How the Girls went from Carnivores to Herbivores

   If you have read my post where I have gone Walkabout, then you know there were lots of struggles going on in my life when I decided to take a break from blogging and focus on my home situation.  Here is the tale of how the school issue came to be resolved.

    In the Spring of 2010, Regan was all set to graduate 8th grade from the happy little kingdom of Cougars, and we had no game plan for her. It is an issue I had put off for sometime hoping a solution would somehow just manifest itself to me. With her special needs in and out of the classroom, and her desire to be treated as normal as possible it was difficult to figure out what to do. Here were our three options.

• Regan could go to the yard of the Bulldogs which is the town we reside in. The plus side was that it would be no effort to get her to school at all. The downside was the district has a lot of academic and discipline problems, and Regan requires a lot of one on one time. She also tends to be a follower, so I looked around at the kids who would be with her in her class, and found very few that would take the time to take her under their wing and develop a friendship with. Only two students from her 8th grade class would be going to that school and she wasn't particularly close to either of them. I was also worried that she would be lost in the large settting and not have the dream high school experience that I want for her.
• Regan could go to the Comanche tribe located in smaller town 10 miles south of us. I contacted the school district and was informed that although they do not usually take in transfers, that they might be willing to include us and our circumstances. It is a much smaller school and Regan knew a few of the kids that would be in her grade, although none from her current school. It has an excellent academic record , and very little discipline problems. It seemed like a very probable choice, and one worth looking in to.
• Regan could graze with the Brahmas located in medium size town 15 miles east of us. It was past the kingdom of cougars where I still intended to keep Rebecca for a while longer so I knew it would be easier to drop her off on the way. This school also had an excellent academic and discipline record. The superintendent was a good family friend who I had worked with for several years before she had changed to the bigger district. Most of Regan's classmates were going to attend here including the two she was closest too. When I called to discuss it with the superintendent she was thrilled to continue to be a part of Regan's education again, and it made our decision a little easier.

The final say we brought to the girls. I felt like they should have a part in their academic decision and know about all the options on the table along with the pros and cons. It was their future and I wanted to make sure they would be happy wherever we decided to put them for high school. They actually had a hard time with the choice of Bulldogs vs.Comanches vs. Brahmas, but it finally came down to the place that they knew more people, would have a really great support group of friends when they got there, and felt safe and academically challenged. So I guess you could say we just added two more to the herd....Go Brahmas!

On Walkabout

walk·a·bout

Australian .

a.

a brief, informal leave from work, taken by an Aborigine to wander the bush, visit relatives, or return to native life.


For lack of a better explanation this is what is going on with me at the moment. I want to personally thank all my readers for their time and devotion to my site, and I do have every intention of returning at some point. I am not leaving though without at least some explanation for what is going on in my life so I have broken it down to three major things. I hope this answers the Why, Who, and What the heck??? 

1. Overwhelmed- For many months now a family member has gone though some serious medical issues that I have declined to discuss on my site due to wanting to keep the privacy of said issue in the family. For lack of a better explanation though it has left me just numb. I am not sure what the outcome will be and I am hoping that it is resolved , but for the mean time we are just getting through it.
2. Apathy- My gift closet is overflowing (even with Christmas just passed) with the latest and greatest in gadgets and stuff, My freezers are full with the newest tasty tidbits, my bathrooms are stuffed with whatever hygiene issues you can imagine....and honestly at the moment I could care less. This is not good as a review blogger where my integrity and honesty with my readers means the world to me. I need to get back to the place where I can't wait to tell you what I like and sometimes don't like about the things I try. I want companies who partner with me to know I am honest when I review even if it is sometimes to their detriment.
3. Stressed- Regan is about to finish her eighth grade year, and we have no idea what to do next. I know what I do not want for her as part of her life/school plan, but deciding what the next step is....I am clueless. My spiritual life has taken a tumble as well, and we are deeply unhappy with our current church situation. We also want desperately to finish our house and put it on the market, but until we have job and school decisions everything is on hold.

For all of these reasons, it has been a tough few months, and I have put this off for far to long. So my Walkabout is born of necessity, and hopefully soon I will back to you dear reader with a new and improved me.

The Power of Blogging

I get a looooooot of email from companies requesting me to post about things. Some of which I do especially if it interests me or I feel like it would be of interest to my audience. This is the tale of an opportunity I did not post about, but has as a result changed the life of a dear friend of mine.

My good friend Jennifer coaches with me in the evenings. She is a stay at home mom to three young children and has dreams of one day starting her own photography business. So when an opportunity came through my email about a world famous photographer having a scholarship contest to empower three women in a photography business. Complete with camera equipment, mentoring, and business help..... I didn't post about it, but I did tell Jennifer. I forwarded her my email and she grabbed the opportunity presented.

Congratulations Jennifer on being one of the three recipients of the SOAR scholarship and all that it entails. It was no accident that this happened for me to help put you on your path...... It's a God thing, I truly believe.

Can you Spell it out?

The joys of the school spelling bee. Yes, it is that time of year again and all children at the girl's school in 4th through 8th grade have the option of being in the school spelling bee.

Both Regan and Rebecca always participate, and never study....just wing it. Their past experience with doing it this way has been successful so far so I guess it is no-loss formula in their eyes.

The funny thing is that accents can get in the way terribly as was so aptly demonstrated by this year's contestants. Apparently the rules are vague with how many times the moderator can say the word and then you either understand or not as the case may be...and spell to what you thought you heard. Kind of like the game telephone.

English teacher says "Algorithm" child hears "outter rim" no matter how many times the teacher says the word. The teacher does have a strong south Texas bohemian (czech/german) accent. You just hope for the best. The top five students remaining that basically don't mis-hear and spell correctly their words get to move on to the county level.

Both the girls made it through the first round with Rebecca spelling lemon right and Regan with the word guitar. The second round took Rebecca out with the word bureaucracy (she couldn't understand the teacher at all on this one....or knew what it was). Regan moved on to the third round spelling boutique right. Finally Regan went out on Renaissance but still ended up in 4th place so she moves on to the next round at the county level.

She has decided to study a bit for this level. Wish her luck!

Fruit by the Foot Race

It has come to be expected that when you spend the night at our house there is bound to be some wacky things happening, and you will leave completely entertained. Rebecca had two friends over and they had a ball with the eating challenge.

What kinds of fun things do the kids at your house do to entertain themselves and friends?

Food Memories Hickory Farms

When I was a kid I remember every year shopping at the mall for the Christmas season. One of my favorite stops when we made these rare excursions was the Hickory Farms store. There were always such great little taste testing stations. I would stare in wonderment at the wheels of baby swiss (my favorite), and roam through all the choices of gift baskets that you could put together for any holiday celebration.

I thought at the time (just like my girls do now) that there wasn't a much better gift than a huge basket of delicious goodies all in bite size packages.  This year our Christmas celebration started early as we received our very own gift box.

You shoud have seen the girls faces light up when I unpacked this little box of treasures. The spreads and cheese ball I am saving for holiday parties that are coming up, but the meats and cheeses I sliced up right away for us to snack on and enjoy.  There was plenty for us to have an afternoon snack and then perfect for the girl's lunchboxes.

...and before you ask, I did share the strawberries.  I didn't become the candy hog I would have loved to be.

What a  great start to our season. I can't wait to share the rest with our friends at the numerous parties we are attending. Not only am I filled with nostalgic memories, we have happy bellies and smiles on our faces.
I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Hickory Farms and received a Hickory Farms gift basket to facilitate my review

Recipe; Holiday Party Meatballs

Tonight John Mark and I are co-hosts of a holiday wedding shower for dear friends of ours. It is technically a company party that encompasses all the different people who work for the same firm as John Mark and live in our area. We are a very close knit group and get together outside of the work environment all the time. I have been a little scatterbrained lately so I was excited to be part of the Mom Central blog tour for the recipe of Ultimate Party meatballs. What a perfect holiday appetizer to take as part of my contribution to the shower. I could let these cook in the crockpot while I worked on other appetizers to bring as well.

The ingredients are so very simple which I appreciate as I run around all day like I live in a mad house.

1 bottle Heinz Chili Sauce
1 Can Ocean Spray Jellied Cranberry Sauce
1 Package of frozen ready made meatballs

Basically the extent of labor is opening the packages which I can definitely handle. The meatballs go on the bottom then pour on top your other two ingredients. I have my setting at low since I am basically putting these out of my mind for most of the day. I stirred it every few hours.

These are ready for me to take to the wedding shower with a bowl of party toothpicks. Easy to eat and great tasting. I can highly reccomend this recipe for holiday entertaining and the cranberry jelly gives it just the right seasonal flair. Enjoy!

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Heinz and Ocean Spray and received the ingredients necessary to facilitate my review. In addition, Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate