School, Girl Scouts and super sleepy boy

Everyone was  up with the sun since it was up earlier then usual and we were at work on schoolwork by 8 AM.

Cairn worked on her unit assessment for probability and data, did a Spanish lesson, finished  her vocabulary lessons by taking the final mastery test.  She is also working on math facts and writing better paragraphs.  She has also decided that she wants to play the flute after she finishes up her Master's piano class.  I would love to see her continue her music.

Skylar is working on subtraction story problems in math.  She has pretty much finished all her Literature because we have read so much her entire life that she knows all the stories they want her to read as does Andrew.  They both can answer any question about the stories.  Skylar is also working on improving her writing and reading more and more.  She seems to be stuck that every vowel only makes a short sound so when we do long vowel sounds it takes a while because she just isn't as fluent but we will get there.  She is determined.

Andrew is doing more and more work at his desk. He loves having schoolwork and he loves the challenge.  He especially loves it when he can answer before Skylar.  I let him play in between activities especially when I am working with one of the girls but he always comes back as soon as I ask him too.  He is hungry.  Today, he worked on matching letters and making three of a kind, gluing, coloring, counting and matching a number with the groups of objects.  He is also working very hard on his piano.  One day last week he wasn't willing to sit and practice or even let me correct his hands.  I told him he might have to quit piano and he went crazy.  "I can't quit piano!"  He immediately sat back down and got to work and everyday since has been the same and I have seen a marked improvement.

Here is Andrew ready to go to Girl Scouts.  He found this hat in his dresser and wore it all afternoon.  You know he is 3 1/2 now!!

We had Girl Scouts in the afternoon and then came home for dinner.  While we were eating,  Andrew asked if it was almost nighttime.  I told him yes and he said he was tired.  I guess so!!  We were up from 2:30 AM until 4:30 AM and then he woke up for the day at 7:00 AM.

Why you ask?  There was someone in the neighborhood stealing Romney signs.

Speaking of the election - I was responsible for a number of voters to contact and make sure they vote.  My list is 87.7% voted.  I only have a few that I will have to call tomorrow for the last time to make sure they vote.  They were mostly poll people and not mail in - all but 2 of my mail in people turned in their ballots already.  I am hoping to get 100%.  Many of these people I have talked to several times.

Leaves and rally

I started off the day at the store shopping for groceries and then the pet store for food and litter.  While I was gone, Dad headed outside with the kids to rake up leaves.  When I got back I put the groceries away, ate a little lunch and headed out to the rally.  I had to be there at 1 PM to get checked in, relearn my job and be ready.

First, pictures of the kids.

They all had a great time.

Then Dad took a picture of me before I left.

I had to dress warmly so I had on several layers.  It was going to be nice in the afternoon but as soon as the sun went down I knew I would get cold.  I took my coat and a pair of gloves too.

I had an absolutely wonderful time.  I talked to many nice people and only a few grouchies and I think even a couple Obama supporters.  I was talking up the crowd, getting them excited, talking to the kids and everyone was having a good time except a couple times when people wouldn't talk back to me no matter what I did.  I finally realized who they probably were when one set of them came back down my line and left.  I spoke to many Veterans and thanked them for their service and learned where they were stationed and that usually got other people talking to them too.  They loved the attention they were getting.

After they closed up my line, I went inside to help out.  I ended up getting a couple people kicked out.  They were working as event staff.  They had many Obama stickers on their backs and were making rude comments while Romney was speaking.  I told one of the Romney staffers and they escorted them out.

All in all it was a great night.  3 more days!!

Super excited

The day was pretty normal.

Tonight was fun.  I went to my training for the Romney rally and I got the job of mag team.  We help direct people from the ticket takers to the Secret Service and give directions about emptying pockets, opening jackets, purses etc.  I liked being around like minded people and most of them were ready to do anything to help out.  They asked our team to make some phone calls - totally not expected but we did it.  Several members of the team voiced quite loudly that they didn't come to make phone calls and they were not going to do it.

I made my phone calls happily - anything to help Romney win. I was a little disappointed by the number of people that told me they were not voting this year.  I don't get that but what can you do.

Tomorrow I have to be back at the venue by 1 PM, doors open at 3 PM and Romney comes at 6 PM.  I don't know when I will be back home.

I got a tee shirt and a volunteer pass.  I will have Paul take pictures tomorrow before I leave to post.

Debate, sick kitten, piano and beautiful weather

I woke the kids up at 7:15 AM to get ready to leave for our debate between Mike and Joe (our candidates running for Congress).  The debate started at 8 AM.  I wanted to get there a couple minutes early but we arrived just as they started so we ended up sitting on the floor.

The kids did a great job - I think it was the food - they had a table of snacks so the kids ate lots of fruit.  I was disappointed at the debate because it appeared that they bussed people in.  After the debate I heard a woman introduce herself to Joe and said she didn't know anything about him before the debate but she would be voting for him now because of his stance on women's issues.

I don't understand the big deal about women's issues even though I am a woman.  I wish I could find someone to talk to that could explain it to me - someone who could have a reasonable conversation.  My friend that used to talk to me about the Democratic side is no longer speaking to me so ...

After the debate we returned home to work on school and get ready for piano.

Andrew recently discovered that he is now 3 1/2 so he loves to tell everyone.  He told his piano teacher today (he wasn't supposed to start until he was 4 1/2 or 5) and she had forgotten how young he was so she asked him to play the song they are working on.  He did great!!  I think she was a little impressed that he could do it.

After piano the kids played outside, riding their bikes and N's scooter and just enjoying the 70 degree day.  While I made dinner, the kids played in the backyard.  I made taco salad, peas and brownies.  I had some onions that needed to be used up so I sauteed them and put them in the taco filling.  EVERYONE raved about how good dinner was tonight - the only thing different was adding onions.  I didn't tell them because they don't like onions.  Maybe I should add onions to other things?

Everyone went to bed easily tonight because I had them up so early this morning.  Tomorrow we will have to take Oreo to the doctor because he isn't doing too well.  I am a little nervous.  The last time a kitten stopped being playful and got suddenly sick she died of leukemia.  Fingers crossed.

Almost to the election

It has been a super busy time here at the house.  I have been very busy with making nightly phone calls to my  fellow Republicans (I have a list of over 1000 people) plus I will be doing a couple phone banks for Romney this week.  We have also attended rallies, meetings and walked the neighborhood and talked to anyone I can get to talk.

Plus we did our regular stuff - school, piano classes, Cairn's Microsoft computer class, an art class and Girl Scout stuff and don't forget getting ready for Halloween.  So super super busy but some of it will ease up as soon as the election is over.

On Sunday, we went to a Halloween event (post shortly) and we took N and C.  In the car, the kids started talking about the election - them not me.  N got me into the conversation because he was telling me about what the kids at his school were saying negative about Romney.  He wanted to know what to say back to them because he supports Romney too.  It was a fun conversation and I loved that he was just as interested in the election as my kids.  If nothing else, this has been a great learning experience for my kids.  We have talked about the election process from caucus (because I went) to why we talk to people, why we watch debates, why when we do decide on a candidate why we support him/her and what we do to show our support plus all the reasons why the US has elections and not all countries do.  Hopefully, we will get to talk about elections again and we will see how much they retain.

In school, Cairn has been working on probability and data, European Renaissance and ecosystems.  Skylar is working on subtraction and we have now added spelling to her daily work.  She loves to write so I decided it was time to add in spelling.  She is also learning about Argentina.  Andrew is working on food groups, the alphabet and learning to spell his name.

Mom is not a happy camper!!

We are still dealing with the illness here but guess what?!  The kids were misdiagnosed.

Remember I took Andrew in on Sunday - he was diagnosed with pneumonia and put on Augmentin.  Skylar was taken in on Wednesday and put on Zithromax.  Skylar has had such a huge turnaround today that I called the doctor back and said Andrew doesn't look so good.  See Skylar ate a can and 1/2 of soup for lunch, he has lots of energy and has had a great attitude.  Andrew still won't eat hardly anything, cranky and has little to no energy - no change whatsoever and he has been on meds since Sunday.

We walk in and the doctor says - it isn't pneumonia - you know that right?  No, I thought it was.  She had looked at the x-ray and called a different radiologist - both agreed - no pneumonia.

I had her look at Skylar's x-ray to double check it.  No, she doesn't have pneumonia either.  They both have congestion in their lungs and that is quite evident but it isn't pneumonia.

The diagnosis for both of them = whooping cough!!

The reason Skylar got better so quickly is zithromax is what they treat whooping cough with but the augmentin is not.  So she got covered quickly while Andrew was still fighting the bug.

Once again I should have gone with my gut.  See I didn't think Andrew was doing better on Wednesday and when I called the office, the nurse kind of blew me off with that he hadn't been on the meds long enough and I need to give it more time.  I should have pushed it and pushed to see our regular doctor.  Anytime, we don't see our regular doc I am unhappy.  I am glad we stayed home and didn't expose people to all this mess.

My nightly canvassing hasn't been very nightly but this crazy illness is to blame.  I will definitely get moving this weekend as we have less than 25 days to election day.  One of the most amazing things seems to be happening.  People are talking about politics.

There is a man in the neighborhood that has painted his car/jeep with an American flag and fighter jets and he usually has an American flag and Gadsden flag hanging off the back.  We love that car and whenever we see it the kids get excited and wave.  If I am driving they want me to honk.  Well tonight I was making dinner and this man is at the door.  Now, I have a no soliciting sign so I don't get people stopping by usually.  The man introduces himself - he is the flag car guy!!  He had noticed my signs in the yard, my American flag hanging and wanted to stop by and introduce himself and invite us to a celebration party the Friday after election day.  He wants to celebrate winning hopefully but also get to know his like minded neighbors.

This is what what we need to do and make sure we continue to know our neighbors.  We have gotten to lax in our society in regards to many things but knowing our neighbors and who is in the neighborhood is a big one.  I feel a lot of excitement as I talk to more and more people these days.

Still falling down hill but some good news too

Skylar fell hard today with the bug.  Her temperature skyrocketed to 102.3.  I got her into the doctor this afternoon and she also has pneumonia.  Tonight her temp was still 102.1.  Hopefully, it will break overnight.  We got her started on antibiotics too.  Andrew was doing a little better but his fever came back slightly so I will keep an eye on that tomorrow too.  Cairn seems to be doing okay.  She still has a cough but no fever and not much energy but it hasn't moved into pneumonia yet.  Keep those fingers crossed.

The good news is I went out tonight with Andrew to pass out Romney signs along with some of our local reps who are running in the election.  I had a great response.  Most people wanted a sign - we were only turned down twice.  Everyone loved to see Andrew helping me - "You must be raising him right."  Then I would tell them we homeschool and they loved that he wasn't in the public school system.  I will try to get out most nights from now until the election and even some days if I see people home to get the word out.

What are you doing to help take back our Country?