Broken Laptop

It was my own fault, so I can't be mad at anyone else!  I stood my laptop up on the floor against the couch, and somehow it fell to the floor.  It landed on the back side, not the screen side, so I wasn't worried.  Then, this morning when we went to get it started up to show the powerpoint at church, it would work!!!  My computer genius brother-in-law was able to bypass the error screen we were stuck at and in a few minutes determine that the hard drive was dead.  :(  In a related side-story, Dan was able to run home, get his laptop, bring it to church, and I put together a new powerpoint in about 10 minutes.  So church wasn't too messed up.  So Phil took my laptop to his house.  He says he has several hard drives at home, so he's going to try to replace it.  Hopefully the CD drive isn't broken too, because the boys need that for school.  Ugh.  What a day. 

University of Pittsburgh Nationality Rooms

Today we went on a field trip with a local homeschool group to the Nationality Rooms at Pitt.  They are on the lower floors of the Cathedral of Learning.  

The view of Phipps Conservatory (one of our favorite spots in Pittsburgh) from the 36th floor of the Cathedral

Waiting for our tour to start

Taken by Isaiah

In the England room, this fireplace was shipped from the original House of Commons. Isaiah thought that was cool. Sam was not impressed.

Standing by the columns in the Greek room

Interesting doorway leaving the China room

Many rooms were decorated for Christmas in that country's traditional style.  This baby Jesus was the first thing that Sam showed any interest in.  

Globe in the Poland room.  

Oh the enthusiasm for learning!  Hahaha!

In the Romania room, "Prince Constantin and his family laid down their lives so that faith in God and nation may live forever in Romanian hearts."  

Artwork dedicated to Constantine.  Isaiah was interested. Sam, uh no.  

Practicing Ninjago moves in the Japan room

Having fun in the India room

The Early America room was probably our favorite because there was a secret stairway to an upstairs room!  

The boys in the very narrow stairway

Looking at Colonial money

Dead Sea Scrolls in the Israel room

I found the rooms fascinating, and our tour guide was very knowledgeable.  I think the boys will appreciate them more when they're older.  Overall, not a bad way to spend a Saturday morning.

Prayer

Wednesday night after AWANA, Isaiah came home and got really sick all over the bathroom.  After about a 30 minute episode, he was in the shower getting cleaned up.  I went upstairs to get Sam put in bed and pray with him.

Me: Sam, we need to pray for Isaiah because he's downstairs and he's really sick.
Sam:  Ok, but I don't know how he usually prays.

Haha! Sam thought we had to pray in Isaiah's place, like instead of Isaiah.  So I cleared up that confusion.

P.S. Turns out Isaiah was fine the next day.  I think it was a matter of too much juice.  When I was in the shower Wednesday afternoon, Isaiah got himself some juice and, according to him, kept refilling his cup.  So I'm guessing he just had too much.  I'm just thankful that it didn't hit him at AWANA!!

Adventures in Homeschooling: Sun and Planets

If the earth is a little less than two inches in diameter, the sun is 12 feet in diameter. :)

The boys are holding the first four planets.  The spacing is not to scale.  Haha!

Relative distance of planets

Maybe the curriculum should come with a warning:  When testing the temperature near the sun (i.e. near a light bulb) don't put the thermometer too close to the light bulb!!

Facebook

Aah, facebook, how I love/hate you.  Anyone else feel the same?  I love being able to keep up with old friends and family from all over.  I love seeing pictures of my friends' kids growing up.  I love being able to share encouraging words and get encouraged by friends.  Sharing church events and asking advice from my 258 "friends" is always handy.  

So what's not to love??  Running into a random person who comes to our church maybe twice a year and knows all about our kid's birthday celebration.  Creepy!!  Just because we're facebook friends doesn't mean you really know me!  Also? Drama.  People posting things and other people arguing about what they posted.  Sheesh.  People messaging each other rude things then getting phone calls from some other relative about what they messaged to so and so.  Oy.  

Do you ever think that facebook had taken over real life??  Seems like every conversation I have in real life with a real person who is a real friend of mine somehow ends up involving something someone saw on facebook.  Bazaar.  

So I decided I needed some breathing room.  I'm not going to deactivate my account.  I don't want to come across as THAT antisocial!  Haha!  But I'm not going to read through my news feed.  I'll check up on my real friends and read messages.  

Like so many other things, facebook seems good in moderation.  :)

Sam's #5

My sweet five-year-old had one fabulous birthday.  We decided to do away with parties, and have a fun-filled day instead.  So, we gave him five surprises for his fifth birthday.  

Sam's Lloyd the Green Ninja Birthday Cake

Surprise #1:  Meeting Aunt Janet in Cranberry to go birthday shopping

$10 to spend at 5 Below!!

Surprise #2: Lunch at Chick-fil-A with Grandma, Aunt Janet, and the family

Home after lunch for cake and presents (not a surprise)

Surprise #3: Phipps Conservatory with Aunt Janet

Roar like a dragon!!!!

In front of Phipps

Surprise #4:  Dinner at the Spaghetti Warehouse.  They were celebrating their 40th birthday and had a balloon guy and face painter there.  That's supposed to be batman on his cheek.  

Green baseball hat, golden sword, and ironman balloons

Surprise #5: Ringling Bros. Circus!!  This was actually a surprise for all of us as tickets became available to us about an hour and a half before the show.  Thankfully, we were just a few blocks away eating dinner.  God is good!  No, we didn't originally have a fifth surprise planned.

Check out those seats!  We arrived a few minutes late, and our seats were occupied.  So the usher had us sit in these vip seats with a counter and comfy rolling chairs.  I guess the monitors are on during hockey games, too.  It was nice to have as much legroom as we wanted and have some space to move around.  

The clowns did a skit called, "How many clowns does it take to change a light bulb?"  They were up and down silly ladders, falling all over the place and eventually it looked like the one clown electrocuted himself.  Sam was sitting on my lap and belly laughing so hard.  His unique laugh was echoing through the Consol Energy Center.  We all had such a fun day and enjoyed it so much more than a birthday party.  Isaiah's already looking forward to what his eight surprises might be on his next birthday.  :)

Who are you and what did you do with my boys?

We went to a Lighthouse event this past Saturday at a really amazing and unique local toy store, Playthings, Etc.  We went with our boys, but we came home with the Hulk and Batman.  

Awning

Last summer, my mom took down her awning over her back patio and had a roof built instead.  My mom's patio is 14'x20'.  Our deck is 14'x15'.  After much measuring, many geometric calculations :), and sparks flying while cutting metal poles, we had the frame adapted to our house.  

Putting up the frame

We were short one bracket because the frame would attach to our house slightly differently than it attached to my mom's house.  After an unsuccessful trip to Lowe's, I loaded the boys in the car and drove an hour (or more? seemed like forever) to the company that made the awning to buy a $4 bracket.

Just about finished

We laid the giant awning out in our yard no less than 4-5 times to calculate, measure, calculate, and measure again exactly how much fabric my mom would need to remove with her industrial machine.  I know 5 feet shorter, right?  True, but deciding where to take out the five feet was tricky because of the poles and the way the awning attaches to the poles.  A few days later, and tada! There it was.  Fortunately, we had helped my mom put up her awning at the beginning of the summer several times, so we knew how it went up.  It's been so nice to have another room of sorts.  The boys love to be out there, with the neighborhood kids, of course, :) when it's raining.  We plan to enjoy many hours there this summer.

T-ball

The boys had their first homeschool t-ball practice today.  Since it was the first day, there seemed to be general confusion about where to go and what was going on, and it wasn't just me.  :)    But once things got rolling, the kids were all having a blast.  All was well with the world when Sam and Isaiah were standing opposite each other, throwing the ball and catching it.  When Isaiah's line of kids went to the outfield to practice, and Sam's line stayed in the infield, I saw my little four-year-old in tears, with his glove over his face.  (That's a picture I should have taken... ).  After a while, when he was still crying, I went over and he was sobbing and saying that he just wanted to be with Isaiah.  So he sat with me for a while, then I stood with him in line for batting practice.  After that he was able to pull himself together and stay in a separate group from Isaiah.  

After it was over, two sweaty dirty kids played at the playground for an hour with some new friends.  The greatest part?  The boys were exhausted for the rest of the day.  They watched a video, sat in the yard, and were generally mellow.

Staying cool

Isaiah got this ball for his birthday last year.  We finally pulled it out and used it during a hot afternoon last week.  

Strike a pose

Washing the car!

The Vow

If you're like me, you saw the previews for the movie "The Vow" and were really interested in seeing it.  I mean, these days, who can't get excited about a movie that features a couple who honored their wedding vows despite the wife's amnesia from a serious head trauma? So I requested the book, "The Vow: The True Events that Inspired the Movie" and put the movie in my Netflix queue.  The book arrived first, and I read it in about two sittings.  This powerful retelling is written from the husband's perspective and is a must read for anyone who is married and/or believes in the God-ordained institution of marriage to be a life-long commitment.  Their entire story is centered around their faith in Jesus Christ.  Most excellent.

The movie arrived a few days later, and was most disappointing.  At most, it could be considered "inspired by" the Carpenters' story.  Faith in Christ isn't mentioned once.  The wife seems to recover (physically) from the accident almost instantly.  There are odd story lines, like the wife hadn't talked to her family in five years before the accident, that aren't in the book at all.  In the book, the wife's personality changed quite a bit, making it very challenging for the husband to love her.  In the movie, the wife's personality seemed the same before and after the accident. In the movie, there was a lot of friction between the husband and the wife's parents, a conflict that doesn't reflect the real life events at all.  I could give many more examples, but you get the point.

The movie would have had such deeper meaning and greater impact if they would have stayed true to the real life events of the Carpenters.  I really encourage you to read the book.  It's a quick, easy read that will leave you encouraged in your marriage.