Life is precious

On Tuesday, May 25, 2010, my stepmother, Denise Gunter died. She was 43 years old, mom to my 8 year old brother, Ian. Less than one year ago she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. We will miss you, Denise. We will all take care of your beautiful son.

Vacation! May 17- 23, 2010

Last week, we drove to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. It's a 10 hour drive from Atlanta. We spent the first night in a hotel in Raleigh since we knew it was going to be raining that night. The drive was horrible. It was raining pretty hard and there were lots of accidents. When we arrived at the campground and started to set up our tent we were unsure our tent could withstand the winds. Thankfully, Jason was able to stabilize it enough to survive the 20 MPH winds.

We got to visit the NC Aquarium, The Roanoke Island Festival Park,The Wright Brothers Memorial, the beach, and 2 lighthouses. We learned a lot about the Native Americans and some of the first English people to come over to America. The Memorial was awesome! We learned a lot about aviation and about Orville and Wilbur. This was great given that Grady had read a biography about them and this was the inspiration for the whole trip :) We spent 2 days playing in the Atlantic Ocean. The kids are crazy fish and spent a lot of time in the cold water!!

This was the first time we camped without power or water at our campsite. The showers were also cold water only. Thankfully, we planned ahead. We brought solar showers, an electric converter and a big water container. It wasn't bad at all. We were camping on the beach so I was willing to give up some "luxuries".

We had a good time and would consider going back sometime in the future. On the drive home we drove the whole 10 hours home. The kids were fantastic and it was a relatively pleasant drive, thankfully!

Here's a link to some photos of our trip: Outer Bank Photos

May 3-7, 2010

This week, we spent a lot of time at the pool. 4 out of 5 nights. The other night was spent at the gym. One of the 5 nights we were at both the gym and the pool! Daddy's been gone since Tuesday. I hate 5 day trips. 4 days are doable. 5 day trips are insane. I need a break!! Thankfully, it's Saturday and he'll be home later this evening. I plan on relaxing today and finishing up Mother's Day Gifts for the Grandmothers. I hope to cook a nice dinner that isn't rushed. We'll see.

Wednesday was our last co-op day for this year. It was a little sad as I won't be seeing my students every week. I have really enjoyed our time together. My kids loved their classes. Grady will forever love computers. I don't know if he will work with computers. He loves being outside too much to be stuck inside, I think. Who knows? The teacher did say that he tries new things that she wouldn't have thought to try. She did say that he would never be unemployed! That's a good thing. Madison and Andrew both finished up clay class. I have more cute little clay pieces than I know what to do with!

Some of our friends are close to finishing up their school year or are done already. I have been very jealous of them this week. We school year round. We are far from through with math and reading. We are done with everything else. My husband likes to remind me that we took a month long beach vacation when everyone else was in school. Yes, I know that and it was great, but now I want to be done teaching and play! Thankfully, we have another beach vacation in a week and we will all get a much deserved break and hopefully come back renewed.

The kids are doing great work and are learning, as usual. Progress is being made. Grady is learning how to write a research paper. His topic is the state of Georgia. We are learning some interesting things about GA as we do our research. He picked out a book to read on his own and he finished it in 2 hours! That's probably the best thing that happened this week. Grady just didn't read before this year, his 4th grade year. He's dyslexic and it took a while to figure out what works for him. I'm so thankful that he's reading on grade level. He's so intelligent I didn't want reading to hold him back.

I know I haven't said much about Madison and Andrew yet. They are both doing well. Andrew's halfway through Singapore KB. He's reading well. He continues to amaze me daily with what he can handle. Madison's learning mental math in Singapore 2B and is getting it. It's something I wasn't taught, so it's cool seeing Madison do it.

Next week holds packing for vacation and getting ready for a Saturday swim meet. Grady's 3rd and Madison's 1st!!