HUGE Decision!

I got a call today from Masons speech pathologist from last year. She was wondering where Mason was attending school this year so that she could transfer his services. I told her that we had chosen to homeschool and so I figured that we would just stop his speech. She said that Mason can still receive speech at his home school which would be Earhart. For those that don't know we have had bad situations with Earhart from the minute I enrolled him in Kindergarden there to filing a transfer just in case we chose public school. The principal has not been very kind to us at all. So needless to say him receiving speech there would not be a good idea. She said that she would talk to her supervisor and see if Mason could receive his speech at Miami since our request was approved for him to attend there. I have a really close friend of mine that works there and they have a wonderful program.

So, heres my delima. GLASS, in my opinion, has not helped him much. I was very excited to not have to deal with them anymore as I would leave every meeting in tears. They really aren't even working on speech with him, its more concepts. So in my opinion it was a waste of his time to be pulled out of class for it. Since he has received it since Kindergarden up until 2nd grade he has made tremendous amount of improvement, but I'm not sure we can attribute that all to GLASS. I'm not trying to brag on myself or anything really, but I have always had a huge passion for helping him succeed and worked with him constantly! And we were truely blessed with amazing teachers that helped him thoughout the years while not making him feel like he was being singled out. For example they would turn something into a class thing when he struggled with something. It was wonderful. I really feel like its just little things he has now that need to be worked on, using the right context occasionally and a few sounds. But nothing major, really. Again I'm not trying to sound all anti-GLASS. Really I'm not.

I'm not sure taking time out of our schedule twice a week for 20 minutes is really going to do him much good. I am also afraid that the public school will get involved and we will be checked up on to make sure we're actually homeschooling. I don't want to cause a huge dramatic situation. Does that make sense? I also don't want to tell them no and then that cause them to start sending people out as well. Along with the fact that I don't want Mason to get confused on going into a school and then doing school at home. He is a very routine child and does not handle change well at all. You see why this is a HUGE decision!

So my prayer is that God will lead me to do whats best for Mason and our family and that if that is to stop services that there will be no trouble with the public schools and if it is to continue services through Miami that Mason will adjust to it well.



Side note...I had a hard enough time walking through Target today with the kids for fear that someone would ask why he wasn't in school. That was until I saw other older kids with their mom as well. It was still ackward though.

Rough Day

Today was a rough day for me. I tried to keep myself busy, but as I sit here tonight I feel a little guilty and sad. Today was supposed to be our first day of school. The public schools started today and that didn't help my guilt. I decided last week that we were going to wait until after Labor Day to start school because of the whole van situation. We still haven't come to a decision and there are alot of options to consider and people to call. We would really like to get out of our ridiculously high payment and away from our loan company. However we don't know if its possible to get another loan right now. The insurance is giving us about 3,000 more than we had figured so that helped alot if we do decide to total it. So we have alot to decide in a short amount of time. I asked the repair shop to give us until Wednesday before he pulled the van out of the shop. Hopefully we will here something by then.

Back to the school issue. My mother in law called today and excitedly asked how our first day of school went and I told her we didn't start. She was shocked and was like you have to get started sometime. I know she didn't mean anything by it, but I was already feeling guilty and then I had to explain why we didn't start. I know that there will always be things that can get in the way and I need to realize that school comes first. Its not like we will be in school all day and I can get done what I need to do in the afternoon. But I'm already so nervous and with not knowing if we're going to have to go and find a car and other chaotic things going on I just didn't want to start under so much pressure and stress. I know that this week is going to be a crazy one and I also didn't want to set myself up for failure, but I also don't want to get in the habit of pushing it back. I really don't think that I will but I know thats probably what other people will think. Its very hard for me to balance what I know I'm doing is right and what other people will think. People I know that homeschool are telling me that its not that big of deal and not to panic or worry, but I feel like I have these huge standards and expectations to live up to. I know that I already put a huge amount of pressure and expectations on myself. I just don't want to let myself or Mason down.

So, accountability people...I need it please! After Labor Day, September 2, is our first day of school!! No matter what happens, what comes up, how I'm feeling.....nothing, thats the day!!

I hope everyone has a fantastic week!!

World Pulse Fest 2008

Some of you already know the story, but I'll go ahead and explain for those that don't. If ya do then you can just skip down to the pictures. :)

A guy William works with gave him free, yeah you heard right, tickets to the 2008 World Pulse Festival. For those of you that don't know what that is its a concert put on by the Lesea company which is a christian broadcasting company. So needless to say we were excited! Especially when I found out that it was what I wanted to go to a while ago, but missed the deadline to order tickets. Side note...if you payed at the door it was $75 per adult and $10 per child. So needless to say the free ticket was a good deal, but we thought out of the question since we missed the date to order them. Then I looked up the website to see who was performing. Here was the lineup.

Yes, thats right...top notch people!! I was flipping out! Seriously. I have wanted to see Toby Mac for a while now and Casting Crowns on top of that. WOW! Just wow! Then to throw in American Idol winner Mandisa (who is phenomenal) and Skillet (who I would of never heard of had it not been for Jessica, amazing and also phenomenal) and c3 who I had never heard of, but am glad to know them now! They are from Australia and seriously guys, check 'em out. Amazing!! Listen to me sounding all bossy. hehehe :)

Needless to say I was so excited! And not to mention the boys had never been to anything live like that so it was their first experience as well and we had a great time. We thought we had really good seats up until Skillet came on and all the teenagers crowded the aisles and then you, well me because I'm short, needed to stand on my chair to see. Next year we'll be sitting in the same area but on the other side of the aisle. After standing for 3 hours on the sides of the fold up lawn chair your legs start to hurt. :) I am so not kidding. But the 3 long hours was so worth it. :)

Ok...here we go! Hold on it's gonna be a long one. :)

The view from our seats. It really was much closer than the picture makes it look.
The boys passing some time with drawing and coloring.

Playing ball with the $5 ball I bought them that eventually ended up getting knocked around by other people and lost. They were so upset that they started crying. We are very thankful for the lady that tried to get it back and went and bought them another one. I told her it was not necessary but she had already done it.
Mason fanning his hot self. And by hot I don't mean handsome, I mean HOT! It was awful! But he is very handsome if I do say so myself. :) He's also modeling the cool World Pulse Fest t-shirt.
C3! The minute they started everybody stood up and from then on out nobody sat down. Okay, well not nobody, but the majority of the people were standing.
Lunch time! Very expensive!

Mandisa!!! Simply amazing and inspirational and a beautiful voice.
Skillet...and the teens go wild!! But not too wild, they were all very good.
Isaac getting in on the action. And I thought I was short. hahaWeston taking a nap. Apparently just watching everyone jump around to Skillet made him tired. He loved Mandisa though.

William trying to shade him so he doesn't get fried.

TOBY MAC!!! My new fav recently! Seriously. I was about to pass out due to lack of sugar and was so shaky, but I was not missing him. I stood on that fold up lawn chair, ate my snow cone and enjoyed every minute of it. He puts on an amazing show and has a great passion for God. He took out his Bible to read from it and everyone started cheering. It was great!
A really nice lady next to us loaned us her umbrellas for shade. The little one to guard Isaac from the sun while sleeping and a big black one you'll see later for the kids to play under.Weston enjoying his snow cone as much as I was! :)

Weston playing the drums. Forget the piano Mom. :)

Mason and Weston having a great time. I loved to watch them just sit and talk and draw.

There were over 50,000 people there! It was so crowded that people set up there chairs back by the food tents on the cement. It was seriously crazy! It was very cool to see.
Up last, but certainly not least...Casting Crowns! We learned that the lead singer of Casting Crowns has ADD and is Dyslexic. Mason thought that was the coolest thing. For those of you that don't know, Mason has both of those as well.

This is one of my favorite pictures!

And finally...I know its about time right. A perfect way to end an amazing day...in prayer.

The kids were so well behaved considering the long day and extreme heat. It is definitely a must do next year!

Update, well kinda.

Praise #1:
Okay so it took all day to get a car, but like my very optimistic friend Becky would say, we have one!! It came with, get this, a FULL tank of gas!!! That was a huge blessing because I had just filled the van up yesterday before the wreck and we all know how expensive gas is. And normally they are on a quarter of a tank. Thank you God!!!!

Praise #2:
On my way to pick up the rental the guy from the Enterprise asked me if we would be in the market for a new vehicle. I said that the possibility was very high that we would be. He then told me that they sell the cars that are a year or two old to get new ones. I won't bore you all with all the details, but basically they sell them for under blue book value. So even if we have left over costs from the van then it still may make it a little easier to get a new car!!

Now this would be a HUGE blessing, but we still need prayer because we know for a fact that we owe more than our van is worth. We are praying that it is not an extreme amount of money. We should find out within the next couple days whether our van is worth saving or not.

Oh, one more thing. If you could please pray that this car will be protected while in our care. We could not afford the extra insurance cost seeing how we will have it for quite a while. Our insurance will pay if something happens, but it will be another $500 out of our pocket.

Thanks so much for your prayers!
I'll update soon!!

Prayer Requests

Prayer request #1:
On the way to get a part for our carpet shampooer my husband got in an accident. He is fine, but the van and the other 3 cars he hit are not! The front of the van is totaled pretty badly. Since he was the one in the back that hit everyone it automatically makes it his fault. So not only are we looking at raised insurance rates and a very high deductible ($500), but there is the possibility that the damage is more than the van is worth. If that's the case then the insurance can choose to not pay for the damages. That would be very very bad for 3 reasons. 1) We owe more than the van is worth. 2) We have no gap insurance and 3) It is our ONLY means of transportation! We are in a very bad position right now. It always seems that every time we start to get financially okay something comes up. Go figure huh! :)

Prayer request #2:
I went to order the rest of Masons curriculum today. I thought I would look at the twins some handwriting books since I like theirs so much. Well that just confused me more! :) When Mason was in Kindergarten he learned what was called pre-cursive handwriting. Basically all the same but with the tails on the end of them. I loved it. Now, brace yourselves, they now teach cursive to 4 year olds!! Yeah, you heard me right...CURSIVE!! Well that just threw me for a loop. So what do I do? If I start in manuscript then will they be able to carry on with that program which I like so much or will I have to choose a different one? Is starting in cursive too much for them? They are 4 for crying out loud! :) How are they going to learn to read in print if they don't know how to recognize and write the letters in print? Should I do both? As in do printing one week and cursive of the same letter the next or will that be too confusing??? Am I putting too much thought into this?? So many options so many thoughts!! I was standing there trying to decide and I looked at the lady and said "I wish someone would just tell me what to do." Lindsay, I so thought of you when I said that. :)

So here's what I did. I ordered the cursive and thought that I could always use them next year if I wanted. I then came home (after my head had cleared) and got online to look at the other grades to see if they could start learning cursive in say first grade or kindergarten if they were ready. They can SO start later with that same program. Yay!

So here's what I'm going to do! I emailed them tonight and I'm calling the company tomorrow to see if they will change my order to manuscript. Please pray that they will and that it will get shipped quickly. Also please pray for peace about my decision. I know that may sound silly, but the education of my kids is in MY hands...thats really scary! I would also LOVE some input!! Please tell me what you would do or what you think I should do. Am I thinking logically?

Night all~

Its about time!

About time for what your asking yourself. Well, I'll tell ya. :) I finally hit the 'order' button and ordered curriculum!! I had a wonderful day today and got some great advice and ideas from a lady from church that homeschools. I really thought that I would leave feeling so overwhelmed (and I was when I first got there), but I didn't leave that way. I left feeling very energized, motivated and excited! Ready for the year to begin! Not sure what day yet, I'm still working on that. It really depends on how fast I get my books. I rush shipped them though so I should get them by the beginning of next week hopefully.

Don't get me wrong...I am still very nervous. But I left with some amazing ideas and think that if I can stick to a schedule it will be fine. Will I screw up...yeah. Will I have days where I wanna pull my hair out...of course! Will this year be perfect...NO. But I finally have a plan and feel at peace about everything. I have decided to just use some of what I have around the house for the twins. I mean come on, I did preschool for how many years. Why go and buy stuff this first year...they are only 4. I'm basically going to keep them 'busy', or at least thats what they'll think. haha No, really, they love to do 'work' as they call it. :)

Remember that "plan" that I had several months back...well it went out the window and I have picked out all new curriculum. Go figure! I knew this would happen. It just so happens that the math that everyone was raving about and I didn't like...well, I looked at it today and... I LOVE it!!

Ok, so I won't bore you all with all my details, but for future references, Mason can look back at this someday and laugh at me for waiting so long to decide on something. haha Years from now I'm sure I'll look back at this and laugh, but for right now...I just want my books ASAP!! :)

Hope everyone is having a great week! :)

Musical Monday

On Mondays we have piano lessons and the boys are doing so well. Weston is finally picking it up and starting to keep interested. YAY!! Isaac is, well, I think we have musical genius on our hands. I'm a little biased though. :) And Mason, well, has improved so much on Jingle Bells! So I thought I would brag on them if thats ok and post some video.

Weston wasn't quite ready for video, but I know he will be soon! He did however enjoy some smores around our firepit on Saturday night.

As well as doing back flips on the rings.

OK, we're off to fix lunch and then to piano lessons!

Hope everyone has a great day! :)

PS.... I have always wanted to learn how to play piano! I have always dreamed of owning a baby grand piano! Huge I know and every expensive, but I hope to someday see my kids playing on one. :)