just hasn't really been my thing. I don't know why. I have a lot that I want to say and put out there, but I constantly feel like I have to censor myself for certain people. The more opinionated I get, the more I have to censor. I could choose not to censor at all of course, but I have a feeling I would make many many more enemies than I currently have. I just don't need that kind of drama.

Anyway, until next time.

Not keeping up....

I know it's been a while since I've blogged. I seem to have trouble keeping up with this thing...it's all I can do most of the time to keep up with life and my kiddos. This year has seen a lot of huge changes for us though and I just know they are going to keep on coming. 

We are no longer in 29 Palms. I am both happy and sad about this to be honest. Yes, it's in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the desert, but on the other hand, I met some really great people. Of course along with the really great people, there were those that weren't so great, so like everything else you take the good with the bad. But, we have finally purchased a house of our own! With the housing market in Las Vegas as bad as it is, we totally took advantage and got a mother of a good deal. We have a house that is big enough for us forever, and in all honestly once the kids are grown, it may be a little big, depending on how close they stay to us. But, there are so many things we would like to do to the house, it should be lots and lots of fun! And I'm sure we'll never run out of things to do around here. No, the hubby did not get out of the Marine Corps yet. He still has a ways to go until retirement. So, we bought him a travel trailer. You might think this is a terrible thing, why aren't we with him when we can be and all that good stuff. Well, we aren't that far apart, and sure it's not going to be easy, but even when we are with him, it's never easy. He is going to be at schools and deploying and all that stuff, and he works late, the time he spends with us on his time off is more quality then when we are living with each other. It's hard to believe for some, but it's true. The time we have together is always precious, but sometimes the day to day gets you so screwed up that you forget that. Not being together all of the time, you learn to remember that. 

That being said, he is now on leave and will be home tomorrow until after the New Year! We plan on having a wonderful holiday and enjoying the time we are together. After his leave the time will be very short and he will be leaving for Quantico to attend WOBC. He should graduate in late May, the kids and I are looking forward to our first trip out to the east coast to see his graduation and do some site seeing! The hubs and I think it will be a great educational trip for our oldest, not sure if the younger 3 will get alot out of it, well, maybe the 6 year old, but the other two won't remember it. So maybe one day we will get to go back for them, but we'll see. 

I hate the men that he is currently working for, so I am looking forward to him getting to his new shop in June. And I'm looking forward to spending some quality time at the beach here and there too ;0) Taking some actual trips in our new travel trailer instead of him just living in it all the time!

Well, I have more stuff, but it's getting late and my thoughts are getting jumbled. So for now, I'm going to go.

Later! 

Summertime.

Well, it's summertime. I don't know where the time has gone, it just seems to have flown by in the blink of an eye. And I know that it is only going to go faster the rest of the year. I've already purchased some of the kid's curriculum so that we can begin our school year already. So, once it gets here we will be starting, so that we can take breaks whenever we want. And to catch up on a few things as well. I'm going to probably have to buy Meghan's math program new because I can't seem to find a decent used price on it. If I'm going to pay almost full price for something, I might as well just spend the few extra dollars, buy it new and get free shipping. That's how I think of it anyway, maybe I'm wrong. I did get a bunch of the books, like social studies, Killian's math, and Meghan's language arts, and science used, I ended up spending a total of $46.00 including shipping, which is a quite a savings. There are still a few more things I need, but like I said, not too shabby. Waiting for it all to get here is a killer though. I hate how slow the mail is. Anyway, here are some of the books we are going to be using: "Mathematics Their Way" for Killian, it should take him all the way through second grade. It's supposed to be very hands on and give him a good handle on the basics. I really wish I would have known about this book with Meghan. She did Kindergarten and 1st grade in public school and whatever they did, didn't give her a good foundation of the basics, so now we are needing to go back. But, I digress. We are going to use "Social Studies through Children's Literature" for both Meghan and Killian, I'm just going to give them activities that are age appropriate, but the information will be the same. Meghan and I are also going to do a unit study on the Founding Fathers with the book, "Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence". and once we finish that I'm hoping to do the book about the lives of the signers wives and families, if I can get my hands on a copy of that book. Then for Meghan we are going to do our whole Language Arts program all rolled into one, using "Learning Language Arts Through Literature". This is actually the program I'm most excited about. I'm really tired of having to do spelling, vocabulary, grammar, literature, and writing all seperate. This will tie everything together, and in the long run, I really think it's better. Meghan is more likely to retain what she is learning. I'm still looking for some used reference books, but it seems like encyclopedia's and such are more and more on the computer instead of in sets. Like Grolier online and Encyclopedia Brittanica. I'm not sure what we are going to do computer-wise. My desktop is dead and I use my laptop most of the time. Casey doesn't use his daily, but when he needs it he needs it and when he travels he takes it with him. And he is going to be gone quite a bit here and there for more classes and schools and whatnot, so I'm thinking that it may be time to give my laptop to the kids and maybe, just maybe get myself a brand spankin' new one. I'm not real keen on getting another desktop, I don't know why, I do like having a nice big screen to look at, but at the same time, it's just a PITA and takes up a lot of space that I just don't have. They are all eventually going to need their own computer time, and as time goes on they will probably need their own computers. Luckily, as expensive as they are, they aren't as ridiculous expensive as they once were. You can pick up a good one that will go online and do simple things for under $1000. My LCD is messed up in the bottom corner of my laptop, but luckily, it isn't affecting it's functionality, so the kids could still get lots of use out of it potentially. Casey would like one of those little bitty laptops, to make it easier to travel with, so we may be getting him a new one at some point in the near future as well. I guess we'll just see where it all ends up. For now, we are plugging along with what we have. I can't wait to one day have a room just for the kids' school stuff/office/craft area. With lots of storage options.
It's looking more and more like Casey will be taking time off he didn't plan on taking this summer. We are still in the getting it approved stage, but they don't seem to need him at work anymore so, we are hoping that attitude holds over into getting it signed off on. He loved work, he really enjoyed this shop and then he went away for two weeks, came back, and things have just gone to shit with the new command. Figures. I mean we knew it was coming. You can't have a bunch of East Coast guys come in, take over, and NOT have things go to shit. It's that whole East Coast mentality that if it doesn't suck, it's not being done right bs. You may think I'm stereotyping, exaggerating, or whining, but really, I've seen it for myself first hand. I'm not saying it's everyone from the East Coast, and everyone from the West Coast is just smarter (obviously not or CA wouldn't be broke). I'm saying the mentality is totally different in how people handle things. There is a reason the shop out here was one of the best. It worked. I just pray that things work out in September and we get the word we're waiting for OR that we can get the heck out of Dodge another way if it doesn't. And that's all I'm going to say for now.