wilson family life

I will be THAT mom .....again

2010-07-30T12:41:00.000-07:00

I think it was last week when that blog carnival sprung up on "I am THAT mom" and I read a few of the posts and I loved them, I could not read them all. It struck a chord with me. I so badly wanted to participate, but felt like for the past 5-6 weeks I have not been THAT mom, I have been the OTHER mom. You know the one I am talking about the one we all strive NOT to be. The one that we want to have nothing to do with, the one with the old tapes, the one that makes you want to cringe. Yep that has been me. I have had my whole emotions on a roller coaster ride and I have been the OTHER mom, BUT I decided no more (with the help of my wonderful Hubby Greg).

I have been THAT mom, the one who has pizza for breakfast, just cuz.
The one who put up cloth swings in the middle of her living room, because I knew my then young ones would just LOVE to swing while they did everything and they did!
The one who does not worry that my kids stay up until 2:00, 3:00 am or longer.
The one who does get very involved in my boys gaming, even though I was so far from a gamer before he introduced me to it.
The one who does NOT say "go look it up", but the one who explores things together and looks it up together and then finds more things to look up and it goes on and on.
The one who was out on the trampoline until forever, because that is the best place to talk.
The one who does not mind the language that comes from my kids mouth, it is their mouths.
The one who will listen to my kids talk to me at all times.
The one who is doing the very best she can so that my kids will have a happy childhood.
The one who goes to the swimming pool again for hours on end and even goes in (until I am too wrinkly).
The one who will stay for hours on end wherever we go, because it is fun and we enjoy it
The one who know and trusts that all is always well!

I will be THAT mom today! I will be THAT mom who forgives herself for having some bumps in the road and being the OTHER mom for the past few weeks. Thank you to all you wonderful moms and dads who wrote in and gave me a bit of a slap in the face.

I'm Baaaaack

2010-07-30T06:03:00.000-07:00

Ok, up early and what am I thinking about? The fact that I have not written in my blog in forever, just did the testing thing and Frank gave me a good laugh over that. So we have been on this crazy emotional roller coaster ride. My grandmother who I am most connected to is on her death bed and she lives 8 hrs away. We went and visited and it was hard for me, really hard. I have never experienced anything like seeing someone you love dying. Anyways the kids were amazing on that trip, being out of their element and hanging out with people that they did not want to hang out with before. The kids are just growing so fast and I can see more and more them becoming their own.
We have all been feeling quite stuck lately as we are STILL in the rv park and we STILL have NOT gotten our rv back. This was not part of the plan. We were also doing some wallowing, being upset with our RE "partner" he has let quite a few of our deals die after all the hard work Greg and I did on them. They should not have died. BUT we learned a huge lesson on who we do not want to work with. BUT this sets us back a bit on getting our rv. So after being pissed off and sad and upset, Greg says no more.
Greg and I had a nice chat the other day (hard to do, but nice) about getting out of this funk (because not only does this funk in our biz affect us but it affects the kids too). We have a new plan with a new goal and we are going all gun ho! Our goal is to have OUR RV by October 15th. There it is, it is written in stone, no, world wide web so there for we must achieve this goal!
I have been also working so hard at The Unschooler's Emporium, there is so much to learn and sometimes it just feels like a lot of blah, blah blah in my head. BUT it is something I must do, because I want to succeed. If I succeed, then that means I am helping so many unschoolers succeed! One of the biggies is getting everyone seen it is taking some creative thinking as my advertising budget is really low right now. One of the things I am doing is holding a drawing for free unschooling products and I hope that brings some attention to the store.
Anyways hopefully I won't be so neglectful of you blog, I really want to be able to look at you year's later and read all the wonderful things that we are doing.

testing

2010-07-11T07:36:00.001-07:00

1.2.3.......

2010-06-28T16:38:00.001-07:00

Please help your fellow unschooler's sell their items, email me for a banner to add to your blog!! Brenda@theunschoolersemporium.com

2010-06-27T22:17:00.001-07:00

Added Toronto Unschooling Conference Talks. http://ping.fm/B94DW
AnneO, Francette & more

2010-06-27T10:59:00.001-07:00

Let's get The Unschooler's Emporium seen! Blog about our new store, talk about our new store, email people with our website! Help your fellow unschooler's sell their products! http://ping.fm/LNpTw

Press Release!!!

2010-06-24T09:49:00.000-07:00

Contact: Brenda Wilson FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Telephone: (775) 450-2685

Email: Brenda@TheUnschoolersEmporium.com

Website: www.theunschoolersemporium.com

THE UNSCHOOLER’S EMPORIUM BROADENS ITS PRODUCT LINE AND AVAILABLE RESOURCES TO THE UNSCHOOLING COMMUNITY

The Unschooler’s Emporium established its business in early 2010, to offer the Unschooling Community a myriad of books, tools and natural remedies that have already shown themselves to be a success by the families that have used them. Although a young business, because of its focused and dedicated product line, and its approach to unschooling, it has, in its infancy, garnered much attention and praise from Unschooling Advocates Dayna Martin, Sandra Dodd and many more.

The purpose of the expansion for The Unschooler’s Emporium is part of a continuing effort to satisfy the needs of this ever-growing community. Whether a family is new to unschooling or has been enjoying its advantages for many years, they want one central location where they can purchase all of the products that will help support Unschooler’s and help each person on their unschooling journey to grow.

Products such as the Pokeman Statuettes, various kitchen sets, including Ivy’s Kitchen, Thinking Sticks a.k.a. "Sandra Dodd's Thought Manipulatives" are just a few of the many items available on the Unschooler’s Emporium. Although many similar items can be found elsewhere, the goal of the Unschooler’s Emporium is to make them all available in one location, saving the community hours of research. The end result with all the time saved, it gives them back more time to spend with their children.

In addition to the extensive inventory of items in the store, the Unschooler’s Emporium also serves as a resource of information to answer all of the frequently asked questions, a place to network with other families that unschool their children, and suggestions for getting the most of out this enriching and rewarding experience. Parents can learn from the community’s vast collective knowledge of dedicated families, who have tried them, found them to be a success and are happy to share them with the unschooling community.

If a family is unfamiliar with unschooling, has heard a lot of the “buzz” about it and are curious whether it is something they would like to incorporate into their family’s life, this is how it works.

Children have a natural curiosity when it comes to learning. Following their lead and working with the child’s innate ability to learn at the pace he or she sets, in a positive, unforced and most importantly non-judgmental fashion, children are free to absorb his or her surroundings without fears or limitations. It doesn’t matter whether a family adopts this method when their child is 7 or 15; it’s never too late to start. Parents all over the globe have recognized that not all children thrive in a strict school environment. Unschooling provides children an opportunity to learn at his or her own pace, which can only serve to pique his or her interest and want to take on new challenges.

The Unschooler's Emporium

2010-05-24T08:39:00.000-07:00

I have not blogged in awhile, so I figured I would write about my newest adventure.
A few weeks ago I had this idea of creating an online store, where Unschooler's who create items can sell them. And so that we can help support each other in this lifestyle we have, since most Unschooler's/homeschooler's are single income families. So I set out to create a website/store. I searched for a store front that I thought would be good, I told everyone what I was doing and I got quite a few positive responses. Everyone was excited about this new adventure. It took a lot of time to upload everyone's products and to explain my vision. About 2 weeks in I was finding that the "Store" I picked out was not very conducive to my vision. I want to be able to really sell everyone's items, not just to unschooler's but to everyone!
So I had talked to some techie people who explained to me some things and I decided I need to get a new store front, before I go any further. Now on to the new adventure of what to do. I looked and looked (there really are a million and one different types of things I could try to do). I landed on wordpress, but it is a bit more complicated then the easy drag and drop and you have a website created. BUT I have found a theme that I think will be great, as soon as I can get all the moving of domains and set up together.
So that is where I am on this new adventure I have made for myself. Greg has been trying to help me, but it has been a challenge, when we can not be in each other's brains (I don't understand why not, we have only been together for forever already ;) He has been very helpful in explaining things to me an that I am grateful for!
I like being able to do this new project, it helps keep my mind off of our RV (which is still in some dinky little town in AZ).

Survived our first WIND storm!!

2010-04-27T20:23:00.000-07:00

This was the first night in the trailer with wind gusts up to 90 mph!!!! It was crazy! I woke up a few times, but was able to fall back to sleep quickly. We have not experienced something like that before, it was a bit scary at times and it freaked Jazmin out a bit. It was quite the adventure to feel the whole trailer rockin! We could also hear little droplets of water, I can't wait to see what it is like in a rain storm!

2 weeks in

2010-04-22T08:44:00.000-07:00

So we have been in the 27 footer for two weeks now. It has taken awhile to get into the swing of things and figuring out where everything is. We keep saying we don't want to get too comfortable, but then again why not. Why not be comfortable, since we are here in this moment, in this situation.
We do look forward to getting our RV and not feeling like we are "Stuck" here and can not move. Since the RV put us on a major set back financially, I am going to start typing from home again, the kids are not too happy about that, but we need to do something until we get paid on some more of our deals. Greg was talking about finding a part time job, but is going to wait two weeks until we get some more deals going.
I have been feeling like I have been in a fog and I think the fog is finally lifting. I hope I can feel like a better unschooling mama and be more present with the kids. There has been a couple of days that Jazmin has kind of had a hard time, when she starts thinking too much about not being able to hit the open road. (If I start thinking about it too much, I start to feel claustrophobic, so I know where she is coming from). But she has been loving going over to the gym and the pool just opened up, so I know she will want to swim a lot!
We got our internet all situated with Clearwire and it has been working great! So Alex is a happy camper ;). The RV park internet was not good at all! It was not very good for me trying to do business from here.
Well that is all for now!

From Sadness to Joy

2010-04-17T07:21:00.000-07:00

When it came time to move into my parent's trailer, there was a lot of sadness from Jazmin. This is something that I was prepared for, as I am a student of my daughter, I know that she gets sad almost every time there is a big change, like a move. She is excited about something new, but sad about leaving where we were. She would say to me many times a day "are you going to miss it here?" (at our old house). I would respond with a yes, I will. We LOVE Lake Tahoe, it is so beautiful and breathe taking! Where we were living though, was in a duplex where you could not see the Lake and the neighbors, well, the neighbors were not giving me good vibes. So I would not miss that.

When the plans changed so quickly from going into our RV to my parent's trailer, I had expected the kids to not be happy about it, because to be honest I was not. The one thing we talked about when deciding to go Full Time, was NOT wanting to be "stuck" some where for too long. So that was what Jazmin was thinking about...a lot. She kept saying how frustrating it was going to be and how it would not be fun.

In my mind, I was right there with her, however I knew we had no other options in this moment. I also knew that if I changed my whole being into thinking that all will be well, then the kids will follow. They always seem to follow my true feelings inside. If I am stressed, they seem to be too. If I am upset, then arguments escalate. BUT if I am happy, they are too. If I am content, they are too. Sometimes it is hard to make the shift, sometimes, I want to wallow in the misery. BUT that does not serve anyone.

So we got into the trailer, packed in, like no where to move, because I had not had time to figure out where to put everything. The kids started riding the trikes. It turns out (which I had a suspicion that it might) the RV Park is a wonderful place to ride. Or "joy ride" as Alex likes to call it. They rode and rode and rode and talked and talked. In the first few days Jazmin came in to the trailer and said "this is so much fun. I love it."

I said to her "that is awesome! I am glad it is not frustrating!" With a smile to her, she knew what I was talking about.

And here we are......

2010-04-16T18:00:00.000-07:00

So I decided it is finally time to update our situation on the blog. When we left off, Greg was still working on the RV. Well he ended up staying until Monday evening and then trying to hit the road. At about 100 miles out of Phoenix and 11:00pm he called to tell me he can not make it any further. Aacckkk!! He was in the middle of no where with a 38' long RV and had bad cell phone coverage. So I called the insurance company, who found a tow truck big enough to tow him, but it would take a few hours. They said we were covered to the closest place on their list that would fix us. I believe he arrived at this dinky little town at 4:00am, the only thing in the town was this auto shop and a restaurant. He waited for them to open to find out that they would not touch the RV.
What to do, what to do..... I told Greg to call the old owner up to see if we towed it back to the spot if he would get our money back, I was d.o.n.e! Greg tried but of course the owner said no. So the next thought was to see how much it would cost just to tow it home. I called up the guys that towed him in the middle of the night. They said they felt bad, because they did not think the place that they towed him to would work on the RV, but they have to do what the insurance company says. He did however say that I should call the insurance company again and tell them what happen and they should tow us to a place that would work on it. I did and we were still covered.
They towed Greg to another small town, called Wickenburg. Greg had been on the phone with a place, while he was waiting for another tow. Come to find out this auto shop would work on it and hold on to the RV until we could afford to come back down and get it. They will just put it in a storage place for us when they are done fixing it. When the owner of the company got there, he wanted to hear the whole story, which blows me away, because most people do not care enough. So this mechanic knew the actual problem right away. (A week later he called to explain exactly what needs to be done and that it would cost $3500).
The new issue was figuring out how to get Greg home. We were considering driving down to get him in the minivan, but that would be 13 hours or so. Greg was talking about taking a bus, but he was no where near a bus pick up. I called rent a car places, but none were in the town he was in. I finally called a taxi service in the town and they would take him to the airport (an hour and a half away) for $80. I got him a ticket out of that town for $250 at 8:00 pm. I would then meet him at the Reno airport at 10:00 pm.
The kids decided to stay home while I went to get Daddy. We missed him so much and were very tired of this whole ordeal. Neither one of us had slept that much, so we were both very tired when we had met at the airport. Greg looked exhausted. It had been 5 days, that he had been working on the RV without sleeping much at all. He ended up getting sick while he was there too.
Now we were all back together as a family, but had no place to live. I decided to call my parents and ask them if we could rent out there 27' trailer while we waited for our RV to be done. I was a mess. I don't usually ask for help. It is usually just the 4 of us, because of the things that have happened in the past. But I was very grateful that they said yes. My dad and mom moved the trailer to the RV Park that we were going to use as our hub, when we are on the west coast. We piled everything into it. Our RV has a ton of storage and an extra 11', so we had to figure out how to put all that extra stuff in. Our cats were freaking out for a few days, meowing and not knowing what to do with themselves or where to sleep.
We have now been in my parent's trailer for a week. When we started on this journey I did NOT see us taking this path at all! This was not part of "the plan".
There has been a total of 5 mechanics (plus Greg) working on the RV. We spent about $2,000 in trying to repair it on our own, plus the cost of getting to Phoenix and back twice, in a three week period. All while needing to move out of our current place. We now have to wait until another one of our short sales go through (which could be about 3 months or so) before we can go back and get our RV that is sitting in some town in the middle of Arizona.
Because of this little detour in our journey, we have to miss the Life is Good Conference; which we have been to every year. We are very sad for this, because this is when we get to hang out with all of our wonderful friends and meet new friends every year! So we are trying to look at the lighter side of this and see what are we needing to learn right now from this whole situation. We might have a better answer to that in a few months when we could look back on all of this and say that wasn't so bad, especially when we are on the road in our home, going wherever our hearts desire. I am looking forward to that day!

My rock

2010-04-04T14:15:00.000-07:00

Ok this has been tough!

A long time ago Greg worked on cars, it is his passion; as long as it is not a HAVE to. I knew, but forgot that when you are working on engines things happen and it takes a lot of tweaking.
So that has been this weekend. A lot of things have happened and he has come to the rescue and fixed them! He is amazing, he has been handling this whole thing so well! Today is now Sunday, also Easter, he has been working on the RV this whole time. He thought he was going to be leaving this morning and then there was another issue. I finally cracked this afternoon and broke down crying. We just want him home and to be started on our next chapter. Greg is confident that everything will get fixed and he will be on his way. His confidence helps me. He is my rock, he is amazing!

Waiting......

2010-04-03T09:22:00.000-07:00

My mind just starts to go crazy waiting. We are sitting in a bare house, that needs to be cleaned for our move out. I was messing around with the blog, trying to keep my mind from thinking too much (if you know what I mean) and I came across the organic sister. I have read on her site before and have seen her post on Unschooling Families on the Road (I think) and I would love to meet them some day. BUT Tara's post this morning made me want to freak out.
Going into this new lifestyle of being a full time family on the road, we have had very mixed feelings. One day everyone is so very excited and the next day you start to wonder if we can handle being in 300 sq ft together. I should back up and tell our full story.

Once upon a time.....

About a year and half ago, we were talking about traveling and how much we want to see and experience in this world. Every year for the past few years we go to the life is good unschooling conference. Every time we go some where for that length of time, the kids miss the cats and home. We love being at home so much, but we love going places so much. Well I had heard of families living on the road full time and started reading more about it. It looked amazing! Exactly what we were looking for, to be able to travel without really leaving home.

Knowing my kids the way I do, I knew we could not just say "hey let's move into an RV". We had to slowly experience it and talk about it first. I can remember bringing up travelling in an RV one day to Jazmin, to which she replied I would NEVER want to do that. So we talked about the why's, and the main thing is that Jazmin does not usually like change. Every time we move she has a really hard time with it, but then LOVE's our new place after a few weeks. She just LOVES everything SO deeply, that she can not imagine leaving it.

Anyways a little bit of time went by and we were driving through Carson City and saw the RV dealers, so we decided to go check out some RV's. The kids had a blast going through each one. Jazmin said, I actually think I could do this. So we just day dreamed and talked and day dreamed some more about what it would be like to travel in an RV. We went to the RV dealerships a couple of times to get a feel and day dream.

Meanwhile we had moved to help lower our expenses, into a duplex. A wonderful family, the Buxcel's, had helped us move. They were a family on the road at the time. They were in the Reno area for a month or so and we went and met up with them a few times. I picked at their brain a lot about living on the road and we checked out their bus. It made me desire it even more!

A few months later we decided to rent an RV. We got a Class A (which I thought I blogged about, but goes to show how I have neglected this blog too much) and went to Twin Lakes, which is a few hours away from us. We loved it! We loved being in the RV and being at the campground and going to the lake. A funny little side story; on our way to the Lake we had stopped at TJ's and all the way from Reno we kept wondering why on earth it was so hot in the RV. We had thought the ac was on. Well Greg had figured out that the heater control was right where his knee was and he bumped it, so the heater was also going. It was so funny (maybe not so much at the time cuz we were sweating like pigs ;).

So this made the desire even more real! We wanted to be a FOTR! So we prepared for this to come. We had been searching and searching for RV's. Greg and I decided that we wanted to get a used RV, because we did not want to go into debt. The whole point is to be FREE!!! The kids were not to thrilled with the idea, because that meant no slides. And the slides made a huge difference in the RV, but we could not see spending $1,000 a month on a payment on an RV, we would rather spend that on investments to make us money ;) So the kids came around. Greg found an RV in Phoenix (as I posted about earlier), great deal $4,000!!! It is a 38' Mallard Sprinter. It is HUGE!! It is in good condition. The only thing was a minor issue with the engine (which as you can see we are dealing with). It has an awesome layout.

We had put everything that is not going in to the RV in storage last weekend and that storage unit is packed FULL! The kids love their things, Jazmin loves to keep everything that she finds interesting or that has any kind of meaning to her (from rubber bands to pudding cups to everything in between). So we were able to fit bags and bags of their things in the storage unit, burying poor Bob, the '72 Cutlass, that will one day be fixed up!! We had sold our couches and extra tv's, etc.

Over the past few months, there has been many conversations about what is to come and what it will be like and how our how lifestyle will change. There have been moments where all of us at one time or another have said, what if we can not handle it, what if, what if, what if. It is hard when those silly what if's come into your head, your mind start's playing tricks on you. Then when you can relax and just settle in to the MOMENT, it is all good. We will adapt, we will make it and we will have the best experiences of our life, that I am sure of.

And so now all that we can do is......wait patiently for Greg and our new home to come pulling up so we can officially be a FOTR!

PS
Thank you Tara for writing out your post this morning, it allowed me to write out my thoughts and process more!

Is this the day?

2010-04-02T10:27:00.000-07:00

Greg and I woke up at 3:30am this morning. I dropped him off at the airport to fly to Phoenix to go work on the RV. The "mechanic" did not finish it. We do not think he was trying to rip us off, we just think he was not a very good businessman. In the past 3 weeks he has said the RV would be done about 4 times, well it wasn't. So Greg knew going down there he was going to have to work on it himself. We did try to hire another mobile mechanic, that can help Greg put the engine back together. I am trying not to let this one mechanic make me think all of them are "that way".

Driving alone with Greg for an hour to the airport was a bit weird. The kids had asked if they could just stay asleep while I take Daddy and it took a lot for me to think about that. It is amazing how fast my mind went to "what if's". But in the end I knew everything would be fine. It is just always the 4 of us and with Greg being 13 hrs away and me being an hour away from home, I was a bit concerned. So I set the kids up with some phone number's to call just in case. We do not have many people we can call on so it took a bit to figure out who they could call. Anyways, the whole way down the mountain we were commenting on how weird it felt to be with out the kids. It ended up being just fine, everyone was sound asleep still when I got home.

Greg called me when he landed, part of the plan was that he would need to take a taxi to the RV from the airport. Well he called to tell me that there were no taxis, just limo's and that the price was the same. So he got to ride in a limo! What a way to start this adventure!!

Right now it is about 10:30, both kids are up and we are just kind of waiting to see what Daddy says about the RV.

The beginning........

2010-03-26T19:17:00.000-07:00

We have been on some ride the past few weeks.

Greg found a great deal on an RV in Phoenix. So after many conversations, we decided to get it. The only problem was the engine had some issues. So Greg found a mobile mechanic off of craigslist to fix it. Well that mobile mechanic ended up being too good to be true. He told us he could have everything done within 3 days. So we set out to go to Phoenix.

We left on Saturday early morning and went to Las Vegas. We stayed at Circus Circus, which was fun but overwhelming. It was packed full of people. Greg and I found out that Las Vegas is not really our town. Too many people!! We had to turn around on the strip and it took us about 45 min. We were at a stop light and a guys was wondering up to my window, talking a little crazy. That would be the first time the kids had ever seen anything like that. We then got checked in at the Circus Circus and were starving. We had been talking to the kids about going to a buffet all week. So we were excited. We had to wait in line for about 45 more min. And it was quite expensive. I learned a lot about myself going to the buffet. I learned that even at a buffet, they don't always have foods that we all like. I learned that it can be very loud and I definitely don't like that. BUT I am glad we went to experience it! After we ate, Alex and Greg went back to the room and Jazmin and I went to check out the Adventuredome. Since we stayed the night they game us 2 free rides and 2 free games. Something I have been doing more and more is just enJOYing things with Jazmin. She likes to take her time and REALLY check out everything. So we did. We walked around the whole dome, there were lots of people there too. But we watched all the rides and looked at all the games. There was this one ride that goes right over your head and it shakes the place, it was really cool. So we played a fishing game and won her and Alex a fish. Jazmin decided she wanted to go on a "ferris wheel" type ride. So we went and got Daddy from the room so he could go on it with her. Jazmin asked Alex if he wanted to take a picture with this big Sponge Bob and he did. So we all went back down stairs. I am glad we went into Circus Circus, but I don't know if we would go back.

The next day I went to meet Stacy. I was so happy to see her and I miss her so much.

We then headed to Phoenix so excited to get the RV! We went over the Hoover Dam, which took about 45 min, very slow going, but it was cool to see the new bridge they are building. At one time there were sirens and a police car needed to get through, which is crazy since it was wall to wall traffic. We have been listening to HP and the Goblet of Fire all the way down, to make the time go by faster and it totally helped!

Well about an hour outside of Phoenix, Greg called the mechanic, to find out it was not ready. GGGGGRRRRRR. So we proceeded, with me being a bit upset, but we kept talking it out as we drove and I got over it. By the time we got to the RV I was excited. We checked it out and it was great! But Greg was now upset, because the mechanic lied to him on how far along he was. So I had definitely shifted my mood and wanted to be there to support my husband! He was feeling really upset and it was not his fault at all, I needed him to know that we were in this together.

So we went and found a hotel. We ended up staying 5 days. The mechanic kept saying he would get it done....leading us on. Sometimes he would not answer his phone when we called and that really got on my nerves! Every time the mechanic went to work on it, Greg was at the RV, making sure he was there working on it.

The kids were AMAZING during this time. None of us were thrilled to be at the hotel, we wanted to be in our new home! But they did great and were very understanding, it blows my mind! We met a wonderful family(The Buckley's) from the Phoenix Unschoolers!

We had a nice time playing at the local park with them. It was nice to forget about the mechanic for a few hours ;)

Finally on Wed we decided we could not keep spending money on the hotel.

We left at 11:00 am and made it home at about 2:00 am. We went straight through. Just wanted to be home and our cats missed us so much.

So the mechanic kept giving us empty promises on when the RV would be done. Fortunately the previous owner was very nice and felt kind of bad for what we have been going through, so he has been keeping an eye on the RV for us. It has been getting the work done, just REALLY SLOWLY!! So we ended up getting Greg a flight to go down there by himself on 4/2. We are really bummed that we can not all go pick up the RV but we can not afford another trip down there right now for all of us. So the positive in all of this, is we are not paying for RV space and finishing up our 30 day notice on the place we are renting.

Yesterday we put everything in our storage unit that we already had. We had sold a lot of things, but the unit is still filled up!! Mostly kids things and the Cutlass. Right now as I type, we have a very bare house and we are sitting on our camping chairs and sleeping on the floor. Patiently waiting to start our adventure for real!

More Fun

2010-02-15T18:43:00.000-08:00

Jazmin made an RV obstacle course to go through.

Jazmin wrote this on my arm.

We saw Grampy

2010-02-15T18:38:00.000-08:00

Grampy was coming through Northern NV, so we were able to meet up with him at Chuck E Cheese. We had a lot of fun playing with him as we have not seen him in awhile!

Winter FUN

2010-02-15T18:26:00.000-08:00

Christmas Time

2010-02-15T18:12:00.000-08:00

We had a lot of fun making ginger bread houses!

I was looking for something special to make just for Xmas morning and Anne suggested Kolache. Well it was a very fun story that went along with this, that I wrote on Anne's facecook: Anne I have to tell you my little story with the Kolache (which was/is very yummy). I was telling my mom (Who we don't usually see very often or talk very often, but we had a nice little get together with) that I was going to try something different for xmas breakfast. And we were talking about long ago when I was little that my grandma used to make some kind of bread that was so good, well it turned out to be the kolache that she made ;) I was blown away that I was looking for something to start making a tradition and what I really ended up doing was following a tradition that I had going when I was little. I started researching Kolache, to see about other fillings, because I started remembering these fillings my grandma put in and come to find out it is a Czeck thing also (which we are part Czeck). Just wanted to tell you of my neat little connection that happened all because of this bread ;)

So we LOVE the Kolache and we decided next year I will make a HUGE batch when the holidays start so we can have it as our holiday treat and save one for Xmas Morning.

Mmmmmm we found a great recipe for popcorn balls!!!!

Thanksgiving

2010-02-15T18:03:00.000-08:00

Jazmin has been wanting more traditional type stuff going on. SO I tried really hard to help make that happen. Since most of the time people associate Thanksgiving with turkey, but we are vegetarian. So I made a lot of other yummy food items, while we watched the parade. Then we went to Grandma & Grandpa's and saw Uncle Brian. We had fun playing Nacho Libro and going for a walk.

Alex's Haircut

2010-02-15T17:19:00.000-08:00

Well Alex had let his hair grow the longest it has ever been! He did not like to brush it or wash it and that was his choice. Every now and then I would offer it up, but he would just pass. He grew found of his "knot" He said it was like a pillow. BUT then it got so big that it started to bother him, but he still liked it. We had many conversations about his hair and what should we do, he finally decided to go ahead and try and fix the knot, but it was beyond being able to fix. We had gotten all set up like a spa and had a movie going. I had to cut slits in the knot to try and loosen it up, but that was not working. So he just said go ahead do what you need to do. So I did. He looked very handsome! It was a lot for him to take in when he looked at himself when it was all done. He kept acting like it was ok, but I could tell something was wrong. He started crying while I held him, saying how much he misses his hair. He wanted me to tell everyone not to say anything about it, good or bad. So I did. And everyone respected that. A few days later, he really liked his hair cut. And now, it is growing again. Every week or so he will ask me to brush it or I will make a comment asking him if we should and he we do. We will see what he does this time.....

Misc Pics Out of Order

2010-02-15T17:14:00.000-08:00

Grandma & Grandpa had come over a little before Xmas to visit. We had fun playing on the Wii with them and they told us they got a Wii!! We were so surprised!

Greg and Jazmin on the ferris wheel in Scheel's.

Alex making a silly face.

Happy, relaxing.

San Francisco's PR and the Jelly Belly Factory

2010-02-15T16:51:00.000-08:00

We took a trip down to San Francisco to see our friends at Perpetual Recess! We love playing there with them! After PR we stayed the night with the Murphy's. It was a lot of fun staying up chatting with them!

On the way home we stopped at the Jell Belly Factory, the kids had no idea. We had been wanting to do it for a while and so we surprised the kids! It was really cool to see the way the jelly bellies are made. They even made their pizza in the shape of a jelly belly. We got a box of the kind that have the gross ones in mixed with regulars so it is a chance on what you will get. They really are gross, ear wax, boogers, toothpaste, skunk, yyyeeeewwww!!!!

Passion

2010-02-15T16:38:00.000-08:00

Jazmin and I were grocery shopping. She wanted to look at the toys, so I left her while I did more shopping. Whenever I come back she has so much to tell and show me. So she was EXCITED!! She took me over to this PINK guitar, she was so drawn to it! She had been talking about wanting to learn an instrument. So we sat there in the store for quite some time trying to figure out how she could get it, because it was $60. We got it all figured out and she was in LOVE! Well I was drawn to getting a guitar too!! SO I found one on craigslist. We have a lot of fun playing together.

It has been a few months since we got the guitars and we have tried learning various things. It is very hard to position your fingers and I have a GREATER appreciation for people who can play all these instruments and some of them even sing on top of that. I am not giving up though! We will hope I can train my fingers!

Look what I can stick to my face....

2010-02-15T16:36:00.000-08:00

Daddy turns 34

2010-02-10T21:22:00.000-08:00

Jazmin decorated daddy's cake....mmmmm

So we all just decided to dig in...who needs plates.

Kokanee

2010-02-10T21:01:00.000-08:00

We went and checked out the Kokanee spawning at South Shore. We had a lot of fun and they were jumping out of the water it was so cool.

Halloween Fun!

2010-02-10T20:39:00.000-08:00

These pumpkins sure are heavy!

Jazmin and I did something different this year. I carved a peace sign and Jazmin carved a cat! Jazmin made this witch snack for us to munch on.

We went to a local street safe in Truckee. It was kind of weird, it was along a shopping center and there were so many kids that the people handing out candy just kind of plopped it in our bags. All the kids were not even saying trick or treat. After that there were "safe street houses" across the street. Alex was done after a few houses and it was ok with Jazmin to stop. The kids know that they can have candy whenever they want so it was nothing really special, but we know Jazmin loves holidays so we love to do things with her. We then had yummy Round Table pizza. We had a great time!

Corn Maze

2010-02-10T20:09:00.000-08:00

We went to a corn maze/farm. They had so many neat activities. Including this tree house, jail wood trucks and a tire field to climb on.

Alex wanted it to look like Jazmin hit him with the truck. There was also a petting zoo, which was a blast.

Jazmin was having fun rolling around in the hay. She also went on a pony ride.

Bubbles are always fun no matter what age you are!

2010-02-10T20:06:00.000-08:00

Making Vegetarian Sushi

2010-02-10T20:04:00.000-08:00

This was messy fun!

One of our last days at the beach

2010-02-10T19:56:00.000-08:00

The things Jazmin does with Cheese in a Can

2010-02-10T19:53:00.000-08:00

It is time....

2010-02-10T19:50:00.000-08:00

Time to bust out some more blog posts. Geeze it has been 8 months.

24 hours

2009-07-03T10:32:00.001-07:00

A few months ago the kids were awake when Greg went to work. They told him that they got this great idea to try and see what it was like to stay awake for a full 24 hours.
They were so excited to do this. They needed to stay awake until 2:30 pm to stay awake a full 24 hours. So I woke up at about 7:00 am and they were just exstatic. So the first few hours were not too bad. They were really silly from lack of sleep. We had set up the video camera so they can watch themselves on the tv. Then all of a sudden at about 10:00am they both were just kind of sitting there and then starting to fall asleep. Well we had done A LOT of talking and they really wanted my help in staying awake. So i suggested a bath to help keep them going. So they did (they put their swim suits on, because they are definitly at the age where they want privacy) and they stayed in the water for over an hour. They got out and we had put a movie on. Jazmin had informed me that she actually wants to stay awake until daddy gets home, which would have been 4:00ish. So I called Greg and asked him to come home from work at lunch, so he did, that way the kids would not have to stay awake even longer. They were kind of dozing in and out for a couple of minutes. Alex wanted to take another bath. Then we ate lunch with Greg. The time was coming close and they were sooo tired but determined. They started getting cranky, but still love the idea of being able to stay awake for a full 24 hours. So the time came and they made it, they actually ended up staying up for an extra half an hour then went to bed.

They slept until 2:00am and then woke up. They decided that it was fun to try once but not really worth it, because the whole weekend was shot. Their sleep was all messed up.
But all in all they are glad they did it.

Hold on Tight

2009-07-03T10:30:00.000-07:00

Awesome Trikes!

2009-07-03T10:25:00.000-07:00

We got the Triton Trikes. We needed to assemble them, which Jazmin loved to help me do. We all had a blast riding them around. They are the greatest bikes.

Thunderstorm

2009-07-03T10:23:00.000-07:00

We have been getting a lot of rain. The kids absolutely love to play in it. Th three of us were outside and someone made a comment about wanting to roast something (but we do not have a fire pit anymore). So I pulled out some candles and veggie dogs and veggies and we roasted right in the middle of the living room. I could not get a good pic though.

Life is Good!

2009-07-03T09:52:00.000-07:00

LIFE IS GOOD 2009 Vancouver, WA

The first thing to do when we get there......swim of course.

Jazmin found a lady bug in the pool and was saving it.

Lots of pool fun! Jazmin got all tattooed up.

These guys all got together to make a BIG SPLASH!

These guys sure love playing with their weapons.

Alex and I were taking a much needed break from all of the action. We connected really good, just hanging out in the hotel room. And playing in the bubbles.

I have always wanted to do henna and Ginger did this beautiful art on my hand.
Talent show time!

This was WONDERFUL. Jazmin's fairy godparent (Viola) got up at the talent show and sang to Jazmin the "Nature Anthem" which happened to be Jazmin's favorite song. Jazmin LOVED it. You guys sure are special!!!

I thought the Winkler's were amazing. They showed everyone EXACTLY what RU is all about. They kept trying to do their act, but their child NEEDED them RIGHT NOW!! I know how hard that is to make that choice and after a few moments they got off the stage to be with her that was AWESOME!

Hoe Down Throw Down. They all did so great!

Jazmin added this to the tapestry (I didn't even know she knew how to do that :)

Every year we have a better and better time. When we go to the conference it feels like coming home! We love it!

Flowers

2009-07-03T09:51:00.000-07:00

Jazmin loves to take pictures of me with the flowers that Greg gets me.

NV City

2009-07-03T09:49:00.000-07:00

We met some new friends in NV City. We had a blast hanging out with them and we stayed all day!

Poetry

2009-07-03T09:48:00.000-07:00

Jazmin had found out toontown was doing a contest to win a prize of disney stuff. To enter you needed to write a poem about jellybeans. So she went to it. She had never written a poem before. She had never thought about writing a poem before. So she looked up the rules, it needed to be so many lines. And we looked at other poems to see how they are done. We played around with it for a few days and wrote different lines. On the last day it was due we finally got it done. She did fantastic!

Tune Into Kids

2009-07-03T09:46:00.000-07:00

I had heard about a free event going on in Reno called Tune Into Kids. It looked like it might be fun, a lot of free activities going on. So we decided to go. Sometimes when going out into the world it can be really difficult to see all the ways parents are mean to their kids. I had to tell Jazmin we had a nice shiny bubble around us and that we can have a good time even though there were all these nasty things going on. Which we did. We road on an old fire truck which was fun and we road the train around the pond and played at the park. Sometimes i feel like why should I try to keep being around mainstream parents, because they just hurt all of our hearts so much. So we go to things that we enjoy and if we are not having fun we leave.

Beach Fun

2009-07-03T09:42:00.000-07:00

Buried in the sand, nah, nah, nah, nah (if you have ever watched the show Code Name Kids Next Door, you will know this) We went to the beach and this rock was like a little island. I could not walk out there but the kids did. I took a raft out to the rock. And we saw fish who have a home under the rock. We then all got in the raft and rowed really far out to some more rocks.
I love hanging out with the kids at the beach.

Alex is 9!!

2009-07-03T09:39:00.000-07:00

Alex turned 9 oh my! We found him these wolverine claws that i knew he would love!! And we went to the movies and ate pizza. It was a good day!

Museum Fun

2009-07-03T09:35:00.000-07:00

We had a good time playing at the museum together after a rough day in Minden.

Potatoe

2009-07-03T09:33:00.000-07:00

So I had gone shopping and the big bag of potatoes were sitting out. The kids started playing with them. Jazmin had fallen in love with her potatoe and could not possibly imagine us eating it. So she decided to keep it.
I have come a long way in this area, I used to have a really hard time with Jazmin wanting to keep EVERYTHING (I mean everything from food wrappers, to straws, to packaging, etc). But i have grown in this area. I am here for but still have a hard time being joyful about the things she like to keep. Anyway Greg found out that they could try putting it in soil. So they did. The hard thing about all of this is Jazmin did not want potato to change in any way. She did not want to plant potatoe outside because of the wildlife eating it. So she was satisfied with putting potatoe in a jar in the house with soil. So after a few weeks we saw some roots, which was cool. But then after a few more weeks, potatoe got moldy. So we had to take potatoe out and Greg tried to save a part of potatoe to plant but it was gone. Jazmin was very sad. She cried a lot and said how much she missed potatoe. So Greg and I held her and just listened. That is what she needed. Sometimes it is very hard to be able to understand how deeply she loves, but if I can just be there for her that feels good.

Iron

2009-07-03T09:31:00.000-07:00

Alex had wanted to go take some magnets we have to the beach to see how much iron he can
pull out with the magnets. It was a very windy day we didn't last too long, but we had a great time. He loved seeing that the magnet was completly covered!

Turned 31!

2009-07-03T09:27:00.000-07:00

We had a lovely day. The kids gave me all the gifts they made me and then we went out for Chinese food and to eat it at the beach. It was a great day!

Tough Guys in Jail Haha

2009-07-03T09:25:00.000-07:00

Mario Day

2009-07-03T09:24:00.000-07:00

We found out that it was Mario Day so we pulled out all of our Mario games to play. It was fun.

The Half Pipe

2009-07-03T09:19:00.000-07:00

Greg found out that a local ski area was hosting this half pipe contest. It was televised and everything. So we went to check it out. I have to admit at first I did not really want to go. But the kids had a blast. We had climbed up the side of the hill and this nice man gave us his spot. So the guys were actually doing flips right in front of our face. It was pretty cool!

Chuck E Cheese With the Thomans

2009-03-07T09:47:00.000-08:00

Woo Hoo We got to play with or friends again. We missed them so much. And we loved hanging out.

They left at about 4:00 and we were going to leave too BUT.....

Jazmin started to melt down and I was having one of those moments where all I can think of was to leave. After a few moments of this I let go, you know that feeling when you are doing the right thing?, I just sat with her and she was upset and I was realizing she had not really eaten. Duh?!?!? But with Jazmin I need to let her get it ALL out, before we can move on. I could not even move I have to be right there (So I could not go get food, and Greg was helping Alex) So you know what, the moment I let go, everything shifted, she was able to get on with her upsetness and we both went to the salad bar and got food and finished playing out our tokens, and taking our time and munching on food and munching on tickets and taking our time looking at the toys we could get. And we had a good time, you know I could have been upset and pushed and forced and said NO we HAVE this yada yada yada to do. But I didn't. And whenever I don't do this we have a good time, whenever wego with the flow it is great!!! I love that I am ever changing and growing in this area, even after 5 years of RU, lol. (Because we all know it is not about the kids it is about what is inside us)

Jump Man Jump

2009-03-07T08:46:00.001-08:00

We also got to check out Jump Man Jump with the wild tribe. We really had a lot of fun hanging out with another unschooling family. And I wish we could have done more with them!!

Ballocity

2009-03-06T11:26:00.000-08:00

We met up with our new friends the wild tribe at Ballocity. We had a blast just hanging out, talking and playing together!

Forgot a Xmas Magic Trick Jazmin Did

2009-03-06T10:45:00.000-08:00

We Moved

2009-03-06T10:30:00.000-08:00

We had stacked up the mattresses when we were getting ready to move and the kids were having sooo much fun playing on them.

We had decided to make a move to help us out financially (and boy is it ever :)) We had some wonderful new friends http://thewildtribe.blogspot.com/?zx=7839e228d3d7e2c4 help us move. They made the move go very smoothly and fast!! The kids had fun playing together which I think made it great!! I will be forever greatful!

So the day Greg and I went back to clean, the kids were hiking out in our side yard and having so much fun together.

Then we did the "mentos and diet soda" experiment. Which was a blast.

We had gone back to the house one last time and it was really hard on the kids, but they wanted to go. They really loved that house and being in it and all the fun times we had. They were telling the house goodbye with many tears. I was able to just BE there for them (which can get hard after a half an hour).

We have gotten used to the new house (since I am updating my blog months later :)) It is not the same but we are definitly on a new adventure.

Xmas

2009-03-06T10:23:00.000-08:00

These two always seem to amaze me! I was worried about Xmas being tight this year and they both said this is the best Xmas ever. They were having a blast hunting for presents just like they like. Well Alex really was just looking for one presant that he knew he was going to get and that was his Death Knight. But Jazmin loves the hunt. Geesh it is not about the presants mom, silly me. That conditioning sure goes deep sometimes, I did not say that I was worried about a tight Xmas but inside I felt it. It is amazing when you just go with the FLOW how wonderful life is!!

Gingerbread Houses

2009-03-06T10:09:00.000-08:00

The BIGGEST snow man EVER!!

2009-03-06T09:57:00.000-08:00

What better way to spend Xmas Eve, then to build te BIGGEST snowman Ever!!! We had a hard time lifting that head up :)

Daddy Car Love

2009-03-06T09:54:00.000-08:00

Toontown Contest

2009-03-06T09:53:00.000-08:00

This is Jazmin's entry for the Toontown Christmas contest.

Awesome Pictures Stacy Took of Us

2009-03-06T09:24:00.000-08:00

The Kids Museum

2009-01-30T11:57:00.000-08:00

We were driving down to Carson to meet up with some friends at the kids museum. And we needed to pull over to get some air. We noticed this plaque, which we have not seen before. So we went over to read it. It was not a happy story. It was about this huge fire that travelled up this valley a long time ago and they had prisoners working on the fire. Well the wind shifted and trapped some of the prisoners and some of the firefighters. The prisoners got a pardon from teir crimes since they died in the fire. So not a happy story at all.

The rock wall was by far the favoritest thing!

But there was this very cool game. Where you had to get the image of the ball into the hole.

Here are some new friends we met.

The Truckee Humane Society

2009-01-30T11:53:00.001-08:00

This was a cute picture of Jazmin and one of the kitties, they had a lot of kittens when we went this time!

Halloween 2008

2009-01-30T11:40:00.000-08:00

We picked our pumpkins up at Safeway, and we saw some really neat looking pumpkins, but they cost a little too much. They were called Cinderella pumpkins. Alex liked to stab his over and over it is a REALLY cool feeling. Jazmin cleaned hers up and then got to work.

We went to the Rec Center in South Shore, like we did last year. We were really missing our friends on Halloween, we have spent the last few Halloweens with them.

This year was a bit crowded because it was expected to snow and it was cold but we still had a blast!!

Silly Man!

2008-11-15T18:49:00.000-08:00

The BIG 33!!!

2008-11-15T18:03:00.000-08:00

Daddy turned 33 this year and we are SO happy he was born and is in our lives!!!

The kids love to lead daddy out of the room to open his presents.

The kids had made daddy some different things, including a card and a crown.

We knew what we wanted to get daddy, and that was a bow and arrows. However it was too difficult to try and surprise him with this gift. When I was looking for the bow and arrows, it opened up a WHOLE new world. There are so many different types and styles and on and on. So I picked out what I thought he might like. I had to talk with the kids (because Jazmin is HUGE on things going a certain way, and she really wanted him to be surprised), about asking daddy to help me pick out his present and then he could just forget he ever heard anything :)

So the bow that I had picked out on ebay and bid on I had been out bid and so I picked another and another and continued to be outbid. SO I finally found a bow that I thought would be perfect. It was new and carved wood absolutely beautiful. SO the kids and I go down to the post office to pick it up and it is HUGE!!! The package was so LONG! I thought there must be something wrong because I did not get a long bow. Well it turns out I mixed up the numbers in my head and the bow was 72" long. Greg still loved it.

We had also went to a feed store and picked up a bale of hay.....sorry I mean straw. I have never done something like that. And the people at the store asked how I was going to get the straw home and I said in the back of my minivan and they said oh. Well have fun getting all the straw out of there. Yeah it was everywhere and the minivan smelled like a farm, we are not big fans of that smell.

We all went out to watch daddy try out his new bow. And it was kind of awkward. It took some getting used to. But he nailed it a couple of times. And to watch the arrows go zipping by so fast was amazing.

I gave it shot and cut my hand up but it was still nothing I have ever experienced. Alex decided he just wanted to throw the bows into the straw like a spear.

We actually did get to surprise daddy with something he wanted and that was to take a gandola ride. So we went to North Star and got a free gondola ride to the top. There were people riding down the mountain on their bikes, it was pretty cool.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am not a fan of small spaces or heights. So I actually was not going to go up the gandola ride. Alex had said he did not want to but when we got there he decided he did (darn I don't have an out now) So I went too. They all LOVED going up and down the gandola, me.....well I LOVED being with my family!

We went for pizza after the ride.

Then we were walking around the village, trying to figure out if we wanted to do anything else. And daddy suggested making a candle, which was such a great idea!! So we went into this shop. Greg picked out the style and scent. He picked out a pyramid which was perfect because then we could each make a side. It was fun!

We then went to the store to get Greg a cake, because the oven went out and I could not make his pineapple upside down cake that I have not made in 10 years, ack time flies. So we wandered the store in search of a cake with no eggs, which was a challenge. So Greg had found a banana ice cream pie which was tasty.

We picked up our candle the next day!

And the oven was fixed a few days later so I made daddy's pineapple upside down cake!

Dog Show

2008-11-15T17:42:00.000-08:00

The Humane Society that we volunteer at was doing a dog show. So we went and checked it out, it was neat to see the dogs doing their tricks.

Volunteering

2008-09-26T09:40:00.000-07:00

A few months back I looked into the volunteer program at the Humane Society. I thought Jazmin would just LOVE doing the cat/dog socializing. Well they explained that she needed to be 10 before she could volunteer, so we waited and waited and waited. Finally when she turned 10 last month we started our training.

She really loves going and playing with the cats knowing it will help them to get good homes. We have not finished our dog training yet, but will be working on that soon. It is a bit of training to learn how to take care of the dogs. We have been having so much fun doing this together.

Skype

2008-09-24T10:31:00.000-07:00

Our worlds have been expanded so much by Skype! If you have never heard of Skype, it is a FREE tool where you can chat by im, voice, or videocam. So we have recently met some families from other countries! And had so much fun talking to them. We have met families in Australia, Trinidad, Canada and Colorado! Jazmin was just amazed that the family in Australia were already a day ahead of us. We googled earthed them and saw where they lived and really talked for hours! I love technology and how we can connect with people!

Spore

2008-09-24T10:24:00.000-07:00

For 2.5 YEARS Alex was waiting for spore to be released. He has always enjoyed gaming and a while back he asked me to find him a game where he can create his creature and then battle with it. Well for so long I could not find anything and then I found Spore. OH MY WAS ALEX EXCITED!!!! So we waited and waited and waited and watched everything that they sent out about Spore. We counted down the days. We got it. He loved playing it for a few days and then said to me that it wasn't what he thought it would be like. And this is what I believe happened in that 2 years time, we found WoW (World of Warcraft)which is where you can play with other players in real time. And he loves that aspect!! So since Spore is only a single player game it does not appeal to him as much as he hoped. He still loves the designing of the creatures (that is the most amazing thing I have ever seen) BUT he can not play with other players, so maybe the creaters of Spore will expand the game in the future to allow us to play with other people. In the mean time we are still BIG WoW fans!

Beach FUN

2008-09-23T19:53:00.000-07:00

We went down to the beach and we all played in the water for some time. It felt nice. Alex started giving me a mud bath. Greg had shown up after work and was hanging out. I realized I needed a shower after that mud bath (haven't had sand in those areas for a long time :) So I ran home and Greg and the kids started looking for crawdads and fish. Greg looked like he was having so much fun!!

Perpetual Recess with the SFBUNNIES

2008-09-23T19:17:00.000-07:00

Perpetual Recess is a play date that the San Francisco Unschoolers put on. It is our kind of play, where it is an all day long event with everyone just hanging out. Our friends invited us to come down and check it out. So the kids and I talked it out. This was quite a process, for a few reasons. For us to go it involved a lot because it was a 3.25 hr drive for us. So we talked about what would be involved in doing all of this. Alex was all for it. Jazmin was not at first. We talked about having to wake up earlier than we normally do to drive there and we talked about if we stayed past 6:00 then we would need to stay the night, because I would be too tired to drive any later than that. Well Jazmin did not like the idea of spending the night at someone's house we had not been to before. So knowing Jazmin I did not really talk anymore with her until a few days before we were going to go. And we talked about how, IF she did not like it then we can just drive home, no harm. Alex said that he would want to stay though, and I asked him to just wait and see what happens. Because knowing Jazmin and knowing that she would end up having fun and wanting to stay and not actually leave, but the thought was TOO BIG for her, the thought of staying the night without daddy was TOO MUCH. So long story short (because usually when we process things it take A LONG TIME, but it is what we do so every one can feel heard). She agreed to go. We went and had a BLAST. No one wanted to leave the next day, they wanted to keep playing with our friends. She was ok with having a sleepover, she was ok with calling daddy on the phone to say goodnight, she was ok with the stuffed animal heads (that were at the place that we met up with the group, she is vegetarian so this kind of thing REALLY bothers her, she just decided to not look at them). However I would have been totally ok with driving home if she was not ok (I think we worked out an agreement where we would stay for an hour to see what everyone thought). There was so much involved it was such a wonderful process.

I LOVE this picture I got of Joanna. We were making lavender wands, which was fun. I met a lot of neat people and it felt great to hang out with them. My kids were off and playing for the entire time. They even got into a water fight (because it was EXTREMLY HOT) with the other kids (and this is not something they usually like to do, we actually had to process this a bit afterwards).

We even witnessed deer running through the area twice, which was so cool!

That evening we stayed with Robyn had were up for quite awhile playing and talking. Robyn had needed to park my car for me, because I do not parallel park let alone do it on a hill that is practically straight up and down :) The next day Jessie showed us both bridges from the top of a hill. And we set off back for home. We took our time getting back and got stuck in some traffic, but the kids were fine. I came home to Greg cleaning and cooking dinner for us, what a treat! The SFBUNNIES have a very special group. I love being able to be there!

Jazmin's 10th Birthday

2008-09-23T19:01:00.000-07:00

Jazmin was so excited to turn 10. She had it all planned out. Greg took the day off of work and we went to Chuck E Cheese. She did not want to stay too long, because she wanted to do other things at home. BUT we ended up staying ALL day. We had a lot of fun playing together. Stacy was able to come by for a little bit, which Jazmin loved. Greg & Alex had so much fun playing this shooting game. They played until their arms were sore.

Jazmin had a lot of fun doing all the games she loves. Including riding this clock!

When we got home she wanted us to hide her presents so she could search for them. She loved looking for them.

Jazmin wanted a chocolate, vanilla, strawberry cake with strawberry frosting. So w had another 3 layered cake. She helped make it all. After she blew out the candles she decided we should just all dig in. So we grabbed 4 forks and started eating it like crazy.

We also went mini golfing with Grandma & Grandpa, which was a lot of fun.

I had to throw this in there. We were waiting for the people in front of us and it was a little warm so Alex was just chilling out on the green.

JOYFUL 2008

2008-08-06T09:33:00.000-07:00

Yeah woohoo!! The time is here! Every one came up to our house to camp!

I love how comfortable everyone is. And seeing all the kids just playing and having a good time was great! From World of Warcraft to Twister, to cutting on the kitchen floor.

On my vision board was learning how to kayak! The Murphy Family brought their kayaks to use. David had been itching to go out on the Lake. We made a date to go Saturday morning. Jazmin, Alex & I usually experience firsts together, so when I told Jazmin I was going she was a bit sad she wasn't sure if she actually wanted to come in the kayak or to watch me because she knew how bad I have been wanting to do this. Plus she is a night owl and we were going early in the morning (9:00am) So she did decide to come with us, which I was so excited about!

David & Jazmin went in one kayak and Beverly and I in another.

We made it to Kings Beach which is a good 1-1.5 miles down the road. Jazmin did not feel good so we stopped. They were having an art show there and we walked around. There was some pretty amazing art, I am glad we got to check it out. Jazmin wanted to be in the kayak with me so we switched for the way back. Man was it A LOT easier when Beverly and I were together.My arms were like jelly by the time we made it back to our beach. But we had such a BLAST!! Thank you Murphy Family for letting us experience that!

We were resting at the house and everyone else walked up to the park (except for our WoW'ers including Greg, Joshua, Alex, & Jason). So we had some coffee and played 3 rounds of Uno Attack and David beat Jazmin, Alex and me. So Alex wanted to play Marvel Nemesis, because he knew he would beat David :)

We then went to the beach and met up with a couple families from a local group I have been trying to get going. We had fun with them! The kids were smashing rocks against each other and watching them break. Greg had snuck out on a kayak, turns out it was a little too choppy for him.

Then Joanna and David got to go, but I did not get a good front shot of them together.

This is Katalina's hubby (sorry can not remember his name), he made this great SHARK sand sculpture.

Brandon & Trevor shivering. Trevor had made a sand angel and i was getting ready to take a picture and he said wait, I need to add a smiley face :)

Sydney and Jessie walking out from the water, but not for too long.

The trampoline got a lot of use this weekend!

One night the kids were making it all staticky and some of their hair was amazingly BIG. The camera did not do it justice at all.

The guys still having a great time being able to do their thing.

I love that Jessie got this picture of us. (And I think it is a great picture even though she did not like it :)

Fun with balloons.

Kade was sure determined to grab all the rice socks that Ginger made.

Sydney and Jason having a ballon sword fight. Looks like Sydney (or as my kids were telling me no her name is peanut butter, I guess Sydney was saying peanut butter a lot) was winning.

We got all the kids together for a picture. Which is really cool, because we have a picture of all the kids from last year's campout too.

Well as fast as the campout came it ended. For everyone that came you will never know how wonderful it was to have you all at our home and to play and just BE together. I loved many wonderful moments, from Ella cutting paper in the kitchen, to being persuaded by Beverly, Jessie and Sydney to come swim in the Lake (another first for me) which was really refreshing, to hanging out on the kitchen floor talking, to watching the guys play WoW, to Joshua & Jason whispering in the living room, to being able to just be ourselves and not be judged. I thought it was wonderful how understanding everyone was on the second night when I said I needed to get some sleep. It was a great feeling seeing how everyone got along pretty well, and that yeah none of us are perfect and there were bumps but we got through them. I could write more and more about how good it felt to hang out with everyone but I believe the pictures tell the story!

Jazmin Checking out a little Island

2008-08-06T09:25:00.000-07:00

When the lake level is low, there is a little island in the boat docking area, that Jazmin has been wanting to check out, so she paddled over and checked it out. She was handing Alex cool things she was finding. She could not stay too long because it is an area that is not for swimming, so she came back (but was not too happy about that, because she was having a blast, but their were city workers there and I know she would not have wanted them to say anything to her)

Greg and the kids went to the park and found this bear print. It is kind of hard to see from the picture but I think it is cool!

Ballocity

2008-08-06T09:11:00.000-07:00

Ballocity was a challenge for me, this time. The people who went know what I am talking about. We had a very difficult time with some school boys, picking on Alex. But Alex had no fear,n and even stopped those boys from picking on another child. It is a long and difficult story that I do not want to go into.

But we had MANY SHINY moments too!!

We met some new friends too!!

And all the balls fell on us, this is the BEST part I think.

THE SNOW PLANT!!!!

2008-07-29T10:48:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who helped figure that out!

Snow Plant, (Sarcodes sanguinea)The Snow Plant is a Saprophytic herb which blooms in May-July from Baja California north to Oregon and east to Nevada in the high Coniferous forests above 4,000'. It is a member of the huckleberryand blueberry family but it lacks chlorophyll. It secures its foodfrom decaying organic matter in the soil. It is a beautiful treasure to find.

Cooking

2008-07-17T10:25:00.000-07:00

Well, I usually write mostly about the kids, but I am going to write about something I have been LOVING lately. I don't really like my kitchen (we are renting) it is old and small and cut off from the living room and it is not really an ideal place to be.
BUT ever since Jazmin has brought us on this journey of being vegetarian/vegan I have been looking at this wonderful website http://vegweb.com/ It is really people posting their very real and mostly good recipes, with pictures (that is the part I love, I want to know what something is suppose to look like when I cook it). Well just recently I have been trying out quite a few of the recipes. And we love most of them. So this has been a passion of mine making new foods.
I really got into recently when trying to figure out how to make vegan marshmellows for our campout. Well my first go at it not so great, but I am going to try again. I wish I would have taken a picture. Ah well. I would so enjoy this hobby (if you can call it that, since you gotta eat anyway, might as well put stuff in your body that you KNOW what the ingredients are :) more if my kitchen were well exactly the way I want it!

Bubble World

2008-07-16T12:57:00.000-07:00

Alex was in the bathroom and made this bubble world. He kept pouring the dish soap in, he said the water was bright yellow (kinda like morning pee, yeah we are definately into potty humor right now). He then started blowing the bubbles every where and giggling and giggling. It is amazing how fast old tapes can run through your head, though I needed to leave for a few minutes because I started thinking things like how sticky everything was going to be blah blah blah. So I left and came back and was able to enjoy Alex's bubble world. He was so happy! And I still have not cleaned up the stickines, ah well.....such as life I will get to it.

Fruit Kabobs

2008-07-16T12:53:00.000-07:00

We had soooo much wonderful fresh fruit. We were just loving our little buffet.

$100

2008-07-16T12:52:00.001-07:00

Here is where she made it to $100. She has no idea what she wants to do know that she made that goal. But it is all good. She is excited!

Lemonade, Lemonade, Lemonade

2008-07-16T12:37:00.000-07:00

So Alex had this idea to sell lemonade. And I helped him get ready. He had asked Jazmin to join her. And her wheels started turning. She wanted to do her OWN thing. So Alex was set up outside. Meanwhile Jazmin and I were inside, she wanted me to come up with an idea, but I was tapped out. It was hot and Greg and I were trying to clean out the shed. SO she started to get upset with me, she did not want to do Alex's thing, she wanted her own table and chair and stuff to sell. I started to get upset, she was upset. And Greg walked inside and asked me what was going on. Well I started to explain what was going on but I dug further (only like RU can make you do) and started saying how independent she is and and and and she is just like me........ahahahah. Here it was, this was really the answer. This is what I needed to get to, to move past my frustrations. So Greg who was quiet the whole time just kind of smiled at me. And I was able to calm down and help Jazmin. She decided she wanted to sell grapes and carrots. I explained that we only had the one table and if she could sit with Alex. In the mean time Alex already made like $5. So she was ok with that. So I helped her get all set up. Their customers were only buying lemonade, but leaving big tips for them. So Alex decided to share his money with Jazmin. And they both decided to save up so that they could have one month membership for club penguin. They stayed out there until it was dark. I was so amazed at this. They would tell us everytime someone bought something from them. And I bought a bag of Jazmin's carrots and grapes (I was her only customer). The next day which was a Monday they decided to go back outside at 1:00 in the afternoon, I kinda made a comment about how most people will probably be at work and not come by. But they just gave me that look of Mom we know what we are doing. Sothey set back up and I gave them squirt bottles to play with since it was HOT. But they still made more money that day. The next day came by and they wanted to set up again but this time it was closer to 5:00pm. They made all the money they needed for club penguin and then some. Jazmin had been saving to get to $100 for a long time and she was at $95 so Alex gave her the rest of the money. She did not quite have enough so she went and looked for change in the car and got enough. She was so excited.

The kids were so happy, I remember hearing them on the first day saying "Now don't forget to smile at the customers they seem to like it better" And Jazmin saying "Alex you are so good at talking to the customers, I don't like talking to them really" And they were talking about how easy it was to earn their own money.

They have not set up a lemonade stand since, they are too busy doing the things they love to do.

This was on the first day of selling, and they were telling me I was in the way of their business by taking their picture. They needed the space I was at just in case a customer comes :)

The 3rd of July

2008-07-16T12:09:00.000-07:00

Last year when we moved here, we found out by accident that they do fireworks for the locals on the 3rd of July so that all the local people do no have to be stuck at our beautiful beaches, being crowded with all the tourists. So it is absolutely wonderful! So I have been wanting to go to the beach more, and the kids have been content with not going. So I asked them if we could go early to the beach and hang out. Well they were kinda grumbling at it, but wanted to do it. So we did. And we hung out for quite some time.

Jazmin in her own deep thoughts.

Alex likes to do this thing where he gets wet and then runs and sticks his hands in the sand.

We were sitting on the blanket munching and all of a sudden a WHOLE LOT of geese came right up to where we were at. Alex started to get nervous so he was throwing the food at them which made them fight and ackkk. So I suggested he not do that, because it was making him even more nervous. So I stood up to let the geese know they can not attack us, because it sure felt like they were going to. It was really cool though. When they started to walk away the kids wanted to be near them, but then they honked at the kids so the kids ran back. The geese hung out for awhile, until some kid down the beach was throwing rocks at them, grrrrrr. We were so sad by this, the parents did not even say anything to him, but then they left. So by the time we would have walked down there he stopped. My kids were so confused why this kid would be doing that and laughing. It is moments like these that I just do not know how to explain that type of situation. We talk about it but they still just do not get WHY, would someone do that.

So we had our beach all to ourselves and were playing with glow sticks. No one showed up until right when the fireworks started. The fireworks are pretty cool when you see the glow in the lake.

Yes I was there, see proof. Greg and I were messing around earlier trying to get good pictures of each other to put on our new phones. Yeah it was too funny, because we were laughung and the pictures kept looking goofier and goofier.

The Vargas's

2008-07-16T12:07:00.000-07:00

We went and saw my mom, dad, brother, aunt, uncle, grandma and grandpa for a few hours. It was a nice visit. The kids had fun playing on grandmas moving, vibrating bed. And Alex brought out his computer and showed his creatures that he created on his Spore Demo.

Just Love It

2008-07-16T12:04:00.000-07:00

The Drive In

2008-07-16T11:28:00.000-07:00

This is the first time we took the kids to the drive in. We had a blast. The kids were climbing the metal poles that hold up the big screen. Man was that making me nervous. But they were very confident. I love that about this life. I was able to keep my mouth shut so I did not mess them up. Jazmin climbed all the way to the top and touched the screen. All the while I was holding my breathe. When they were all done they said Mom I bet you could not do that it is way too high for you. They sure know me. Alex went around taking a ton of pics, but not too many came out :(

Except for this one of us in the car getting all cozy for the first movie, Kung Fu Panda. And then we stayed to watch Indiana Jones (well I actually dozed off a bit, ok a lot) It was late for me, but not for my night owl kids. We will definately do that again. It was way cheaper than going to the theater and we got to see 2 movies. I might like it better during the week though, the weekend was pretty crowded with....ahhhhm mainstream parents telling their kids everything they CAN NOT DO. But that is another story :)

The Totem

2008-07-16T11:16:00.000-07:00

This was the last time that we will see ,our bestest friends that we love, in awhile. They have a lot going on, I did not know if I wanted to put these photos in my blog. But I do because we
care about them soooo much (if you can not tell by my blog) and even though us adults knew what was coming the next day, the kids still had JOY they still had fun and love and they were able to be in the moment playing just like they ALWAYS do together.
We will ALWAYS be here for you guys nothing will ever change that!!!

This is Alex and Kevan having a blast playing video games together like they do. And this is Katie burning an image into wood.

We had a campfire that night. And the kids were playing around. Well Katie got this big piece of wood and they made it into a totem. They started collecting things to put on the totem including some glowstick bracelets I found for them and then they were dancing around it.

Alex and Kevan, not quite sure what they were doing, but they were having fun.

We were walking and there were these concrete balls the kids were on.

Jazmin and Me

2008-07-16T11:13:00.001-07:00

We walked down to the post office. Ok I walked and she rode. There is a tiny little hill on the way back and she was jokingly making faces like it was the hardest thing. Isn't she cute. With all the talk recently, on the hine list, about bike riding I was realizing that my kids have their training wheels on and do not plan on taking them off. Alex had one training wheel off last year but this year decided to have them both on. I love how it does not matter to me or them on whether they ride their bikes or not.

What is this called......GRRRRR

2008-07-16T11:10:00.001-07:00

I just posted this on my 365 project blog. It is so beautiful. This amazing red plant just pops up in the middle of the dark browns and greens of the forest. I had found out what it was called but now it escapes me, but I am on the hunt to figure it out.

We had walked down to the beach

2008-07-16T11:07:00.001-07:00

Look what the kids found at the beach

Thank you geese for letting us get an up close look at your beautiful feathers!

Amy Steinberg at LIG

2008-05-31T17:21:00.000-07:00

At LIG this year Amy Steinberg had a concert. It was soooooo wonderful. The energy in the room was amazing! I recorded this, but the quality is not good. I could not help but move around.

LIG Talent Show

2008-05-30T13:07:00.000-07:00

Jazmin was toe hopping, while singing along to Hannah Montana's "Nobody's Perfect"

During the talent show, Alex came up to me and said he really wanted to be in. So I rushed over and he was able to get it. He wanted to roll his eyes back.

I never felt comfortable being on stage in front of that many people. And it amazes me of all the support that there is for all of the kids and adults who get up there and show there talent. The last 2 talent shows I missed and I was not going to miss this one. The kids were on such a "high" after getting offf the stage it was cool.

Life is Good 2008

2008-05-29T10:51:00.000-07:00

Well we started out our LIG conference, getting up at 3:00am to go to Sacramento Airport, for a 6:30 am flight. As it turned out Jazmin got car sick twice. And I did not leave us enough time. We missed our flight by 5 minutes. So we got to experience what that felt like. We had a 5 hr layover. Which was not entirely too bad. We were pretty tired. I am very thankful for our computers and that the Sac airport had FREE wifi.

We arrived at the hotel after a prety long day. But the kids were still ready to go. They LOVE the conference, they love being free and being able to spread their wings and be who they are. So we checked in and off they went :) Wanting to see everyone and say hi to new friends. I got my very first hug from Gillian, which was so needed after the morning. (Thanks Gillian)

Jazmin signed up for the talent show, which she had been waiting for months to do. Jazmin and I also did the fairy godparents. Which was so neat. We loved trying to think of ways to surprise our "godchild" and we loved all the neat things our "godparents" did for us all weekend. I especially loved the hugs, flowers, and sign.

On the first night, we were eating in the restaurant when this coast guard chopper pushed a dummy out of it and into the river. It was neat, they were practicing saving the dummy.

Alex made a new friend Jerry. And was having fun playing next to him in the Wow room. Jazmin and Violet were hanging out talking (they did a lot of that, which is prety cool).

Jazmin wanted to do Violet's Hannah Montana funshop. Which was a lot of fun with some singing and dancing. Then our funshop came up with was playing with balloons and telephone. Everyone LOVES balloons.

Jazmin was making a balloon dog for someone. And these dads were trying to bust a vein out of their head by blowing up those long balloons :)

The kids were in the pool almost everyday, even when it was sprinkling. They sure love playing in the water. There was also a fort building room and Alex was having fun playing with some kids.

Amy Steinberg's concert was awesome. The boys behind her blew me away, that they were able to jump right in and be her back up band. We all got Amy's autograph which was kinda cool. She is one amazing singer.

Greg & Alex walked out of the hotel and took pictures of the art.

The message board was kind of like a mini altar. It was neat to check it out everyday. I love this shot because my beautiful flowers from my fairy godparent are in it.

And this is a great picture of our layndry, nice and clean after a GREAT vacation. There is so much about the conference I would love to write. I can not seem to ever be able to put into words how wonderful the feeling is to be able to hang out with old and new friends. To be able to be accepted for who we are no matter what. I have a ton more pictures, but I am going to go toss them on Flickr.

Airplane Fun

2008-05-29T10:20:00.000-07:00

I was in the attic, cleaning it out, and found these foam airplanes that we had from awhile ago. So we took them out and redecorated them and when Greg came home went down to the beach to fly them.

And save a lady bug. It amazes me when my boy (who can be pretty intense at times) Will save a lady bug. Gotta love this life.

We also took a family picture, (I mean about time, we were the last family for the conference directory, and since I was the one doing it, I needed to ge it in :)

Greg was playing around with the camera and found this neat feature where the camera will take 16 shots really fast.

Kevan's 5th Birthday

2008-05-29T10:08:00.001-07:00

Kevan, let us come with him for his birthday party (we felt very happy to be with them).

I believe we were there for 8 hrs or so.

Stacy made Kevan a yummy banana cake just what he wanted.

I just love this picture.

Kevan kept asking about Chuck E Cheese coming out. And at first we could not understand why, because he did not want to take a picture with him or even see him. Until we remembered tht last time we were all at Chuck E Cheese the kids were running from Chuck E And playing up in this cage. And THAT is what Kevan wanted to be in the cage with the kids. I love it when things fall into place like that.

I think this is the most tickets any of the kids has ever had, they were each near the 1,000 mark. WOW.
Stacy wanted a pic with Chuck E though. :)

We had a blast just like we always do with the Thoman's.

Earth Day 2008

2008-05-28T11:14:00.000-07:00

To start our earth day: Incline Village had a earth day fair. The bear wanted us to stand next to him, but even at 9&8 the kids still do not like standing next to people dressed up. But I wanted a pic of the bear. There were different experiments to play with. This concotion that Jazmin is next to was talking about water and what happens if you litter (yes everyone was trying to teach ALL the kids ALL the time as we were there, but we did our own thing and had fun). So the college kids that were doing this were pretty easy going (Alex did not want to do it, the room was WAY to crowded for him, so I stayed with Jazmin because she needed help voicing her wants). They filled the cups with different goodies and since Jazmin is vegetarian/vegan I had to speak up a ton to say she did not want certain things in her cup. It worked out good.

Here is my wonderful family at the Earth Day celebration in Squaw Valley.

So my kids LOVE getting FREE things. And always at these kind of events everyone has something to hand out. So we had found out that there was going to be a little show. And it was GREAT. It was a husband and wife team, they did juggling, comedy and sang songs about the earth. They were AWESOME and did it for quite awhile.

The husband got on his unicycle and the wife got on her stilts and they juggled. Then when the show was almost over. Their 10 mo(? I think) old baby boy had woken up from his nap and joined in on the show. It was neat to watch. He did some tricks with them and was soooo happy to be doing it (he was drooling all over the place ;) I loved their act I wish I would have recorded it.

We got some trees from the celebration to plant at our house.

Trampoline Fun

2008-05-28T11:05:00.000-07:00