When I came home from the rehearsal, I saw Dan & Moira's car across the street at our neighbors house.  Dan & Moira are the previous owners of our house.  They only lived here part-time and they helped us get this house.  They are very sweet and have been quite kind to us.  They weren't supposed to arrive until Jan.  So of course, I am worried about a drop in.  They had already mentioned that they would love to see everything we had done to the house.  Which isn't much really.  We haven't' even painted anything.  They didn't end up dropping by, but I mentioned to JT that they were back anyway.  It proved to be a real motivator.  We got some stuff done around the house and laughed that we were acting like our parents were going to check our rooms.  

We also put together Brent's beds.  This would have happened anyway.  Brent fell in love with the way they had his room when we toured the house.  He has been set on having two beds ever since.  We found these old wood frames at a flea market for $20 and got the beds this weekend.  Brent is thrilled.  One bed for him and one for Bitty.

Our GS Christmas dinner was a success.  The ham hit 160 degrees, all the girls brought their sides, even a girl who couldn't stay, and everyone seemed to be having a good time.  We may have a new troop leader.  A mom spoke up when she realized that Liz was doing two troops and took home a welcome packet.  Very exciting, especially with cookies coming.  I know Liz could use a little more breathing room.  

Well, I have been giving my new kitchen aid quite a workout.  Yesterday I made 12 regular size blueberry muffins.  I turned my back for a minute, OK maybe 10, and suddenly there were only 3!  Callie quickly said she only had 3; Brent shrugged and said he had no idea how many he had.  The answer is 6!  Little piggies.  I made another dozen today and firmly told them they could only have 3 each.  They are always hungry!  They had 3, then two soft boiled eggs and a large orange each.  They still didn't seem full, but then we were out of food.

Brent's football team did not take any team pictures.  I'm not sure why, all the other teams did.  Anyway, there was a photographer that attended many of the games.  After the season he approached the parents with his laptop and offered his photos for a fee.  JT picked out these two.  Still wish there had been a team photo.  Brent is #41 on the Steelers team.

I miss my niece and nephew so much. They seem older everyday. I can hardly wait until April when I get to go see them. It looks like they had a lot of fun at the pumpkin patch this year. So cute!

Today was a laundry day.  I dare say, I'm almost caught up.   Since I do not have a dryer and it is the middle of December, this is quite a feat.  The only thing that can ruin it now is if a child or husband has a stash of dirty clothes somewhere, waiting to see the empty basket and fill it, crushing my hopes & dreams of completed laundry.  It now occurs to me that I may in fact be pathetic, since an empty laundry basket counts as one of my dreams.

Well, first I would like to thank Amazon.com for shipping my Christmas present in it's packaging only. Next I would like to thank my husband and children for wisely not making me wait until Christmas to use my new toy. Of course, I think they had reasons of their own (cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning). JT and I walked out to run errands and found the box sitting on the porch. He smartly just said Merry Christmas. Brent was really the only one that wanted me to wait until Christmas, but that is until he realized there would be no rolls. I made my first loaf of bread on Sunday and have made cookies, blondies, cinnamon bread and oatmeal bread since. Yummy.

Here is our new ornament this year. We picked it up at the market in Las Cruces last Saturday. She is an angel chili. Pretty cute. We didn't get a new ornament last year because our tree was 12 inches tall.

Bitty is in love with Christmas, mostly the two gingerbread people. She likes to lay on them and doesn't want to be bothered. The other two cats don't go up there at all.

The Florida's got a dusting of snow this morning.

Maybe I really should give some serious thought into getting a Dryer. Late last night I realized that I had left Brent's sheet's on the line. I quickly grabbed my blackberry, never far from me, and checked the weather. It said it wouldn't rain until 7am. I would be up long before that, so I decided to leave the sheets on the line. Stupid weather channel. I woke at 5:30 am to the sounds of heavy rain and wind. I decided that there was no need to rush, and laid there another 30 minutes before heading outside. They were still on the line, truly a testament to the strength of a clothespin. Unlike the summer rain, it was bitterly cold and my hands were like ice by the time I made it back in. Luckily my back room has a stone floor and the sheets are drying nicely inside. Will I ever learn?

JT and I left for Cruces around 8am; Chevron burritos in hand. We made it to the market early and were able to walk around and watch everyone setting up. This was my second time at the market, but the first time most the vendors had closed up for the day. There were so many more booths. I secretly thought how happy I was that I had gotten $100 at the ATM and not $60 or $80. We found some really great Christmas gifts and a lovely ornament for our tree. We also stopped by the book store and all our Christmas shopping was done. Yeah! We rushed home by 1:45 and I made it to the Santa's Workshop by 2.

During the GS meeting last night I was a little frustrated with the poor attendance. With all the expressed frustration with the new program and complaints about El Paso, you might expect a decent showing. Here was a chance to voice your concerns, some did, and be heard. No guarantee you will get what you want, but at least you will have given your complaint to someone that can actually act on it. So why the poor attendance? Did everyone get all their answers before and no longer had any need of a meeting? Unlikely. The better question is did they really want to be heard by someone that could give them an answer or was the complaining the actual goal.

Just a word of thanks to Leandra for reminding me that I'm supposed to be blogging. I thoroughly enjoyed reading her blogs and was motivated to resume mine. At least for a little while.

We don't have a dryer. We bought this house just a couple months ago and the previous owners only used a washer (they also only lived her 3 months out of the year!). Not a big deal in our area. Sometimes the clothes dry in 15min. Beats my old dryer. We plan on picking up a washer dyer combo this fall. However, it is monsoon season here. Not as bad as it sounds, at least normally. The days are warm and sunny and in the evening there is a thunderstorm. Frankly, I love it.

But last night was an exception. The laundry, my sheets, were still on the line and the rain was a good 3 hours early. I'm not even sure you could call it rain. It looked more like buckets being dropped. No individual rain drops were discernible. We heard the rain start, the windows were open, and I ran for the back yard. The clothesline is only 15 feet from the house and I was soaked completely before I got there, no exaggeration. My husband joined me. I actually had difficulty seeing with so much water on my face. The sheets and other things were already completely drenched. We grabbed everything and headed back inside. I wish my shower had that kind of water pressure! I should have grabbed my shampoo! Of course the lighting would make that a risky shower.

The street was soon invisible because of the rushing water. I now wholeheartedly get "Flash Floods". I also understand the saying "it was raining in sheets". The rain looked so thick and you could actually see the wind blowing it. It lasted about an hour. The thunder and lightening was fantastic. When I woke up this morning the ground was completely dry. My sheets are out there again this afternoon. Wish me luck.

The monsoon season has come early. it is 65 degrees outside and raining hard and it has been all night. So much for setting out my walking clothes for a walk this morning. The only positive is that it is cool and I could walk later in the day if it clears up.

I started reading "So Your're Thinking About Homeschooling" Very good so far and inspirational. I want to check into the "Principle Approach".

Today is my mom's birthday. Not that it means much or that I even said it out loud to anyone. But it is. I'm sure my mom is milking my refusal to have contact with her. Playing the part of the victim to a tee, but this wasn't what I wanted. I lost something too. I tell myself that many people have lost parents and are living normal happy lives, but it's different with her alive and well and in my siblings lives.

All pictures and other images on the blogs What I'm Learning Now, What We're Learning Now & the website Tompkins Family Homeschool are mine unless otherwise noted.  Please don't take them without letting me know.  Please send me a comment if you would like to use one.  

I'm exhausted. Yesterday my son had his first game of the day at 8am. My husband had his last game of the day at 12:30am the following morning. We spent the whole day at the fields. In all Brent played two games. I lost track of the number of games JTplayed. But he was actually in two separate tournaments, a men's and a coed. My daughter, Callie, and I spent the day moving from field to field. I noted that other than camping, I have never spent that long outside. I'm still learning to love the outdoors. I'm sure it was over 100 degrees, but it was a beautiful, surprisingly comfortable day. It was refreshing to spend time with some new friends.

Now back to the exhaustion. Today is a busy day. We got home shortly before 2 am and woke up shortly before 8am. We have church this morning and then the 1st Chat Club for girls 13 and over this afternoon at 3pm. Not that I'm expecting much of a turn out, I'm grateful of this, but I have to be prepared anyway. This is a trial run. This could be something great; a real outreach program. Today I plan to take lots of notes of what I need to do next time, three months from now.