Face Painting

Yesterday evening, we braved the rain and the wind to go to the Cold Stone Creamery Social Night. They were giving out free ice cream to support Make A Wish Foundation. While at the Cold Stone Creamery, the older kids also got their faces painted by a clown. Looked pretty good.


I can't believe how windy it's been the last few days. Never mind the rain. We've had a couple of limbs blown off our trees, the playhouse in the backyard got blown apart and then scattered around the yard. The biggest damage I discovered this week came not from a weather storm but another kind of natural storm.... Liesl thought it would be fun to take a rock and scribble some art on the back of my minivan. Lovely! She also thought it would be nice to give herself a haircut. As a result, her bangs are very short. Oh well!

I don't think I ever put up any pictures of our trips to the beach this summer. We had a terrific time. The family can't wait for the next beach season. We have decided it would be fun to take a vacation from home next summer. One week of doing the typical touristy things a visitor might do while visiting Virginia Beach. Should be fun. Our house will be the hotel room and we'll vacation as if we were actually staying at a hotel! Anyway, enjoy the pictures of our fun at the beach this past summer.

Colum and Joella each got a hamster this summer. I was able to get the hamster, cages, exercise balls, food, etc for free. We got them from two different owners who couldn't keep the hamsters for various reasons. It is working out good. The kids are required to make sure the hamsters have enough food and water every day. They must handle the hamsters for at least 10 minutes daily and clean out the cages twice a week. Colum and Joella must be really motivated to have a dog for a pet. We'll see if they can keep this up for as long as the hamsters are living. That is the deal! The hamsters are kind of fun. Even Ray, who hates pets, has to admit that the hamsters 'are alright'.

The Air Show

We decided to go to the Twilight Show of NAS Oceana's 50th Anniversary Show. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see much. Conditions were very windy. The night jumps and the fireworks show was canceled. Pretty much the only thing we saw was this cool plane flying around with fireworks streaming off its wings, a F/18 do some afterburner fly-bys (that I could not get a picture of by the way because I could never get the timing right), and a monster truck zooming down the runway setting off fires. The few pictures that I have included are those that came out okay. The ones of Colum resulted from the boredom of waiting in line for 30 minutes to get one funnel cake for $6! I tell myself that it's actually $1 per person and it came out to about one candy bar size per person.

Slog Blog #5

Wow, exactly 3 months (more or less) since I updated the blog. It truly is a slogging blog. It has been exactly one week of experiencing the joys of being a single mom. Joy, joy, joy! I feel like I am on the go from sun-up until long past sun-down. Let me tell you, being busy does NOT make the time go by faster. I feel like this blog has been named perfectly....
We are getting to know Virginia Beach. It may be a beachy town but it is more well known as a city of crappy roads and bad traffic lights. Most things are 5-10 miles from the house but it takes at least 20 minutes to an hour to get ANYWHERE. It sucks. I have resigned myself to the fact that I'm just gonna have to add an hour to my schedule for every trip I have to make out of the house. So, we try to consolidate around here. Never mind the fact that gas is expensive, etc.
We are staying busy through the various activities that the kids do on a daily basis, plus we go on a lot of cool and fun field trips with a homeschooling co-op. We get to learn about some interesting places in Virginia Beach that we may not have otherwise checked out.
I finally met the wives that I'll be hanging with now and then while the hubbies are away. They seem like a nice group of ladies. Not very many kids in the group. I actually have the most, with five. But I suppose I can usually say that, wherever I am!
Dinner is percolating, a hand is tapping away on my arm, and I am trying to supervise game time on the computer so I must sign off for now. I'll have to think of a Virginia Beach joke or two to include with the next blog.

First picture with my new camera!

Since Ray took the only digital camera we had with him, I went and bought a digital camera for myself that I have had my eye on. It is the Olympus camera and it's supposed to be shock proof, water proof, freeze proof, etc. Better to be prepared, I say! Anyway, this self portrait is one of the first pictures I took with the camera. I am still learning my way around the camera. This is also one of the first few times I am attempting to update the blog and use the Picasa web album all by myself. Nothing like being thrown into the deep end to learn to do things by yourself. I have so little free time these days since I am having to do and take care of everything myself. Colum is a great big help though! And Joella, once in a while.

ColdStone Creamery Tour

The kids went on a tour of their local ColdStone Creamery. They got to see how ice cream was made on site, where they store their food to keep it fresh and cold, and to make their own yummy ice cream to eat!