EOG's

I have to say that I will be so happy when the EOG's are over with. It has made Olivia very grouchy and hard to get along with. Next Wednesday and Thursday are the tests and I will be happy when she is in a much better mood! We were supposed to go up to Virginia this weekend but after the wedding last weekend, we have somehow caught someones cold and feel awful! Olivia is getting over a double ear infection so it seems like it probably is a good idea that we aren't going up there. Plus I can't seem to get over this crazy fever so I think staying home was the right decision to make.

My parents both know that I am struggling with not feeling so well that they have offered to come to Fayetteville to pick Olivia up for the weekend. She doesn't know that Nanie is coming to get her and take her home. I know Olivia will be excited to go there and have some Nanie and Olivia time like old times.

Also Jason and I have been talking about getting a puppy this summer. That way Olivia will have a small playmate at home, we can take the dog for a walk to help us lose weight and we can have it for protection when Jason is at work. We have talked about getting a Yorkie but after talking a little bit longer about it we might get a Chocolate Lab instead. :) We will have to see I guess.

Preparing for the EOG's

Olivia has been preparing for the EOG's lately and it's stressing her out. She is being so defiant when it comes to doing her homework or writing the vocabulary sentences. She just has been getting so out of sorts over it that I feel like pulling her out of school today. But knowing I can't until the end of the school year then we will have to do it then. Yes we are definitely homeschooling next year and are looking forward to doing it. We are looking forward to being able to do what ever we want to do or if she needs a break during the day we can take it. I'm looking forward to teaching her and helping her with her schooling. Now if we can just make it through the eog's then we'll be doing good. Not much longer for school either.

Babies...Adoption Possibly...

Lately Jason and I have been thinking a lot about starting a family together. We'd like to start next year but we both are a little apprehensive because of my health. My health hasn't been the best since moving into this house and well it's been a rough year so far. I think it's pretty sad that last month I met my deductible while Jason still has several hundred to go until he meets his. Jason and I both would love to try on our own but we are thinking that we might just look into adoption instead. We have checked out the cost for an adoption in the US but it's actually a bit cheaper to adopt overseas.

One of the places we have looked at for adoption is Ethiopia. We have even checked out ethiopian airlines booking to see how much it would cost us to travel there. We want a family together so bad and if we can't have one ourselves because of medical issues then we will look into adopting. We both figured that there are several children out there who either don't have parents or whose parents just don't want them or can't afford them. While Jason and I would love to try on our own we want to have those options out for us as well. We both have even talked about having one on our own and then adopting from there. I can only pray that we can decide in our lives and pray about it. We have found the booking that we'd like to do but we just need to the confirmation from God that this is what we are supposed to do.

Michael Bublé "To Be Loved" Album Review

The one thing I love is listening to music and one of my favorite artists that just makes me feel so relaxed is,
Michael Buble. Michael's new album, "To Be Loved" is wonderful because it has many tracks on it that I remember listening to as a child with my grandparents like "You Make Me Feel So Young" and "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You." The one thing that I love about Michael is that his music and his voice is amazing! I have several of his other albums and I'm sure Jason is really tired of listening to them but I can never get tired of listening to him.

Michael Buble is a first time dad now. How sweet is that? He sounds like a man in love with life. "I Wrote Close Your Eyes about my wife and about the power of all the women in my life-my sisters, my mom, my grandma and all women in general. Let's fact it, where would be without them? I Got it Easy, another original, is basically a song where I count my blessings and is a reminder to me and everyone to appreciate all the good parts of life. I'm a very lucky guy and I want to never forget it." 


One of the good songs that I really enjoy listening to "It's A Beautiful Day!" I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did. Below is the music video for the song!




Here is the track listing of his new album, To Be Loved:

1. "You Make Me Feel So Young"
2. "It's A Beautiful Day"
3. "To Love Somebody"
4. "Who's Lovin You"
5. "Somebody Stupid" (Featuring Reese Witherspoon)
6. "Come Dance With Me"
7. "Close Your Eyes"
8. "After All" (Featuring Bryan Adams)
9. "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You" (with Naturally 7)
10. "To Be Loved"
11. "You've Got A Friend In Me"
12. "Nevertheless (I'm in Love With You" (Featuring the Puppini Sisters)
13. "I Got it Easy
14. "Young at Heart" 

I absolutely think that this new album is one of his best and I'm so glad that he came out with a new album. You can purchase his new album at any retail store, online at Amazon and in iTunes! Go and get the album now so that you too can enjoy his new one! Plus if you watched the Ellen DeGeneres Show on Friday, May 3rd, I'm sure you saw Michael on there! I saw him and was so happy to hear him sing! He's a very talented singer!

I participated in this campaign for One2One Network. I received a free copy of the album to facilitate my review. By posting, I am eligible for incentives. All opinions stated are my own.

Homeschool Time!

I am happy to announce that we will be homeschooling Olivia next year for 4th grade. We have been unhappy with the way that she is getting taught at school and we have prayed long and hard about this decision. We didn't want to start something and not be able to complete it but after talking about it and seeing her report card this past 9 weeks we have decided that it's time to homeschool Olivia. We went to the homeschool store in Raleigh this past weekend and we got a lot of helpful information about homeschooling. We checked out several books too and we are really getting excited about this too!

I gave Olivia the Saxon Math Placement Test yesterday and on the Math 3 she missed 3 total. But she took the Saxon 54 Placement test and only got 3 right. So we will start off with that math next year. For English I'm looking at doing BJU English and for Science I think the conclusion we have come up with is going to be Apologia. For writing I'm thinking of doing Horizon Writing. I still have to come up with the Bible and I think I'm going to check out BJU for that one as well. I'm looking forward to teaching her and helping her education.

That's all I have come up with so far but will look into more subjects this weekend and next week. Olivia is excited about the fact that she will be homeschooled.

I haven't left...

Sorry I haven't updated this blog in a few weeks. I've been dealing with finals in two classes and I am on week 5 of my Statistics class and Information Technology class. Statistics is kicking my butt! But other than that we here at our household are doing well.

Jason and I went to Raleigh this weekend to check out the Homeschool Store there and got a lot of information that we were looking for. We have decided that homeschool might be the best thing for Olivia right now. We have been fighting with her school over her math grades and they aren't doing anything to help her. We are working with her at home and she understands it the way I teach her but not sure if she is understanding what her teacher is teaching her. We are looking at doing either BJU or mixing it up. We have found several things that we both like and I will be giving Olivia a test on math to see which program will work best for her. I'm leaning more towards Saxon Math for her and Apologia for Science. But we also want to incorporate Bible as well so I'm still trying to find a good program to do with her. It's really working out for us plus we are going to be joining the local homeschool organization here for some socialization for her. And I might try looking into another activity for her as well. I'm getting excited about this and maybe it will help her in the long run. The schools in town aren't very good and we have been told not to put her in them at all if we can help it. So we looked into some of the Christian schools but they are so stinkin' expensive we can't afford it. Homeschool seems like it will work best for us right now.

Well I'm off to get Olivia from school right now. Praying she had a good day at school. :)

Ah, A Golf Course for Jason!

Jason has always been into golf and me not so much. I really don't know what I'm doing and I can say my family probably doesn't want me to try to swing since the last time I tried I lost the club. Well I let go of it and it went flying out of my hand because I got excited I hit the ball. Never again will I do that. But Jason is a golf fanatic. He used to play golf in high school and was on their golf team. He even had dreams of playing pro but never did. I wonder how he would do now that he hasn't played in several years. We both have been thinking of moving out of state in a few years like to South Carolina or even to Florida. I say Florida because it's closer to Disney World. Hahaha. But anyways, if we did happen to move to FL we would check out Port St. Lucie, FL because not only is it close to the beach and our favorite place in the world, it has a beautiful golf community as well.

I have gone online and check out this wonderful community called PGA Village Verano and the homes look amazing! You can have your home built right there and I love having a home built because you can pick out everything from the paint colors to what you want in your kitchen. I want several things inside a new home and one being a big laundry room with lots of storage space. Plus I want my kitchen to be nice and big and have the two ovens on the wall. We had those when we lived in Maryland and loved it! Could cook more things that way when it was time for family gatherings.

The community has a lot of amenities to it as well from a club house to a pool to golf. I would want to get a golf cart for the house though so I could ride around the neighborhood in my golf cart. Hahaha. If we were to move here though I would never see Jason. Only when it was time to eat and go to bed. Other than that nope I wouldn't see him. If you are thinking of relocating to Florida and you love to golf then check out this awesome community! You might get hooked too!

Spring is Here!!!

It seems like spring this year has taken forever to get here! It's a nice 65 degrees out and it's bright and sunny out. Olivia's cabbage plant is growing nice and pretty and I'm even trying to hang clothes out on the line out back if I can get some of the right kind of wiring. Jason bought the wrong kind. Whoops. Bring on the warmer weather! I'm so ready for it!

Going By Fast

It's hard to believe that this year is going by so quickly. Last weekend we had daylight savings happen and it was quite nice too. I love it when the time changes for the spring time because that means we can stay out later in the evening and we can also stay up what seems like later. But we're really not I guess. This year is going to be wonderful I can feel it. Well when it comes time for Mother's day it's going to be much different because this year I will be married to a wonderful man whom I love very much and I have a wonderful daughter! If I had my choice to pick out something really nice I would choose a mothers ring from joyjewelers.com. They have many choices to choose from and it would be nice to get something to wear on my right hand. Just a suggestion though. I'd be happy with a card and breakfast in bed from my two loves!

School Going Well

School is going well for all three of us. Olivia is still struggling with school this year as far as math. She's not understanding it and I'm a little afraid she's getting behind in this class. The school isn't worried too much but both Jason and I are and we have talked to the school about it and they want to do nothing about it. Frustrating as it is this is making our decision to homeschool Olivia more and more of a reality.

I'm doing well in school this semester and I have two A's in both of my classes. My other 2 classes are getting ready to begin on Monday and the only class that I'm truly worried about is my Elementary Statistics class. Other than that it's going great! Jason is doing well in his class as well. He is holding a steady A in the class now and his new class starts on Monday as well.

As mentioned before we are looking into doing homeschool for Olivia next year. We are looking into the abeka program for her but still not certain on it. If you have any suggestions please let me know.