The Longest Week Ever!

Jason's supposed to get orders this week.  (Tomorrow actually, but I'm not holding my breath.)

I have another week until I'll know if I'm having normal cycles again.

Kaelin officially starts her homeschooling next week, so we have to pack a summer's worth of fun into 7 days.

Fun times.

Weekend Recap

We had a perfect 4th of July weekend.  Great food, great friends, great weather.  (Seriously, it was 85 with low humidity!)  Jason had the weekend off, we spent lots of time outdoors, watched movies on the couch, and saw lots of fireworks.  Harper even managed to sleep through the booms; Scout not so much. 

And Harper started crawling this weekend!

Good times.

 

For the Red, White and Blue!

Happy 4th of July!

Counting Down

11 days...

I can make it 11 more days, right?

I'm going on vacation (sorta)!  I'm not sure if it's really a vacation if you are just going to your mom's house and sleeping on the couch, but I'm excited to see my family.

Okay, you caught me. 

My parent's have a pool.  A really, really nice pool.  Like big enough to do laps in pool.  In fact, the first thing my dad said about my wedding reception photos was about how the photographer didn't get the pool in all the pictures.

Kaelin and her Uncle Joe

But I am excited to see them too.  First, my sister-in-law is pregnant with my first little niece or nephew (I'm thinking boy).  It will be nice to be the one doing the spoiling for a change.  Second, I'll get to see my sister!  I haven't seen her since Christmas.  She hasn't even met Harper yet.  Plus, my parents are taking us to Hershey Park.  I'm not really into theme parks, and I'm not really looking forward to having Harper in the heat all day, but neither my dad nor my sister's boyfriend do rides, so at least I won't be alone. 

And the running trails.  My parents live less than a mile from a Civil War battleground that has tons of trails and hills and trees and streams.  I trained for my half-marathon on those trails.  I've peed behind those trees.  So excited!

Plus, I'm getting a new tattoo (hopefully).  And new running shoes (hopefully).  And my hair did (hopefully).  My gosh, I need a haircut. 

I'm also going to go to Solomons and see all my friends!  Some of these people I haven't seen in 10 years.  I haven't been back to Maryland since I joined the Navy and I'm excited to see how much it's changed (especially since Jason and I might Navy-retire there).  I hear there's even a Starbucks.

Oh snap, my mom lives like 3 minutes from Starbucks.  There isn't even a Starbucks in my current town.  Mmm... cappucino goodness.

Of course, most of my plans depend on whether my stupid bank ever sends me my stupid check.  (I refuse to spend paycheck money on myself while we're in debt.)  They've been telling me, "Next week, next week" for almost two months now.  "Ma'am, you don't have to keep calling us.  We'll contact you."  If we were at Burger King, they would have spit in my food.

And Five Guys.  My parents live right down the street from Five Guys.

Anyways, can you tell I'm excited?

Summer Lovin'

Continuing with the trend of late posts...

Last week, we took the kids downtown to do a little sightseeing and buy Jason a new pair of shoes.  (Good Lord, he needed new shoes.)  The day started with Harper's 4 month check-up and shots, followed by a lot of errands, then we finally made it into Charleston.  I have to say I was pretty impressed with Harper.  Even though shots usually make her grumpy, she only cried once and we were gone for a long time.  Kaelin even kept the complaining to a minimum.  It seemed like everything was working out in our favor. 

Except the weather.

Weather guy said it was supposed to be sunny.

I checked the forecast before we left.  I checked it again on our way.  Sunny, hot, and humid (completely the norm for South Carolina).  Of course, as soon as we get downtown the clouds rolled in and the thunder started.  We had lunch, Jason got his shoes (the guy at the running store was an ass, btw) and decided to walk down King St to the water.  It's only about a mile each way, but it starting misting a few block into our walk.  Not knowing if it was going to stop or start all-out raining, we turned back.  I have to say, I was really disappointed.

This is the view we were missing out on.

Since we couldn't walk to the water, we decided to drive by and at least look at it.  But there was a parking spot!  Right there on the battery!  Yay!  We parked, got the stroller back out and walked along the river.  It was way too hot.  It was way too humid.  There was so much static electricity that our hair was standing up!

Lightning so would have struck her.

We were completely wiped by the time we got home, but it was definitely worth it!  I can't wait until our next outing.  Maybe the aquarium?  The beach?  A museum? 

Kaelin enjoyed it.

Harper wasn't nearly as impressed.

The single picture of all four of us together.

Bye-Bye School

I know I'm a few weeks late here, but Kaelin's last day of school was June 2.  I can't believe I have a 4th grader.  It wasn't all that long ago when she started kindergarten.  Over these last few weeks I've really enjoyed having her home -- almost as I've enjoyed not having to take her to school in the morning or interrupt my afternoon to pick her up! 

I'm definitely nervous though, since it means our homeschooling adventure is just around the corner.  I have no doubts in my ability as a chemistry teacher on the college level, but am I going to be able to teach my own kid Greek history?  What about Latin?  There are books on her 4th grade reading list that I've never even opened.  How am I going to teach her Shakespeare?  What about when she starts giving me attitude? 

Am I even going to have a free minute to myself?

Anyways, I was originally going to write my own curriculum, but after HOURS of research I realized that I have no clue what 4th graders should learn.  Plus, I might have the tendency to pack a little too much into a school day.  I found what I think will be an amazing Catholic homeschool program so we're going to try that, for at least her first year.  If we like it, we'll stick with it, otherwise we'll try something new for 5th grade.  I also found most of the books she'll need cheap so the whole thing will probably only cost us $200 for the year.  (Between fundraisers and school events, I probably spent over a thousand bucks at her old school -- free education, my ass.)

For the summer, she's working through a summer bridge book and a pretty hefty reading list in addition to the activities we have planned like the aquarium and some Civil War battle sites.  As much as I dislike living in South Carolina, I love that Charleston is full of history.