Stay Tuned...

I was contacted by CSN Stores to do a review of one of their products.  I have seen CSN Stores mentioned around blog land a lot and did a giveaway back in October with them. 

Have you checked them out?  While searching for the right product to review, I was amazed with the amount of items they have.  Everything from toys, housewares, diaper bags, sofas, computer desks, and even kitchen sinks!

 This desk would be so cute in Abby's room someday!

They have so many items, that is was difficult to pick something to review.  Abby would love this Pet Gear Travel Lite Stroller:

However, poor Kako would never get a break from Abby if we got this.  She'd have him running in marathons!  LOL!

Then there is this Bissell Pro-Heat carpet cleaner:

It's quite a bit more than the amount I am to stick to, but I could have added to it.

Finally, I decided to go with a product we could use in our homeschooling.  Who would have known they had learning products?  

Stay tuned to see what item we picked to review.  I have a feeling it's going to be pretty neat!

Together Again

You may remember that just 2 months ago we had to have our 17 year old cat, Ditto put down.  He had gotten very sick suddenly.  Well today our 15 year old cat, AbyCat passed away also.

She was such a sweet girl.  She didn't play fetch, but loved silk flowers.  We'd leave a few scattered around and out of nowhere, we'd hear her cry as she brought us her "kill".  Sometimes in the middle of the night!  LOL!  It was always so funny to see her bring us a pretend flower. 

  AbyCat has sure had her share of health problems over the years:  Asthma, skin problems, an eye ulcer, frequent UTI's, kidney stones (which we did surgery for), a bladder stone and I'm sure there's more that I can't think of right now.  She was a cat with more than 9 lives.  

I think that made today a bit easier than when we had to put Ditto down.  Every time we took AbyCat to the vet, I wondered if it was her last.  However, she always popped back!  I knew when I took her this time that she wouldn't be coming home with us.  I had Abby tell her goodbye.

The vet thinks she may have had some type of intestinal cancer.  Poor thing. Honestly, she hasn't been herself since Ditto passed away.  I'm just glad they are together again.

Ditto and AbyCat, December 2009

Wordful Wednesday

This past Saturday, we out ran a tornado. Luckily, my husband was driving and went through a few red lights just in time, however that did make my pics a little blurry.

This was right outside my window in the backseat:

It was spinning and picking up debris, as it headed over West County Mall.

The National Weather Service did confirm it was a tornado that touched down in Des Peres, MO with winds up to 80 mph.

I found a video of it:  (turn off your sound)


The blue flashes you see caused power outages and there were lots of trees down.  Luckily, there were no injuries reported. 

This was pretty freaky, but kind of fun!  I've never seen a tornado in real life and especially wouldn't have thought I'd see one that close to us.  I've lived here 30 years and the sky on Saturday did not look like a sky you would expect a tornado to come from.  It's like it came out of nowhere.

For more Wordful Wednesday posts, head to Seven Clown Circus.

Just For Fun: Handwriting Tag

Liz from Sugarplum Creations tagged me with this cute handwriting activity:

Write down the following, snap a pic and post it.

1. Name/ Blog Name

2. Right handed, left handed or both

3. Favorite letters to write

4. Least favorite letters to write

5. Write: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

6. Write in caps:
CRAB

HUMOR

KALEIDOSCOPE

PAJAMAS

GAZILLION

7. Favorite song lyrics

8. Tag 7 people

9. Any special note or drawing

I see I left off writing a special note.  Oops!  I've never liked my handwriting and would always much rather prefer to type things.  I must have written and rewritten this list about 5 times, because of the mistakes I made. 

Thanks for the tag, Liz.  You have adorable handwriting!

Links I Like: Edition 12

I wish I had a cool graphic for this Links I Like thing.  I love graphics!  Too bad I'm not creative, I know exactly what I want it to look like, but don't have a way to make one.  Oh well.

Anyway, this week I got an email from The Family Christian Store about a new Veggie Tales movie that is coming out soon:  Sweetpea Beauty.

My nephew Matthew has always loved Veggie Tales, but Abby never got into them.  I think she'd love this new movie though.  It's on pre-order right now for a good price!

If you didn't see my post about brownies from last Friday's I'm Lovin' It post, you have to check it out and make them!

This week, I found a cool recipe blog:  Siggy Spice.

 The Unbelieveable Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe has the strangest ingredient!  I really want to try it and see what it's like.

 This Taco Pasta also looks like a tasty dinner idea.  I like tacos and taco salad, so this would probably be pretty yummy!

My sister sent me this next link, Homeschool Math Curriculum Guide.  It reviews the many math curriculums and helps you in choosing what would work for you and your child.

 I forgot to mention it in my homeschool expo posts, but I found a great State History Funbook at the expo this year.  I also like the 50 States Under God workpages.

This last link is totally off the wall.  Can you imagine spending $22,000 on a cat?  I don't even remember how I came across this site the other day, but apparently there are now hypoallergenic cats and dogs.  Hmm, car or cat?

What My Child Is Reading

While Abby was sick in Florida last week, we read the first 12 chapters of The Trumpet of the Swan.  Did you read this book when you were younger?  It's much different this time around. 

 This week at the library, Abby picked out the above books. Chickerella and The Plot Chickens are two more books by our favorite author right now, Mary Jane Auch.  Her stories are hilarious and they always have a great moral to them.

We have also started Ramona and Her Father.  This is the next book in the Ramona series.

Abby also specifically looked for the Mo Willems books.  She thinks they are so funny and she can read many of the words.

Head to Mouse Grows Mouse Learns for more!

I'm Lovin' It Friday: The Best Brownies Ever

My sister found this recipe on Zesty Cook the other day and emailed it to my Mom.  She said it might help her with her taxes.  LOL!

Well, we had them over for dinner last weekend and my Mom mentioned the brownies, so I decided to give them a try.

The picture above and the original recipe is from Nestle

Check out the awesome pics and recipe on ZestyCook. 

We did not use nuts, but these were seriously the best brownies we've ever had.  They are so easy to make too!  Keep in mind, that they are highly addictive and you better share them or you will not be able to button your pants!  Oh and don't forget to have a gallon of milk to go with them.

If I was a cool blogger, I would have taken pics of my brownies, but the thought never crossed my mind.  All I could think about is getting to eat them.  LOL!

Check out Tidymom for more I'm Lovin' It Friday posts.

How I Met My House

I saw a post over at Centsational Girl about a link up party at Our Suburban Cottage:

What a fun topic!  I love our house.  When we lived at our previous house, I had to cut through a street to get to my Mom's house and there was this piece of land for sale that I always fantasized about buying and building a house on.  I knew it would never be possible, because just the land was more than purchasing an actual house in the area!  Little did I know how close I'd actually get.

Dave and I knew that we'd like a bigger house if we were going to have children.  Our home at the time, was a smaller split level with not much run around or storage room.  We came close to building a new house twice, but I chicken out.  It was too far away.  When I was pregnant we started looking at houses again, but I was put on bedrest so the search stopped.  A few months after Abby was born, we walked through this house:

Which happened to back to the property for sale that I had always loved so much.  (We are at the top of a steep hill filled with trees) We loved everything about it, but the kitchen seemed so small.

However, check out the huge living room:

The price was a bit high and with the small kitchen, we decided to pass on it.  We looked at several  other houses, but none of them seemed like home.  Another 2 months went by and then I found out that the price was dropped on this house.  We walked through it again and decided to go for it!  The price was right and the kitchen wasn't any smaller than the other kitchens we'd seen in other houses.

I have some very strong memories about when we moved into this house.  Abby was 4 months old and we decided to have new carpet and vinyl flooring installed before we moved in.  During this house transition, Dave had a heart attack!  Here we were with 2 houses, a 4 month old and in the middle of packing.  It was very scary and stressful.  Luckily, even though Dave's right coronary artery was 100% blocked, we got to the hospital in time and he had a stent put in successfully, with no heart muscle damage!  I'm getting anxious just typing about it again.

This next picture is a few years old, but you can see how it looked after the walls were painted and the new carpet was installed:

Our favorite part of the living room is that open area in the back left corner above.  Most of Abby's toys are stored there and it's great to have a place to put them that isn't in the middle of the living room floor!

Here's the kitchen after we had the cabinets and walls painted and purchased new appliances.

I wish I could say the front of the house still looked as nice as in that first picture.  Unfortunately, that lovely tree in front of the house has died.  Some type of bug got to it last year and we need to have it removed.  Also, a few of the spireas and azaleas need to be replaced.  I'm hoping we can get the tree out soon and start some planting next year.  And nothing ever came of the property we back to.  It sold, but there's nothing there.  We figure the worst case scenario would be if they built houses, but we'd be looking down at their roofs and we'd still have lots of trees to block us.  Even if I won the lottery, I'd probably stay at this house.  We could do so much here:  finish the basement, remodel the kitchen and baths, new furniture, a sun room, etc, etc.  This house is our forever house!

Check out How I Met My House for more!

Wordful Wednesday: Florida Vacation

This will be VERY wordy.  I wanted to share pics from our trip to Florida!  We left last Monday and returned Friday.  

At the airport on Monday, Abby started freaking out that she'd have to put kitty in the basket to go through the x-ray machine.  Luckily, it went fast and she got over it!

We took her Graco Nautilus on the Southwest flight and it worked well!  It fit fine in the seat even with the arms down.  I thought those of you with this seat might find this helpful to know!  It does need to be installed by the window, which makes it a bit hard to get to and buckle.

When we got to Florida, Nana and Mumpa took us over the Causeway and we stopped to see the gulf. There were tons of shells, in fact the whole sand was full of shells and broken shells.  Abby loved searching for them and brought some back to Nana's house.

Tuesday the weather was very nice and we headed to Fort Myers Beach.  Abby found lots of seashells and had a great time in the ocean.  The water was pretty chilly, but that didn't stop her!


We then had lunch at a waterside restaurant and went to a souvenir shop for Abby. She was obsessed with buying something.  She found a little water globe with floating dolphins.



Tuesday evening, we took Abby to the pool for a bit. Then Dave's mom made a spaghetti dinner, but Abby wasn't hungry.  We found out why at 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday.  She woke up vomiting and did so every half hour for 4 hours. She then kept some Pedialyte down for a few hours, but it all came out again in the afternoon.  We spent the whole day in the bathroom with her.  She'd puke and then sleep, puke and sleep.  Poor thing!  She was so disappointed.  We were supposed to go to the Naples Zoo and to a Disney store. We don't have one by our house and she's looked forward to going for months.

Abby ended up being sick every hour for a full 24 hours.  She spent all of Thursday in the bathroom as well.  Poor Dave took several trips to the local Target for Pedialyte, Pepcid, Tylenol, etc.  I had talked to the doctor by phone 3 times, because Abby was so sick!  I've never seen her that sick and I hope to never again.  I weighed her when we got home and she lost almost 3 pounds.

Anyway, at about 5 p.m. on Thursday, after keeping everything down for 12 hours Abby felt ok enough to go to the Disney store.  She was very weak and her tummy muscles hurt, but she really wanted to go.  We were just so happy she was talking again and could actually stand up to get dressed!

We then stopped for dinner and Abby slept in my arms. 



Of course, by Friday morning Abby was mostly back to herself, but we had to get ready to head to the airport to come home.  I'm grateful she was over the stomach bug before getting on the plane.  I can't even imagine how awful that would have been.  We did try to call Southwest and change our return day to Monday, but it would have been $280 per person to do so!  NO THANKS!  We did make time to stop and walk the beach again.


Abby with her Nana and Mumpa (Dave's Mom and Dad)

Luckily, we had time to stop at the Causeway again and walk the beach before going to the airport.  I found the most beautiful shell, but it was still alive.  Bummer!


Altogether, we had a nice time.  Yes, I spent a lot of time in their bathroom with Abby and saw more toilet water than beach water!  LOL!

If you are like me and love pics, here's a slideshow:

For more Wordful Wednesday posts, head to Seven Clown Circus.

Bloggography: Lens Challenge

This week's Bloggography challenge is to make the most of the lens on our DSLR.  Both Manic Mother and Better In Bulk had great posts about DSLR lenses last week.

My Nikon D40 came with a 18-55mm and a 55-270 mm lens.  I love using the 55-270mm lens and seeing the potential of the zoom!  Here's my favorite pic with this lens:

This was taken last year at our zoo.

Last week, we were in Florida and I decided to only bring the 18-55 lens.  I was kind of scared to travel with the other one and then switch it in the humid and sandy climate of Florida.

Here's a pic I got of a cute little lizard.  

To participate in this challenge, head to Manic Mother or Better in Bulk.

Homeschool Expo, Part 2 & SafetyTat Winner

 
The winner of the SafetyTat 6 pack is comment #6:

Ticia said... I follow you

Congrats, Ticia!  

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Last week, I posted about our local homeschool convention experience.  Once a year, my sister and I take a weekend getaway.  This year, we decided to go to the Greater St. Louis Home Educator's Expo as part of our getaway.  We then stayed in a local hotel.  We didn't need to, because we live so close, but it is so fun for us to have that one weekend where we can sleep and be child free.

After the Expo seminars on Friday, we went back to our hotel for their free dinner.  It's not a big buffet, just salad, hot dogs, chips & salsa and drinks.  However, it can easily fill you up and it was the right price :)

We then went over the brochures and items we purchased from the convention.  For next year, I purchased Handwriting Without Tears for Abby. It's relatively inexpensive and she could use to work on her writing. 

I also purchased A Reason For Science.  This looked like a great intro to science and I liked that it had more than one focus.  Many science books are only about chemistry or botany or biology.  This has small lessons about a topic and then a hands on experiment to go with it.

 

I was pretty excited to find Maps, Charts and Graphs (Level A). This will be great for social studies.  These are short worksheets that teach every day real world basics.

 

My sister has offered for us to use her Heritage Studies text and teacher's guide for Grade 1 next year.  Matthew is using it this year and enjoys it.  We will just need to purchase the consumable notebook!  I am very excited to use this with Abby.  Heather will be purchase the Grade 2 Heritage Studies for Matthew for next year.

Since I still had some money left out of my $50 gift certificate to Rainbow Resource, I also purchased Trees of Missouri.  We have a tree in our front yard and I can't figure out what it is. I thought this book would be great for that and also to take along for walks with Abby.  There are colored pictures of the leaves with descriptions about the trees so you can find the name of the tree you are looking at.  I think Abby will enjoy this.

 

I still haven't figure out what we will do for math next year.  We have the Math-U-See blocks, but I'm just not sure Abby would like their workbook.  It's in black and white and pretty boring.  Usually with b&w workpages, she has to stop and color them before we can go on!

My sister has used Horizons Math for Matthew for 2 years now and they both like it.  She did say it's easy to get behind on it, but from the reviews we've read it is at an excelled pace already.  I will most likely be purchasing Horizons Math Grade 1.

We will continue with Phonics and our daily reading. So far this year, The Boxcar Children and the Ramona Series books have been her favorites.  I wonder what chapter books she'll be into next year?  I was just remembering some old classics such as Charlotte's Web and The Mouse and the Motorcycle.

I'm very excited that it's not even May and I have some things put together for next year!  Heather and I even were able to look through our calendars together and start making plans for the rest of this year, this Summer and the dates for next school year.

Are there any products or curriculum that you and your child enjoy?  I'd love to hear about them, especially those for 1st graders!