P for Palmetto Tour- Z stop

We took the kids and met Joy and her kids to Riverbanks Zoo. Fun. Saw fighting bears, a baby flamingo, and the baby lion cubs!

P for Palmetto Tour-first stop

First stop, C for the state Capital. It was hot. Talia didn't have much patience for outside. After we finished with the state house we went to get frozen yogurt. She ended up getting some crazy bright colored vanilla ice cream that turned her poo blue! That's not normal!



Here are some of the 8000 pictures I took.


And of course my attempt at being an artsy photo-grapher. I really need to take a class, but I was obsessed with the patterns this made.

Smores

My parents dug a pit to roast things during the grandkids' visit. Tonight it was smores. Early enough so the sugar rush could be run out (and it didn't really work-Bella was rolling and convorting all over the couch at bedtime...)


Ode to a marshmallow...


I finally got one.



Bella enjoys each and everything she eats. And it shows.

Taint nothing better than a Mater!

My parents have a little garden in their backyard and they grown delicious tomatoes. It has been forever since I had a real tomato, not the kind forced grown by chain supermarkets. Ah, I vividly remember sitting on the front steps in our house in Quinby eating tomato after tomato like an apple. Obviously it runs in the family. The kids live for picking and eating tomatoes. I think they each ate two right at this moment.

World's Best Toy!

This post is another bit of evidence that kids really like the box better than the toy that comes in the box. Mom attached two leftover metalic streamers to a pvc pipe and a broken toy. Heaven. Talia, Bella and, yes, ME, played with this for the better part of a day. Fun. Fun. Fun.

Future Sheryl Crowe?

Talia got her guitar and got on "stage." (An aside, the shiny floor isn't for her stage, its to keep the cats from peeing on the floor. Actually I think we're past peeing on the floor, but Mike is convinced...)



Tuning up. Actually making it sound worse. I mean that in a sweet, motherly way.



Notice the technique!



She's been working on her bow, but still gets a little off balance. So she holds on, just in case.

Saturday....Just more rambling thoughts

So, its been a full week-at least in my head. Monday-Wednesday my teachers and I met to work on the curriculum upgrade. What a fantastic group of women! We kicked butt typing a Life Skills curriculum for our students that need a "other than college" focus in life. I am super excited about everything we will do this year! I also showed them some Montessori lessons and seemed like most everyone was hooked. The stuff speaks for itself. We also had an interesting discussion about brain research and deaf kids and how we teach. The book I am currently reading "Teaching with the brain in mind" says that we (teachers) can either have our students attention OR they can be making meaning. We (deaf ed teachers historically) have shoved language and vocabulary and words words words down our students with little improvement. In a Montessori lesson, the first presentation of the lesson is done in complete silence. The student is watching and thinking and processing. My teachers and I talked about if we provided some Montessori lessons to our students, in silence, allowing them to think and process-might that actually create a schema or connection in their brain that when we added the language and vocabulary, it would stick? Lots of us will be testing that idea this year.

On Tuesday, I get a call from my AMAZING bank that they have a check of mine that appears to be forged! Bad. I went to the bank and met with Ms. Davis who was the floor manager. A woman came through the drive through with a $425 check written to herself with a signature of mine and Mike's that was obviously forged. Luckily my bank checks the signature and cares about its clients. Ms. Davis called me 5 times until she finally got my secretary, who tracked me down. ANYWAY, I immediately thought of my house cleaning service, which is the only people that have access to my house. So I called the owner, too. I filed a police report in that county and after picking up (super grumpy Talia) went to my county and filed the theft report. Turns out that my house cleaning service was trying to be good people and were supporting a DSS program that helps single women get jobs. That program was supposed to do a background check on the women, but the owner of the agency always does a second check. The woman that tried to cash the check had been a one day trainee in that DSS program and took a check from my desk! Grrrrrr. At least she didn't get any money, but I'm still making sure she is charged. Grrrr. In addition to the fun of being taken advantage of, and filing police reports, on the way home from the police station, I got REAR ENDED in my freaking RENTAL car! My car was in the shop from the little boy that ran into me 3 months ago and I get hit again in the rental car! Thank goodness I had insurance and extra rental car insurance. Dude. What a day! But my friend Lisa cooked a delicious dinner and have multiple Bud Light Limes on hand. Allll better. :)

Since then, life has been remarkably calmer. Ta and I went to my parents house for a couple of days. Always nice and relaxing. Fun pictures to come.

Went to my church's scrapbooking night with Brenda. Love it. 5 hours to actually craft! Heaven-no pun intended. There were 15 people there tonight. And a cool skateboarding ministry outside-so we had tons of skater boys all over the parking lot and skater boy-looking-girls on the sidelines. Cuteness. One random time, all the kids not attached to a skateboard lined up and "field tripped" to see what we were doing, like a museum exhibit. Strange. But I was looking just as hard as I dodged the boards going to my car. Funny. I am old.

Oh. Finally saw Juno Saturday night. Awesome music. I know I am a couple years behind movies, but I never get to go out. Actually from the time Talia arrived home in 2004, I didn't watch a movie in the theater until The Bee Movie. And that JUST came out. I digress (again). Cute movie. I had no idea it was about adoption. I watched it with a little more emotion that I would have if we weren't waiting for a baby via adoption, but it was so different than if we were waiting on our first. My sister, emotional goddess that she is, even cried. I didn't. Of course I don't tear up for anything. Julie said "You need your own Juno." Cute. Would be nice. A smart, funny, driven, mindful pregnant teenager that chooses to give us her child. All set to cool soundtrack music. And I actually think Liberty Bell isn't such a strange name.

Random

As I stated earlier tonight, I have a little obsession with other people's blogs. One blog suggested taking pictures of ordinary items in your world to remember that you saw them, such as the texture of the bark of a tree, the pattern of lights on a wall, etc. I'm trying to find "random photo worthiness objects" and this is my first. Not the best photography skills demonstrated here but interesting arrangement of the shoes.

Pop Rocks Rock!

Talia asked for chicken pops and this was as close as I could identify what chicken pops were. Little did I know there was a pop theme. We added the special colored sprinkles to the pudding and a noise errupted from the chocolate goodness-pop rocks! Talia dove in and I had to get pictures.

Here she is showing me the fizzing candy in her mouth.


Here she is trying to sign what it feels like in her mouth. Much the same sign she made up for carbonation after she first tried Sprite. She did enjoy the whole experience. And even left a few pop rocks for me to try!

Riverwalk

Cold, cold, cold water with three half naked children (my sister was off cavorting and taking my picture...guess I finally got in a picture!) Oh, this was just before random guy in the river CASUALLY said, oh, yeah, there's a snake under that rock (right where we were putting the children!!!) Needless to say, we removed ourselves from the water after the snake sighting.


Sweet Princess TaTa


All huddled together to watch an insect be devoured by a mass of ants.


Bella and her mommy. I just liked the swoopy curve of the sidewalk.

Out of the Mouth of Babes

So, Talia has been using the language I gave her against me. :) She is now saying, for instance when I ask her to get in her carseat and buckle up, "I hear what you're saying, but I need to do (insert something random) first." Obviously I say "I hear what you're saying, but..." but I was not aware of that before last week! Yikes.

Today she told me she was playing with Hank yesterday and something made her wonder what would happen if Mommy and Daddy died. Is that normal for a 4 year old?

Dirty Little Secret

Okay...so I like (LOVE) reading random blogs on the internet. Anyone is interesting...Craft blogs, thriftiness blogs, cancer patients, people who bitch and moan about random things. All fascinating. And most of them have links to other blogs about similar subjects, which just sends me looking and looking and looking. I am amused most of the time and have actually found semi useful things. One such thing is a free online digital scrapbook site. I am just learning it (first found it at 4:30 am Sunday night when I could not sleep) but have made one book. Not sure how to make it book-like, so the pictures will just be posted one after the other. Obsession. If you know me, you know I love to touch and feel and smell everything, so digital scrapbooking has never appealed to me but as my photographs increase exponentially, I am getting overwhelmed and YEARS behind. Check this site out! http://www.scrapblog.com

P is for Palmetto Tour

Tonight Talia and I were reading the SC ABC book "P is for Palmetto" and she was so fascinated. This on top of her recent obsession with maps and names of roads and places. So, an idea popped in my head-travel around SC and find the places from this book. Talia and I have already decided to take pictures like the illustrations in the book and make our own book. Cool! I'm ready to head out and do something tomorrow. We might actually go to the Capital and check that one off our list. My little ADD self likes a checklist and a plan :)
Here's the plan so far:

A-Angel Oak-Johns Island

B-Sweetgrass baskets-Charleston

C-Capital-Cola

D-Drayton Hall-Charleston

E-Eastern tiger swallowtail

F-Swamp Fox-Congaree Swamp

G- Grand Strand- Winyah Bay up to Little River Neck

H-Horse-Thoroughbred Hall of Fame-Aiken

I-Indigo plant--Wappoo Creek near the Ashley River (17 miles from Charleston)-Eliza Lucas Pinckney (near James Island)..Not sure how we're going to do this one...

J-James Island-James Island/Sullivan’s Island/Fort Sumter

K- King Cotton- Santee

L-Loggerhead sea turtlesMay/June

M-Mary McLeod Bethune-Mayesville

N-National Wildlife Refuge—Santee (geese in fall)

O-Old Edgefield Pottery-Edgefield

P-Palmetto tree-Fort Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island

Q-Queen Anne’s Revenge pirate ship (Blackbeard)-

R-Rainbow Row-Charleston

S-Sculpture Gardens/Brookgreen Gardens—across from Huntington Beach State Park

T-Tea-Wadmalaw Island tea farm (Now Bigelow Tea)-Wadmalaw Island, SC

U-Upcountry-

V-Venus fly trap-NE coastal plains on savannas and bogs

W-Carolina wren-

X-Hunley-North Charleston

Y-Yellow Jessamine

Z-Riverbanks Zoo-Columbia

Other random pictures

Forgot what she ate, but it was blue.


Talia in her Russian costume with her Farter dog.



Amber and Ta are giving zerbert kisses.


Squirrel is testing the baby waters.



This was Talia's strawberry picking outfit (never mind that we didn't get strawberries)...

Montessori Madness

So, for the past 2 weeks (I guess since this is Friday it is actually 3 weeks) I have been swarming with Montessori thinking. I am an educational nerd anyway, constantly searching on the internet for more resources, but now it is for Montessori lessons. The picture above is Talia doing one of the lessons I made for her after the first week's class was over.

Julie M and I have been given a scholarship to take Montessori Primary training through Laurens 55 (yep, that's a tiny little town outside of Simpsonville, which is a tiny little town outside Greenville) . Actually the Montessori folks in the district are paying for the training, the hotel, gas and a food allowance. Beautiful. But the coolest part is that everyday I am required to journal and think and process what I am thinking! The school (in Gray Court actually) is next to a huge field with cows and a pond and beautiful trees so when it is time to journal, we go outside and look at nature and write. I know someone's hippie radar is going off but it is amazing stuff. On day 2 of the training I frantically emailed Gail and asked her where could I get Talia into a Montessori school! She gave me the principal's phone number at Logan so I called and got Talia on the waiting list for the 4s. Crazy. I am loving the community spirit of Montessori, the practical life lessons, the lessons designed for the developmental period where the child is, the pure and simple materials that used, and the attitude the teachers have. One huge part of becoming a Montessori teacher is having the "transformation." (I do still get a Rocky Horror Picture Show visual in my head-go figure.) Really that is the teacher viewing children a different way, viewing education a different way and viewing the world a different way. I've been struggling with different parts of my life lately- chaos, messy house, not spending good time with Ta and Mike, not working toward the good of anything, and these classes are helping me (forcing me) to think through these things and making some plans around the obstacles I set up for myself. And I am muchly enjoying the solitude of my hotel room and Julie's company! She is going through similar thought changes and we've had some interesting discussions-and many laughs.


Now it is July 4. Talia and I worked in the yard. Actually, Talia said "I really really want to work in the year." So as a good Montessori mom that I am trying to be, I followed the needs of the child. I got dressed, we went outside, and in the first 5 seconds she runs off to play with Michael. So two hours later, my flower beds are weeded and trimmed and most of the plants I needed to move around are in their new homes. And Talia is clean and played out. Now it is raining so more free watering! It just needs to stop before my outdoor plans begin. I also have a nice red nose to go with my blue dress, in keeping with the patriotic theme.