Wow, what a night!!!

Well last night, June 29, 2012 was fun.  We had a wind storm that came through.  It swept through with 80 and 90 mph winds and did some major damage in a lot of hometowns.  I will find some photos and post them.  We were lucky I guess.  We did not lose our power for more than a minute and our property did not suffer any damage, thank God for that. 

Here are some photos from WDBJ7 in Roanoke VA.  There are other on their website.

Well got storms again on Saturday night, June 30 and then some REALLY bad stuff last night, July 1.  Actually it was July 2nd because it came in a midnight!  We were lucky though, we didn't have any damages.

Making Laundry Detergent

It's that time again, Laundry Detergent Making time again!!

Don't remember the last time I made any laundry detergent, but I know it's been a while.  I bought 2 new buckets, so I will be making 20 gallons at a time.  I have been making laundry detergent for about a year and a half now and it has saved so much money on our laundry bill!

The only thing that I buy now is vinegar, baking soda and peroxide.  I also buy washing soda, borax and Ivory Soap, but very few times in between.  I buy in bulk, so it doesn't cost so much.

Here is my recipe.  I got it from here.

I make #7 but I add about a 1/2 cup of Borax to the mixture.  Also instead of adding the soap mixture to the hot water first, I add the Washing Soda and the Borax, stir it well with a whisk then I add the soap mixture.  I continue stirring with the whisk until the soap begins to thinken and then I pour it into my 5 gallon bucket.

I make 2 of these buckets for each 5 gallon bucket and then I let it sit overnight to thicken (it turns to a VERY THICK GEL) and then I use my hubby's drill with a long still paint stirrer attached.  Stirs up the detergent in a matter of seconds to what ever consistency you want.

Got A Kindle

Well I got a Kindle and I think I like it.  I do miss having a book in my hands, but there are so many books I can't get my hands on because our library doesn't always have them on the shelves.  Now I can just barrow it from the library electronically or through Amazon.

Well lets see, I have 45 books on the Kindle and I have already read 4 books and have started on numbers 5 and 6.  All I need to do is remember to buy an Amazon card when I am out.

Now on Pinterest

I am now on Pinterest!!!

Here is my board

Couldn't find a way to put in on one of the sidebars, so this will just have to sufice. LOL

The Circus Train

I thought I was seeing Water for Elephants all over again, but only it was behind my house and Jacob (Robert Pattinson) wasn't on the train waving as they went by!!

This was the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Train that comes by our house about twice a year.  It's always a treat to see the beautiful train, unfortunately I didn't get to see the beginning this time, only the 20 or so cars.  I did get to take some pictures this time though, and that was a wonderful feeling.

The END

I have never personally went to any circus, but often wanted to when I was a child.  My youngest son wanted to go this past year, but with the cost I don't think we could afford it.  So seeing the train is the next best thing!

Got a new book today

Ten Things Every Child With Autism Wishes You Knew by Ellen Notbohm

Wasn't really looking for books for me, but this one just caught my eye.  I will start reading it in a few days and do a review.

No Glasses Needed! Are You Sure?

Yep, that is what our new eye doctor said about Curtis today; No Glasses Needed!!!  Curtis has been wearing glasses for 2 years now mainly for watching TV, computer work or doing school time.  Now after spending all the money we have spent, he does not need them.

He is concerned still that Curtis suffers from Dyslexia and will benefit from testing, so he told me about Lexercise.  Lexercise is an on-line site that helps test children and adults for things like dyslexia.  

We are going to do the test this week, and see what Curtis' needs are.

Books I am Reading or Would Like to Read

I am currently reading Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith!

Loving this book, can't wait till the movie comes out.

Oh Leapin' Lizzards

Or in our case, Newts!!

Yes, we now are the proud owners of 6 Eastern Newts, aka: Red-Spotted Newt.

Here is a little bit about the Eastern Newt

We may get a few fish to put in the aquarium with them later and a few large snails just to keep things clean.

Lost a Hermit Crab

Curtis lost a Hermit Crab a few days ago, Sir Crabs A-Lot passed away on March 9, 2012.  We thought that he was getting ready to molt, but it turned out that was not the case. :(  Curtis was very sad to have lost him and I had him wait several days before getting another crab.

Eggs, Eggs, Eggs

Fresh eggs!!  Love our Girls, all 4 are laying now wishing we had few more girls for laying.  They are our pets and we have to plan for their future.  We are putting together a small coop that is actually for our 2 younger birds, who may be roosters.  If they are not roos, then they will go in the little coop for a while then in with the big girls.  We will keep the small coop for either a broody hen and babies or just as a 'later in life condo'.

Winter Sowing!

 

We started our Winter Sowing and what fun we had.  So far we have gotten bottles/jugs filled with soil and they have set out and gotten wet from soaking rains.  We are hoping to get rest of the bottles and jugs filled with soil today and our seeds sown also.  Then we will just sit back and wait!!

Getting ready for the BIG SNOW

Yep, we are suppose to get snow tomorrow; Sunday, February 19, 2012!  If we get it, we are looking at 2" to 4" last weather model seen, need to check to see if that is still the case.

This was during the first part of the morning, not much to look at!  This is our chicken coop and this will be their first snow!  You can just see 2 of our chickens, Queeny (black) and Fancy Girl (white).

Will be looking for something to go in the crock-pot tonight for tomorrow and possibly Monday's dinner.  Was thinking soup, but not sure.  The crock-pot didn't get filled, but will.  I didn't get to post this a Saturday, like I was planning and we ended up going out to eat on Saturday night!  Pizza at Pizza Inn, our favorite!!!

About half hour or so later.  Hey there is white stuff on the ground now!  And this is another pic of the coop and run and I think Fancy Girl is in this one, at least it look like her, could be the snow. LOL

And this is the road that runs by our house and in the distance is the main highway.

That's my van, still early, but getting covered!

So Yesterday was Suday (I am writing this on Monday, I am a bit behind) and we ended up having ham, and a few salads (not homemade) and bread, that WAS homemade.  We got our BIG SNOW!  At first we didn't think it was going to do anything because it was so nice out, but by late afternoon and into the evening, the big heavy stuff came. 

Curtis' water table, yep it has water in it!  He was playing in it just 2 days before this snow fall, yep that is how warm it was!! 

The chicken coop again, later in the evening hours.

Front yard, yep our chicken coop in the our small front yard.

I think this is the grill???  You can see how much snow had already fallen, this was about 5:00 PM Sunday, Feb. 19, 2012

Some of the ornimental grass behind the front porch covered in snow.

This is the front yard about 7:30 or 8:00 PM, everything is covered white.

Isabella

Isabella aka: Bella, Bells and LuLu is our newest kitty.  We have had her since she was about 2.5 to 3 weeks old.  Curtis found her at my mom and dad's house this past August and we tried to figure out which cat may have had her.  She was not well when we brought her home and needed to be put on medication and she had to be bottle fed for weeks.  She was born in late July, early August so she is about 6.5 months old now.

 This is Bella when we got her.  She was a very tiny thing.  I had to become the mother cat and care for her, totally.

 She has gone through a lot in her 6.5 months of life and now she is a BEAUTYFUL little girl.

Another Pet? YEP, sure looks like it!!!

Tonight we went to file taxes, out to eat and then we went to the pet store to pick up some plants for the fish tank and it happened!!

Curtis has been wanting a new pet for a while.  He has wanted everything from new fish, knowing that we can't put anything else in with the beta to a bird.  Well absolutely NO birds, his sister had some and they were a nightmare, the chicks are enough.  So he decided tonight that he would like to have a hermit crab.  Okay, a crab won't be so bad, at least I hope not.

So tonight we embarked on yet another pet journey, sort of.  We bought a habitat for the crab, will get the crab or crabs this weekend.

He looks so happy with an empty container, don't he???  Maybe this will keep him busy for a while and give us another lapbook to do in the coming week.  Something for him and something for me!
 Here they are, 4 Hermit Crabs.  There is one Fancy in the green shell and the other 3 are regular ones.  They are all pretty cool.

Fish Tank Clean Out Day!

What a JOB!!

Thank God we only have one fish!  We have a Male Beta nambed Blue Flue, yeah that is his name!!!  LOL  We got Blue nearly 3 years ago.  We have had a few male Betas, but they have died in one way or another.  So hopefully we will have Blue for a while. 

Curtis and V'Day

Notice I did not spell that out!  Curtis can't stand Valentine's Day so we don't do anything for it, well sort of not anything.  He does have to have his BIG HERSHEY KISS!

We don't do crafts, or talk about how the day came about.  We don't buy stuffed animals or V'Day cards to pass out to friends and family, use to when he was much younger, but not anymore.  We are still not quite sure WHY he detest this day, but he does.  I always tell him that one day when he is older he will find a girl that he really likes and he will be her Valentine!  He just says "YUCK"!

He is only 10 years old, so who knows.

He tells his father and I that this is HIS VACATION TIME and that he is not to be bothered on this day.  So it is all good.

My Valentine's Day Post!

Hmmm, what can I say????  This will be short because we don't really do the whole V'Day thing. 

When my husband and I first got together, he would buy me things for V'Day and other holidays, but I am not one for flowers that will whither and die, boxes of chocolates are okay, but I only like certain ones, even cookies are not my thing.

Raising Chickens Part II

Well we raised our first brood of chicks, they are nearly 1 year old.  Out of the 10 that we hatched, we ended up with 6 roosters and 4 pullets.  Our six roos are now in other homes and our 4 girls are happy in their nearly too big coop.  LOL  Their coop is 4 feet wide by 6 feet long and their run is nearly twice as big.  Our girls have been laying since about mid September and we decided since they had the last 2 roosters with them for bit that we would collect a few eggs from each of them, over 1 week period we collected one dozen eggs and placed them in the incubator on October 28, 2011.

Raising Chickens!

We embarked upon an adventure last year that has proven to be a wonderful thing!

We decided to raise chickens!!  I don't mean just buy some chickens or baby chicks, but do the whole thing, from start to finish!  We decided, as a science project to hatch chicken eggs!!!!  And what a great idea it was!

Mom, What's a Fetus?

Curtis watched Breaking Dawn with me the other night, 2nd time he has seen it and he just asked, 'mom, what exactly is a FETUS?' 

So I told him that it is what doctors call a baby while it is in utero (yes he understood what that meant). So he asked why 'Alice' from the movie kept calling the baby "The Fetus". I told him that when a mom is only so far pregnant that is what the doctors call it and plus on the movie no one wanted to call it a Baby because they were not sure what it was. It's fantasy and he knows that as well so he understood why they didn't know.

So since he was asking about baby's and fetus' I went to this website and we looked through the Fetus photos week by week. He thought that was pretty cool.

My Rant on My Facebook Page

Something on my mind and if I piss others off, then sorry but I have to say this.

If you get food stamps, SSI, Medicaid or other government assitance, you should NOT be going out and getting tattoos, piercings and other such things to blow money on. When you don't work for your money and use your kids to get back big tax returns, then you should spend that money on the ones who made it possible, YOUR KIDS!!!!

Dingo

Dingo is our BIG BOY!  Dingo was found when he was a pup of about 8 or 9 weeks old, he is now 12 years old.  Dingo is a yellow lab/pit bull/shar pei mix.  We did not find out about him being a possible pit bull until he was nearly 4 or 5 years old, maybe a little older.  Before we found out, I always told my husband that if he turned out to have pit mixed in him, we would have him put down.  Of course at that time I didn't know anything about pit bulls only that they were 'mean' dogs.  I did some research and found that being mean and aggressive is NOT their true nature.  Or at least not for Dingo!  He is the sweetest, most kindest dog but he is intimidating!  His massive size does scare a lot of people but they soon find out that he is just a big ole baby!!

My older kids, Josh and Kelsey found him and just had to bring him home.  We already had 2 big dogs at the time, Choco a chocolate lab and Shadow a black lab.  We were not intending on getting any more dogs any time soon when they called me from their maw maw and pawpaw's house (my mom and dad) and told me that this puppy followed them home and they thought someone had dropped him.  They were staying with my mom and dad at the time and so I went to look at this puppy.  Well it was instant love!  I brought him home and when Roger got home he said, like most men do; Oh NO!!!  But Dingo quickly became Roger's buddy.

We kept him inside for a few weeks and to our surprise, was house trained!!!  I knew that someone had not just dropped him, so I put up some fliers but there were no takers.  We took him to the vet and discovered that he had a skin problem and had to be given injections every day for a few weeks.  I think we may need to start doing that again.

Blue Gray Wolf (Wolf for short)

This is Blue Grey Wolf our littlest dog.  We adopted Wolf in 2010 from the Salem Animal Shelter in Salem, VA.  We were suppose to get a different dog from a different shelter, but she was already gone when we went back.  Curtis would not go home that day without a new dog.

We knew that we wanted a small dog and ever since Beverly Hills Chihuahua had come out, Curtis wanted a Chihuahua!  Wolf is a Chihuahua mix, not sure what with, but we have been told mini pincher and rat terrier.  He does look more like a mini pincher in the face.  His name come from his color, well part of it. LOL  When the light hits his head at the right angle, his fur is this blue/grey color.  The rest of his name just came from Curtis and his fascination with wolves!  Wolf also has yellow eyes, which according to the vet, is unusual for his breed?  Not sure about that though, but I guess most dogs do have brown eyes.

Breaking Dawn Part 1

Here it is!!!

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1

 

 I have waited since November 2011 for this to come out on DVD, ever since I seen it on the big screen!  For anyone that has not seen the movies or read the books, they are FABULOUS!!!

Friday!!

Well it is Friday, made it through another week.

Monday and Tuesday were not good for us this week because we had to be out of the house both days and not a lot if any school/book time was done.  I can't say there was NO school done on either day, because even when we are out running errands, I slip in school stuff somewhere. TeeHee!

We are or already have finished up a few lesson in different subjects, so we will be starting some new lessons today or Monday.  Need to check the calendar to see if there are any appointments next week.  No appointments as I can see, but I am sure that something will come up!

It's COLD!!

Today, Saturday is when we are suppose to FINALLY get some winter weather!!!! 

Hmmmm, so far it is just really COLD, WINDY and I see some SNOW blowing around that's about it.  Makes me wonder if the weather people got it wrong again????

Oh well, I figure we will get the BIG ONE around Easter. LOL

Breaking Dawn DVD release night

and I am NOT there! :(

I have been pumped about this since last November when the movie had it's midnight premier!!!  But sadly I don't get to go tonight to play games, have cake, win great prizes and buy my Breaking Dawn Part 1 DVD.

http://www.breakingdawn-themovie.com/

Meltdown Friday

Curtis had a meltdown just about 1:00 PM, nothing major but still a meltdown. He was getting audio books off his shelves to take back to the library when they all fell (he keeps them neatly stacked and organized) and well, that's all she wrote! :(

Sore Throat = Herbal Tea

Woke up with a sore throat this AM, so instead of my usual mocha, I am have a cup of herbal tea, black chai to be exact.  

Not sure why I have the sore throat, but I hope it totally goes away!  Got school today and I have to read to Curtis, so maybe it will subside soon.

Crochet!

This is one of my new found loves!

I watched my Granny Rose crochet for years and years, but never learned how to do it myself.  I aways wanted too, but just never did.  I look back at all the things she crocheted with her 2 hands and I think, WOW she had a real gift.

Life!

Curtis saw and advertisement on PBS this evening for NOVA and wanted to watch it.  The title Separating Twins.  Even though there was warnings for graphic content, he sat and watched it all.  

Maybe one day he will grow up to be a surgeon!

Started with box 5!?!

Curtis decided to start with box 5 today, phonics!!  Don't ask me why, but today he wanted to start out with doing something on his own!  I think it is great, but kinda strange, he never does this.

After box 5, we did box 7 and then 6. LOL  I guess it is going to be backwards day????  Oh well, at least school is getting done today.  Didn't get to do anything Monday or Tuesday, so this is better than nothing.  Let's see what else he will do before 2:30? Haha.

Long Day!

We had a long day today!

Left early this morning (mainly to miss the traffic) and so Curtis could go get his chicken biscuit from Hardee's.  Curtis had an appointment at the behavioral therapist at 10:00 and we were a half hour early!!  The appointment was an hour long as usual and Curtis had to show all of his Squinkies to his therapist.  He has 25 now!  I will post a picture later.  We talked for a bit and then set up his next appointment.  At that point I went out to the waiting room while Curtis and L (his therapist) had their session.  They mainly play a game or talk about his last few weeks or something that I may have told her about, any meltdowns or other things.

Sugar Bear (aka Sugar Baby)

This is Sugar!  She is a hound mix.  She is about 5 years old (can't remember exactly when we got her, need to ask my niece when she was born.  Anyways, she has done something to her back right leg, so we have to take her to the vet this AM.  I am hoping it is something simple and nothing that is going to require surgery or even an overnight stay.  One of her biggest problems is her weight, so I am sure the vet (a new one) is going to tell us that she needs to get the weight off.  Every since she was spayed, she has just put on the pounds.  She is getting a lite dog food, but she seems to never get full.

So off we go to the vet!

This didn't happen today, tomorrow at 3:30.  We will take her and Wolf (along for the ride) he won't stay here by himself. :(

Morning Coffee or in my case, MOCHA!!

Ahhhhh MOCHA

Do you have to have coffee in the morning?  I sure do, but I like to mix in a package of Hot Chocolate Mix.  Yum!!  I usually have my first cup first thing when I get up, but that varies.  This morning I got up at 8:00 AM and an just now getting my first cup at 8:50 AM!!  While Curtis watches Curious George and Magic School Bus, I sip my mocha, trying to get ready for the day!

We won't be home for morning school time today, gotta go to Roanoke, Social Security Office, Sam's and then Toys R Us.  Curtis is going to buy Squinkies at Toys R Us, his new collection!!

We ended up with NO school today!  See why.

Workboxes

In our homeschool days we use something called WORKBOXES.  I got this idea from the Five In A Row Forums, you can go to the website and check out the forums and become a member if you like.  Anyways, I go this idea about workboxes and I thought, maybe this is something that we could use to keep us on track and give Curtis some sort of schedule.

Curtis

This is Curtis!

Curtis was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome or High Functioning Autism and Expressive Language Disorder in 2009.  He was diagnosed with ADD/ADHD in 2010.  All the years that we struggled with his in-formal education to his formal education, with all the tears and meltdowns, all of this could have been avoided or eased if only the pediatrics that we trusted in for so many years would have just stepped down from her high-horse over homeschooling and just sent him for testing!