Photo Blog

Nana, Hubby's grandmother, passed last night after a long battle with cancer. This picture was taken in April '05 when we celebrated her 80th birthday. She had full life and we're grateful that she is peacefully and painlessly resting now. We love you Nana.


A couple pictures I've been meaning to post...
I was in the middle of something when Linnae started crying. After you have 2 kids, you realize that the baby doesn't always get tended to as quickly as you did the first child. So she was fussing for a bit while I finished up my task. When I had finished, I went into the living room to find Matthew burping her over his shoulder. He's never even picked her up on his own before and he'd picked her up and got her positioned right too. She was very content and quietly alert. A precious sight for Mama. ;)


Rose has always loved music. As a toddler, she'd beg for "just one more song" before bed every night instead of the "just one more story" that I always wanted at her age. So I got some CD's from the library and she is in LOVE. She sat listening to the CDs for at least an hour the first day. And here she is right now by my side, asking where the CD player is. ;)


And, just for you, Mrs. P, since you so nicely asked...here's my gang. I'm makeup-less and probably going to hack my hair off short soon but here we are at the moment. ;)

Anyone need a fund raiser?

Yesterday we went to our usual hang-out, Walmart. OK, it's not our hang-out but many weeks it definitely feels like that. I'm sure most of you moms know what I mean. My friend in Alaska used to tease me about how much I love to go to Walmart. But since she lives on a 5 mile island with no 'super center', she doesn't understand that I go there because it's cheap and it's convenient. It's not that I love Walmart or think they have the best items/craftmanship, etc. It's cheap with mid-range products and convenient (One-stop shopping is very important when you have 4 kids to get in and out of car seats. My mom says if she had to deal with car seats, she'd probably never have had three kids...and I wouldn't be here to amuse you today).

After we had done our shopping and grazed through the samples/demos of the day, we headed to the checkout. While we were shopping, we heard various announcements on their music system. A local radio station was there, doing a fund-raiser for the Children's Miracle Network and, more specifically, our local children's hospital. Walmart had given them some big shopping sprees in the toy section and while we were looking over the new Transformers and picking out a b-day present, we heard them in the next aisle picking out various toys. Just in front of the checkout area, they had a big table set up where they were accepting donations and giving out pieces of cake. The kids eyes glazed over as I shook my head for them to go get some. I was wrapped up in paying and then the cashier forgot to add an item and I had to go through the paying process twice so it was a few minutes before I caught up with the kiddos.

They had set up camp on a chair next to the table. They had their plates sitting on the chair and they were kneeling and standing next to it, eating. As I walked nearer, Matthew said, "Oh and I see that you have some punch - may I have some of that too?" Cake-serving Man said, "You sure can" and poured them some. I arrived and picked up a piece of cake to share with Jade, who was in the front of the shopping cart. Matthew told me that the man was taking donations for the Children's Hospital. I wonder what else the man had discussed with him in the time it took me to arrive. Cake-serving Man stepped away to the Customer Service counter and the table was left unattended for a few minutes. A customer, on her way out, stopped to grab a piece of cake. Matthew jumped up and commanded to her, "Don't forget to make a donation!!" She, looking sheepish, went back to her purse and dug out some money for the jar.

The mom in me wanted to shush him and explain that it wasn't his business if the woman was donating or not. But was it? How could I explain that it was ok for her to take free cake and not drop a donation? Because while a donation wasn't required, it was expected. So what was wrong with him saying it out loud? Why do we, as adults, feel so inhibited that we can't say the same thing? I realize that she could have been someone who's already written her donation checks for the year or any number of reasons (which we did discuss later). But the big picture is that adults laugh at the brutal honesty of children. Why do we do that? Maybe part of the reason we're given children is to learn to be more honest as adults.

Cake man came back and I told him that Matthew was working the table for him and I explained what he did. The man and the cashiers standing around all had a good chuckle. Cake man asked if Matthew could stay the rest of the day... "He can have all the cake he wants if he'll keep that up!"

Here's hoping we all have a more honest day than yesterday.

A quick update

I may be giving brief updates for a few days to get back into the blogging routine. Having a baby sure can mess up regular blogging! I saw a woman at the zoo a couple days ago who had 7 children. I told her I was stopping at 4. She shrugged and said, "After 3, it's just noise." I said, "Yeah, that's why I'm stopping at 4." ;)

So my floors now look exactly like they do in the pictures below. No change. Why?? Well, the manufacturer of our floor has changed and it took a while to track them down. Also we've had to pick out colors and new vinyl (man is THAT a chore!) and we've decided to do the bathroom too while we're at it. So now we'll be replacing the entire first floor. The run-down is like this...they'll order the flooring, it'll take about a week to come in, then it has to sit in my house to acclimate to my humidity and temp for two days. I can't imagine how fun that will be - we're talking about a lot of wood here. Then a contractor will come out and pull out my kitchen cabinets and disconnect plumbing - I'm assuming 1-2 days though I haven't been told yet. And THEN they can start ripping up the floor and laying down the new one, which will take 4-5 days or more. Fun! With our current calendar, I don't think there's any way we can get this started until the end of June. So I'm stuck with the hole in my floors for a while.

I have figured out a work around for this month though. I'm so worried one of the kids will get a splinter (they're not little splinters and hey, when you have 4 kids, *every* doctor's co-pay counts!) but I pulled up a rug I had in the kids area of the basement. It's one of those large ones that has roads on it so you can run Hot Wheels on it, like this, (so it's very fashionable) but it almost completely covers the area and has solved my problem for the time being.

Meanwhile, Matthew is reading his way through Tolkien books. He read Roverandum yesterday and said, "Even though I'm not very interested in dogs, it was a good book." We're now anxiously awaiting Bone, which was recommended in the Relaxed Homeskool blog that I stumbled across yesterday. I guess we need to get The Book Of Three for him as well. I have fond memories of my brother reading that series to me when I was young.

Rose seems bored and she almost seems to be asking for some direction. She's doing very well with letters and writing but isn't quite there yet on reading. I'm in no rush but it does limit her somewhat. So at the library yesterday, she picked out some horse books and I picked out some cheetah books and we'll go through them and see if anything leads us out of boredom. We spent quite a bit of time yesterday cleaning and organizing her room, which she seemed to enjoy quite a bit. Maybe I'll suggest she work on the basement...teeheehee.

Jade pretty much follows the other two around. I can tell she's a people person already. She flirts with anyone - and I mean anyone. Elderly gentlemen are especially swayed by her charms. Her language skills are getting better every day. I'm sure she'd be more understandable if she wasn't a thumb sucker but, as with everything else, I'm in no rush. It will end some day on it's own.

Linnae is doing great. She's looking pretty chunky now and the reflux meds have helped her a *lot*. She's smiling at us now and it just melts all of our hearts each time.

It looks like we're getting a homeschooling group started and we're anxious to start meeting with them and making new friends.

What does Unschooling look like in your home currently?

Unschooling Voices asks us to post some pictures this month of what unschooling currently looks like in our house. Here is my response...

We've been busy with crafts...like the birdbaths the kids made. Matthew dug up an old frisbee, filled it with water and added some large rocks. Rose, on the other hand, filled a bucket with water, grass and rocks and left her frisbee on the ground next to it. She then gave me orders to tell her when a bird came to take a bath. "Sure. Why?" I asked. She said very seriously, "So I can put the lid on it!" So Rose made more of a bird trap instead of a bath but she gets bonus points for creativity and uniqueness.


Matthew also made an "ant trap". The tape from the floor to the container was so they could climb up the sides and eat the Rice Krispies, cleverly disguised as ant bait.

Rose's approach was again unique...she added mini marshmallows to further lure them into her container. Then she added water "to drown them when they go down to eat the food," she said with glee in her eyes.


We went to the zoo on Memorial Day. We learned that day that we don't much care for heat and humidity combined. Well, I already knew that one but I think the kids learned it well that day. I did get to learn more about my fantabulous Olympus E500 though...enough to capture this (and it's prettier at high resolution which Blogger won't let me show...spooty Blogger)...

We also have some new baby cheetah cubs at our zoo and the kids had fun at a side information table. They saw a cheetah skull and felt cheetah fur, as well as ask all kinds of questions about them. The kids have recently been pretending they are cheetahs so I feel almost as if we're in the middle of an impromptu unit study. Those are the kiddos in the tie-dye shirts (we wear those to the zoo because it's easy to spot each other in a crowd). And check out Rose's new stack haircut! It's so much cuter from the front. I'll post a pic soon.



Matthew made a spider with his sandwich makings one day...


But Rose's love of crafting has eased her into becoming a federal law breaker. Yes, that's her inner artist hard at work here. And yes, that's a $20...does anyone think I *shouldn't* have told her they were going to take her to jail for this? ;) I just wonder when I ask the bank to replace it, will they laugh or fine me? Either way, it's definitely something new to learn...and that's the whole point. ;)

Promises, promises

Yes, I promised more frequent posts. Sorry. But I did have the very best of intentions though. ;) You won't believe the craziness that is my life. First, the every-other-day dr visits have finally tapered off (I'm actually scared to type that out loud for fear that they'll start again).

Rose has FINALLY gotten some allergy meds that have dried up her constant, year-long drippy nose. At last she's not one of *those* kids who always looks sick and is always on antibiotics. Not one sinus infection since she started her new meds. For those who are wondering, it's a nose spray combined with Allegra-D (recently approved for kids). Though, with the disappearance of her runny, stuffy nose we've seen the appearance of the "4 going on 16" attitude. Wow. Eye rolls, back talking - Grammy was shocked the last time she babysat. Lord, help me make it through this year!

Nothing too extra exciting going on with Matthew these days. He and Hubby have gotten to the final levels in Crash Bandicoot though...does that count? :)

Jade is expanding her vocabulary but I think she might need some help from my ex-speech therapy friend. I'll give Jade 6 more months before I call on her though. She is baby-obsessed and is constantly trying to sit with me while I'm nursing the baby...and kiss the baby...and hug the baby...and put blankets on the baby... She's a good mini-me. If only she could nurse her a couple times a day. ;)

Linnae is gaining weight very slowly but Rose did that too. Linnae's reflux meds seem to have helped her quite a bit...in fact, she had her checkup today and she has gained 9oz in the last 9 days so that's GREAT. She has a rash on her face but we think it's the normal 6wk hormone rash that babies pretty typically get...she just got hers at 4wks.

And that brings us to me. My MS symptoms have returned. Just sensory issues...you know that tingling feeling your leg has just before it goes to sleep? I have that moving around my torso and upper thighs, as well as a burning sensation that moves around. But nothing serious at this point.

All sounds pretty normal, eh? But I bet you won't guess what we've been up to behind the scenes. First, our subdivision is having a garage sale next weekend and I am trying, in between all the other goings-on, to get some stuff together for it. Last week on Thursday morning, I went downstairs to start sorting through our storage boxes to find junk good used items to unload sell to unsuspecting pack rats bargain hunters. ;) I decided to start in the back of the basement, which is unusual for me, only to find water. Lots of water drips coming down from the ceiling and pooling on top of boxes, furniture, and my wrapping paper container (yep, all my wrapping paper is ruined). After about 90 minutes on the phone with Hubby, trying to track the source of the water, I finally gave up, deciding it was a burst pipe in the walls. I had checked and double checked everything in that area - washing machine, bathroom - I even went up to the 2nd floor bathroom to see if it was dripping from up there. I couldn't find one spot of water anywhere. The water in the basement ceiling was a 5 ft long row of drips and I couldn't pinpoint where it started and where it was just run-off. We decided to call a plumber.

The plumber showed up Thursday afternoon. He went straight to the basement, looked at the water for all of 30 seconds and said those fateful words, "Do you have an ice maker?" Dread crept over my face as I slowly nodded.

He moved the fridge and found a strong leak coming from the *Saddle Valve* and plastic tubing. It apparently had found just the right crack in my hard wood floors so that it went straight down onto the subfloors instead of making a huge puddle on top as it did before. He started walking all around and found a large area that was wet. He moved my trashcan and found wood planks that were already warping. So who knows how long this leak had gone on? We shucked out $500 for him to replace the now very famous *Saddle Valve* and plastic tubing with a nice copper pipe, guaranteed to fix the problem once and for all. As I mused with Hubby on the phone as to what to do about the floors, the plumber said he's done lots of work for insurance companies and we should make a homeowners claim about the floor.

Hubby made lots of calls and at 10am on Friday, there were workmen out at the house looking at the water damage. After a couple hours (and my own muffled guffaws when the guy muttered something about 'they might have to replace the entire floor'), my kitchen now looked like this:


And viewing from the kitchen into the laundry room/pantry:


They also set up two huge commercial fans (read: EXTREMELY LOUD) to dry the sub floor up here and two more downstairs pointed at the ceiling. They also sprayed mold killer since the water damage has been going a while.

The fridge, as you can see, is directly in front of my oven and microwave and the cabinet I keep all my stove top cooking pots and pans in. And with it's new pretty copper piping, the fridge can't really be moved much. So we've eaten out...lots...this weekend. A great Mother's Day weekend, all in all. Monstrous headaches from the deafening roar of the fans, sniffly noses at the dust and wind tunnel and mold spores flying around, crabby kids who are "tired of eating out", etc. Though I do admit, I had far fewer dishes to wash this weekend. ;)

So on Saturday, in an attempt to get away from the roar of the fans, I went to the basement. Everyone followed. I started sorting through our storage stuff, still determined to get things ready for the garage sale this coming weekend. Hubby came down, bless his soul to the very fiber of his being, and took loads and loads of trash (and sorted out recyclables) to the garage for disbursement to the city. The kids had fun puttering around after us and doing bubbles in the yard and pulling each other around in their wagon. Hubby even cut one of his heavy weight shelves in half so we now have somewhere to place plants (and the herb garden I started) on the front porch. So it ended up being a very productive day.

On Mother's Day, we had dinner out and because it took so long for it to arrive, we got free desserts with it. I put mine in a doggy bag because I was meeting my mother for ice cream afterwards to celebrate Mother's Day together. Rose made me a couple of beautiful scrapbook pages (she put sticker borders on them) and Matthew made me a cute little note pad on top of a ceramic tile that is easy to move and not easy to lose. :) I also got some gift certificates to Michaels and since I love crafts, it was a great gift! FIL brought by some items they want to sell in my garage sale so the garage is crowding quickly.

Monday morning, the insurance adjuster and a guy from a local flooring place came by. The short of it is this...I have an open floor plan. So there aren't any doorway openings, flooring wise. No good place to seam the floor. And it's apparently almost impossible to match the color of hard wood floors. So they have to replace the whole floor...the ENTIRE FIRST FLOOR, minus the linoleum in the bathroom. And it's going to take about 4 days. Four days of no kitchen. The floors go under my kitchen cabinets. They go under my pantry and washer/dryer. My computer, huge heavy dining table, living room couches...fun. Four days. Four days of no way to cook and limiting kids to our bedrooms? Uhhh...I don't think so. Plus the guys who pulled up that small section that you see says it's nailed down very very well. They're gonna have a heck of a time getting the floor up. I assume the 4 day quote will be at least 5...and you know contractors...they're never really in a hurry.

Yesterday, the guy who dropped off the fans came by - he was supposed to take them out. Nope, the floors were still damp. So he turned the ones up here to low and the ones downstairs to high, with promises to retrieve them today. He also took out a big chunk of insulation that wasn't drying out. Last night, I gave Linnae a bath before bed. By the time it was over, there was an awful smell coming through the air conditioner vents. It smelled like burnt plastic. Hubby took his carbon monoxide detector and flashlight to the basement and looked all around. After *much* inspecting, we still couldn't find anything and the smell went away. Today, our water is luke-warm at best, I found out during a *very* quick shower. After more inspecting, I found that the pilot light is not lit in the hot water heater anymore. My best guess was that maybe a piece of the insulation got caught under the hot water heater from all the fans blowing around and burned out the pilot light.

So...the fans are supposed to leave today, thank GOODNESS! My head is about to burst open at the seams, despite all the staying out of the house that I've managed. It'll take "about 2 weeks" for the flooring to come in. And when it does, I'm planning on going to visit my SIL, four hours away. Her kids are dying to see Linnae anyway, we always have fun together and the gas & food money is cheaper than a hotel (bless your soul, SIL!!). Hopefully the timing works out to the week her kids end school for the year and before a couple of them go off to camp.

But don't worry - this is my MO: something big happens then something else happens and just as we're recovering from that, something else happens. And it's usually while I'm in the middle of a huge project like painting or a garage sale or having a baby...or all three. We'll recover. Until then, enjoy the tale and I'll keep you up-to-date. :)

More math by association

While my days have quickly changed from being so tired from pregnancy hormones that I could hardly make it through the day to doing nothing but sitting on my rear holding a baby who REFUSES to sleep (or not cry) unless you hold her, I have found myself watching a lot of Food Network lately. Trying to avoid soap operas and talk shows, afternoon TV viewing is QUITE lacking in the kid-friendly arena. However, I stumbled across a game show today called "Cash Cab" - basically this guy drives an unmarked taxi around NYC and whoever jumps in gets a chance to play his general knowledge trivia game while on their way to their destination. Best case scenario they get lots of money, worst case - they get kicked out on the curb whenever they miss 3 questions but they also get a free cab ride to that point so it's not too bad.

Anyway, Matthew is watching this show with me and they have a running tally of money in the corner.
After watching 2 different "games" quietly, he says, "Oh, so 25 + 25 is 50".
I nodded in agreement.
He says, "So that would mean that 25 is half of 50."
"Yep, so how many 25's do you need to make 100?" I pry.
He doesn't bat an eyelash..."Four".
Math. Learned without drills or charts or doing thousands of computations on a piece of paper. Hmmm...

OK, the crying little seal has had her 10 minute limit in the swing and now I must away to hold the little princess...

All the kiddos

Another hospital pic but it's the first "all the kids" picture we have. Awww...so sweet...even if Linnae does look like a garden gnome. ;)

Be back soon!

I'm hoping to get back into the blogging routine VERY soon. I miss not only telling my readers about what's going on in our lives but it's also a great way for me to keep tabs on us as well. So hopefully I'll be back very soon.

The baby (now called Linnae from here on out) finally got her bili levels dropping. She was cleared last week from further testing. She does have a cold (with lots of congestion) that we're keeping a very close eye on though. She was also having a hard time gaining weight but as of Saturday, she'd gained 6oz in 5 days so that is great!

Her siblings are very much in love with her still and they constantly (almost too much) try to kiss, hug and hold her. This recovery has been the slowest for me but I just haven't really had time to stay in bed for several days - dr appts, bili tests, allergy testing for Rose, sick appts for Jade...it's just ongoing craziness. Not that I didn't sign up for it though, eh?

Hope to see you soon!

He hoped, he wished, he talked about it for 2 weeks

He wanted his first tooth to fall out on Easter. Why? "Because that would make it EXTRA special!" And lo and behold, just 30 minutes ago...


Happy Easter!!


Rhonan's bilirubin levels are high and we keep going in to test it. It was still climbing as of yesterday. If it's still climbing today, we'll discuss a bili bed/blanket.

Baby Pic!

Baby is here!

Rhonan Linnae [RO nan lin NAY] arrived at 3:08pm CST on April 1st. Rhonan means “little seal” and Linnae is a flower name which goes along with our other two daughter's middle names (as an aside, I do use my kids middle names on the blog so you don't think I'm too weird in naming schemes. lol). No pain meds for me - all natural (and what a story!). And apparently the April Fool's Day joke was on me......8lbs,10oz (at only 38weeks, 2days)!!!! 20 inches long, 14 inch head.

She's gorgeous, lots of dark hair. I'm exhausted but doing well. We just got home this evening. I’ll send pics when I get them uploaded.

Yes, it's been a while!

Sorry for the long silence but we've been super busy these days.

First we had a trip to see family and had a great time. While we were there, I took Rose to a homeopathic dr. She has a constant runny nose, no matter what medications we've used, and I'm suspecting food at this point. This homeopath said it was eggs and all beef products. So we took Rose off of those two items. It's been three weeks now and she still has the runny nose. I have an appt to have her allergy tested next Thursday. Wish us luck!!

In the midst of that, we had Jade's two year birthday party. The party theme was ducks and she had a great time. She got a rocking horse, shopping cart for her baby dolls, spring clothes and a bunch of other goodies. She had a great time.

Our dishwasher broke and the repair cost just a little less than a new one so I have a new Bosch dishwasher. I have no complaints except that it's taking me a while to figure out the new loading technique as this basket is a different size than the last and it's hard to determine where bowls fit the best. ;)

We also had family come and visit this week too. So we spent a day at the zoo and a day shopping and went swimming and had some meals out - it was a mini vacation for us as well. We had a really good time together and I'm already missing them though they just left yesterday afternoon.

In other news, I hit full term last Friday. I'm 38 weeks today and hoping that baby decides to come this weekend, while my OB is on call. She rotates on call weekends with 12 other doctors, only one of whom I know (he delivered Rose). But he was on call last weekend and she is this weekend - I'm really hoping that baby either decides to make her grand entrance during the week or this weekend. ;) So send me some major labor vibes, will ya?? :) I've had lots of contractions and am at 2.5cms now so it might not take too much. lol

While we've been so busy running here and there like chickens with our heads cut off and doing Easter shopping and bday shopping and spring clothing shopping and parties and visiting with family...we have still been learning lots.

Rose practices writing her letters everyday, on her own, of course. She's sounding out words (for Daddy, of course) and is a great little counter. She could probably get to 100 by herself pretty easily.

Jade has had a burst of language finally. Or perhaps it's that the other two have gotten quiet enough for me to notice?? :) She had her two year checkup and the ped said he heard a heart murmur and wants to get an Echo on her.

Matthew has been busy working out money concepts. We started putting things in terms of Transformers. "The new dishwasher cost as much as 10 Optimus Prime's." He caught on quickly. Being a SAHM to almost 4 kids and only one income, we've been cutting back in a lot of areas this year. We don't eat out nearly as much as we used to, for example. We discuss this freely as to why we don't eat out as much and I find that Matthew is now becoming quite sensitive to money issues. I bought them an extra special treat yesterday - slushies. Matthew was worried that it cost too much and after I assured him that it was ok, he thanked me profusely for getting them a treat. This isn't where I expected (or 'wanted') our money-openness to go but it's interesting to see a 6yr old concerned about our spending habits. We went to a bookfair yesterday and he decided to put a pen back because "I'd rather Mom spend her money on something else". I'm not sure if I should encourage this or not. On the other hand, Hubby thinks it's easier to teach a money-conscious person to live a little and spend some money on themselves rather than teaching a frivolous spender to budget...and I think I'm inclined to agree. We'll see where this leads.

Matthew tends to take everything to extremes. During the year that he was 3, he had me read everything we could get our hands on about the human body. He learned all about how the body works and what can go wrong, learned about diseases and nutrition...and germs. At Jade's 2yr checkup, Matthew sat on a step stool and read a book, flipping the pages with his feet. He didn't want to touch a book in the dr's exam room that had germs all over it. I am not a germ-a-phobe but I get "that look" from people who seem to think, "What has his mother's fears done to her poor kid??" He did this all on his own. Rose is very unconcerned about germs and dirt and messes...though she does have the most dr visits in our family. ;) Though as I think back, I remember even at a very young age, Matthew never liked being messy. Didn't like food on his hands and would grunt for napkins to wipe his hands before he could even talk. I'm surprised he plays with play dough. But that's a post for another day, I suppose.

Anyway, I'll be posting baby news as soon as I can so stay tuned! :)

Cute-isms

I woke up very early yesterday morning for a dental appt (so Hubby could watch the kids for me and he just went into work a little later than usual). The kids were still sleeping when I left. When I got home around 9am, 6yMatthew and 4yRose were standing in the kitchen, a little shocked to see me coming in the door at that time in the morning (since I'm a late sleeper during pgcy).

Matthew looks at me questioningly and says, "Mom??" Rose looks at me for a few seconds and then says, "Moooooom!! You forgot to go to sleep!" ROFL Guess she thought I was painting the town red all night! LOL

Bloggers beware...

(This is a partial article. To read the full article, please visit
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/022707-storm-virus-blogs.html?nltxsec=0226securityalert3&code=nlsecuritynewsal64135)


New Version of Storm Virus Infects Blogs and Other Web Postings
Beware messages including text: "Have you seen this?"

By Jon Brodkin, Network World, 02/27/07

A new version of the Storm e-mail virus is populating blogs and online bulletin boards with links directing people to a Web site that is propagating the worm, representing a new mode of attack for hackers seeking financial gain, according to a security vendor that became aware of the virus Monday night.

The Storm Worm attacks in December and January used infected e-mails to hijack personal computers and add them to “bot-nets,” networks of infected computers used by hackers to distribute spam and viruses.

Within the past day, a variation of this virus was found to be using infected computers to place malicious links on various Web sites, according to Secure Computing, a messaging security vendor based in San Jose, Calif.

If your computer is infected, the virus can add malicious text to any message you post to a blog or bulletin board. The text says, “Have you seen this?” and is followed by a URL containing the phrases “freepostcards” and “funvideo.”

“The new thing about this virus is the way it propagates. It’s basically filling up Web pages all over the Internet with links to the malware,” says Dmitri Alperovitch, principal research scientist for Secure Computing.

A Google search on Tuesday afternoon located 71 sites containing the link, including message boards hosted by the Salt Lake Tribune and a site about Australian pythons and snakes.

Clicking on the link causes the virus to be downloaded to the user’s computer. “It turns you into a zombie. Your computer is now under full control under the criminal that is in control of this bot-net,” Alperovitch says.


To view the full article, click on the link listed at top.

Trusting those kids love of learning...

Someone came up with some great questions in the comments section and instead of posting it there, I decided to respond here. I get asked these questions a lot and I'm sure some of you are wondering the same things. So I'll just get to it... (and thanks Mrs. Pivec!) Her original questions are indented below.

How have you learned to trust the process of unschooling? I don't mean in their younger years, because I have already seen - and your current post attests to - the natural desire of little ones to absorb and want to learn, learn, learn. But my hesitations come as they enter their teen years. I would assume they know the basics, but then, perhaps they will be distracted with other interests beyond secondary level learning.

In their early years, the proof has been in the puddin' for me and Hubby. We see the natural learning happening and we see their desire to keep learning. Hubby and I were just talking this morning about Matthew's reading skills. More and more, he's using language/words/phrases that *we* don't use. This morning, I was reminding him about something we were doing tomorrow and he said, "Oh, I thought that was the day after tomorrow. Apparently my mind isn't a steel trap mind!" Hubby and I looked at each other quizzically. Where did he pick that up? When I asked him, he ran to his room and grabbed a Wishbone book and explained how they used it in the Hunchdog of Notre Dame. lol

Most unschoolers will say that if their love of learning isn't quenched with time restraints or forced learning of things they aren't interested in, that the natural desire to learn will never dissipate. I hope that's true. But I'm a good realist, I think, and I realize that we may do everything the unschooling way and still have a kid(s) who loses the drive.

I'm curious as to what you mean when you say, "other interests beyond secondary level learning" - are you talking dating relationships or what if my son takes an interest in cars or Rose wants to spend all day painting her nails? I see these as great learning opportunities. I don't think anyone alive has "enough" relationship experience. LOL And if he gets interested in cars, he's still going to have to hone his skills in order to move on with his interest. She might end up being a beautician or painting her nails might turn into painting canvas...who knows?

I suppose unschooling is more about learning things to use as tools for your desired goal, where traditional schooling is more about learning facts that you might use one day (though I can't remember when I've needed to dissect a frog on the spot in my adult life. lol).

I am not one to be pushing or insisting my children go to college. I want them to have satisfying lives whatever that will mean for them. I think my greatest fear would be that if they did want to go to college and I had not prepared them, they would resent me - and maybe my husband would too. Basically, I wouldn't want it to be "my fault," KWIM? At the same time, I do feel that if the girls had a strong interest in something offered at the University and they had to take a basic course in order to do it, they would likely do it. Of course, then we'd all have to be paying for it! I know these are "what if's," but those are the things that get me. I know these are "what if's," but those are the things that get me. I feel like I have the boy scout motto marching around in my head, "BE PREPARED."

We do have plans for the kids to attend college. It will be their choice, of course, but we do already have college savings plans started for each of them...and are paying into them with each paycheck. So we do expect that they will want to (though if they don't, we got the kind of plan that you can gift to another family member so we're not stuck having given money we can't use). This might be a rosy picture of the future but when the kids are teens, I see us really honing in on their interests. We will have a good understanding of what they're really interested in. I suspect Matthew will be sciency and Rose is showing quite an aptitude in art and math...though I know these things will grow and change over time. But by their teen years, I suspect we'll have a good understanding of at least the wide field of interest and can go from there. At that point, we'll start talking about higher education and making plans if they want to attend college. And, as with any tool, if they need to know Calculus before getting to college in order to study their subject, we'll dive into it (and I say 'we' because I'm not sure what that even is except it has something to do with higher math. lol). Perhaps they will want to take some local community college classes before they actually attend a college - great! The point is, if they're really interested in the subject, why wouldn't they want to learn more about it?

I know there could be kinks in the plan and, as with all things regarding parenting, we'll just have to take them as they come. My big picture at this point in their lives is helping them enjoy learning and explore their interests. More than that, I can't really speak to since I haven't traveled the road yet. But hopefully this has given you a better idea of my directional hopes for them.

Thanks for the great questions!! :)

As a side note, the kids and I are going on a road trip to visit our favorite family members in one last hurrah before the new baby leaves us a little tied-down! We're leaving tomorrow and won't be back until Thursday so it might be a while before you see another post from me. But hopefully we'll have lots of tales to regale you with. LOL Have a great weekend & week!!

But what about math?

Rose: Mommy, what is four plus four?
me (barely conscious and wishing she would let me sleep in a little later): mmmmm
Rose: 1, 2, 3, 4 [pause] 5, 6, 7, 8 - Eight!!! Four plus four is eight!

I gotta tell ya, that woke me up quickly. Rose just turned four years old last week. My eyes were closed and I can't tell you for sure if she used four fingers and added them twice but I think that's what she did. Voila - multiplication. lol

She's also highly musically inclined and Hubby pointed out that with the pause in the middle of her adding, she could have been rhythmically adding.

******************
Rose: Matthew, are you still hoping the baby is a boy?
Matthew: No, I hope it's a girl.
Rose: Why?
Matthew: Because then on Boys Night Out, I don't have to worry about anyone else hogging Daddy!

It's a girl!!

And did you see??? One of the three names they've selected as "possibles" is Jade!! Now, is that awesome or what? :) After all, an Asian elephant should be named Jade over Emmy and Hana, don't you think? LOL

Rose's Birthday pics!

Rose isn't much of a smiler for the camera. When I asked her about it this morning, she said she was too tired that day to smile. I know the feeling. ;)



A new stuffed MEERKAT, who she has named "Mozart, when she was a baby".



When she got this boxed set of plastic horses, she actually hugged the box. Awww..



These are the cupcakes I made for her party. I have to send a big thank you to my friend, Stacey (check out her hilarious blog about mothering young kids), who does tons of cake decorating and always sends me great ideas to help my last-minute projects.



All in all, a greatly successful party!

More Meerkats

Rose: And Mommy, I need more stuffed meerkats because they have BIG families!
Me: Yes they do.
Rose: And I can put them... [surveys her room]...in my red bucket. [pauses to think] But I need a lid for it because they like to go down in the ground in their burrow.
Me: Yeah. We can make a lid.
Rose: [still thinking] But how will they get out?? [answering her own question] Can we make a hole in the lid so they can get out?
Me: Sure.
Rose: Just like the hole that Flower makes for her family in the burrow!!

Duck, duck, goose, goose

After weeks of freezing cold temps and above average snow and ice, this week feels like spring. It's been really beautiful - high around 60, sunny, not too much wind - just my all-time perfect favorite weather. So, since the kids and I have been stuck inside, sick, for about 6 weeks, we decided to go to our fabulous St. Louis Zoo. It's huge and one of the last few free zoos in the country. We get a membership every year and go many times. I've lived here all my life and have had hundreds of trips to the zoo and yesterday, I can say without a doubt, was my very favorite day there ever.

Typically I don't like to take my very young crew downtown by myself. I usually invite another SAHM and her kids to go with us, if it's not the weekend when Hubby can go with us. But my usual gal isn't a homeschooler so school got in the way and for some reason, I decided to just go with the kids by myself. Worried that we might have to leave early because of my sciatica, I packed a picnic lunch and we headed off. I asked the kids which animals they were hoping to see the most. Rose immediately claimed "all the big cats", Matthew wanted to go to "the Herpetarium, so I can see my favorite animal, which are SNAKES!!!", and after asking several times, Jade said something that sounded like her word for "bear" so we went with that.

One of the biggest perks of homeschooling is that you don't have to jam in all the fun "summer stuff" into only 3 months when everyone else is trying to do the same. We had the zoo basically to ourselves. Both kids immediately grabbed a zoo map so they could help navigate (though I have the map in my head). First stop...the bears. Jade practiced saying 'beeeeeeeer' until I think I was calling them beers too. ;) We stopped to watch the polar bear sleeping and a zoo keeper came by, calling out to the bear, "Wha-cha doing? Sleeping, Hope??" She didn't twitch a muscle. The zoo keeper started to leave and I asked, "What did you say her name was?" "Hope" I mentioned that I guessed the warm snap of weather made the animals a little lethargic, as it had done me. She said Hope had been playing a lot this morning and then something that's never happened to me... "If you guys are going to be here for a bit, I'll see if I can get her to play." We heartily agreed and waited to see what she'd come up with. While the kids and I speculated about a water hose, she came around the walk-way with a hard plastic fluorescent ball, bouncing it hard to make the slap-slap-slap sound against the pavement. Hope heard THAT. She immediately jumped up and started to get excited. We watched her play with that ball for a long time. She even poked a hole in it pretty fast with her claw and when that filled up with water, she picked it up and held it with her front paws and drank out of it as if it were a coconut. Rose was absolutely enthralled watching Hope play and do somersaults in the water with that pink ball. All this activity had drawn a small crowd of moms with preschoolers. Matthew read the exhibit sign and saw that it said that polar bears are "nearly threatened" (their endangered status) because their ice caps are melting, 'possibly due to global warming'. He furrowed his eyebrows and said (rather loudly), "We just HAVE to figure out a way to stop global warming! We need to find more ways to use the sun, wind and water for energy and stop using all the machines that create pollution!" I immediately saw the mothers around me straining to see how old this very young voice was and then I felt 'the look'. That one that says I'm a crazed green-loving mother who drills this stuff into her kids heads. Nope. I admit, we do recycle what we can and we have, very briefly, discussed saving energy, pollution, etc. But what came out of his mouth was as much a shock to me as it was to them. We had a great small discussion on global warming and pollution. I find myself constantly asking him where he learned something and the answer usually comes with a shrug, "I don't remember". So I've tried to stop asking. I suppose the answer doesn't really matter but I find I'm curious where he picked it up from.

As we made our way down to see the rest of the bears, there was a man with a demonstration cart so we stopped to take a look. He had pelts of polar bear, grizzly and kodiac, as well as a bear skull. He gave us some information about the different pelts, the uses of their teeth and let us touch all of it. Rose liked being able to touch bear skin. Matthew, my texture-sensitive and germ-a-phobe kid wouldn't touch them. Rose got a very worried look on her face and asked, "Where did you get the bear skins?" The demonstrator explained that they got them off of bears that had died already. She was very relieved to hear that. He told us that the black bears are actually expecting, something that hasn't happened in a very long time at our zoo. And he showed us a stuffed bear about the size of a TY beanie and said that was the size of a newborn bear. He mentioned that bears go into hibernation, sleep through labor and wake up with a newborn baby bear next to them. We already knew this but I patted my 7 month preggo belly and asked him to sign me up for that deal anyway. ;)

We moseyed our way through the outdoor ape section (where there were no apes - I suppose it was still too cool for them to be outside). In the concrete walkway, the zoo had made animal tracks and foliage impressions before the concrete dried and the kids and I had a fun time trying to determine which animal made each track. Surprisingly, the hardest for them to figure out were the bird tracks. The only guess I got on what made that stick-like impression was that they were arrows pointing to the other tracks. ;) I made a mental note to point out the wood peckers feet next time we visit the bird house.

We stopped to look at the pond, full of geese. The pond had a small island in the middle, where all the snow had melted and there was dry land. Part of the pond was still frozen and part wasn't. We shivered when we saw the geese swimming around in the icy water. Rose saw a black swan and was disappointed there were no white ones like in The Ugly Duckling movie Grammy gave us. After a few minutes, we watched a group of geese climb up from the water onto the ice, sit down and try to take a nap. "Look at those silly geese!! Sitting on the cold ice instead of the dry warm island," I said. "Maybe that's why I call you guys 'silly gooses' sometimes because you're as silly as a goose sitting on ice."

We then met up with Hubby, who works not too far away. He met us there on his lunch break and we all had a nice lunch talking about what we'd seen so far. When I told him about the global warming discussion, Matthew piped in with, "You should read more about global warming in my Ranger Rick magazine, Daddy." Aha! I should have known it was that ol' raccoon. ;) I piped up that scientists don't even agree that global warming is actually happening but that some think it is. Matthew says very confidently, "Well, I believe it's happening because I trust myself and that's what I believe."

After saying farewell to Hubby, we headed to the herpetarium (funny...and sad...that this word is not in my browsers dictionary!). The lower level of the herpetarium is small and enclosed so I let Jade out of the stroller to run around a little since she'd mostly been in the stroller or a high chair so far. They have carpeted steps so small kids can get a better view and, silly me, I put her down on a step. Apparently she didn't realize this was a step and fell right off and banged into the stroller. She cut her lip and cried a bit but she was ok and soon was off trying out every single step in the place, as most 2yr olds would. We spent a very long time in the herpetarium - much longer than I've ever spent before. Matthew read most all of the signs and retold the information to us in his own words. Rose, with her eagle eyes, found most all of the animals that were tricky to find before the rest of us did. Jade was ecstatic that she could climb up and look in the windows just like the 'big kids'. I even learned a lot more about snakes and reptiles than I ever wanted to know, just following the kids around listening to them.

We were close to Big Cat Country so we kept climbing the "big hill" until we arrived. The first one we saw was the magnificent tiger. He was pacing around his paddock and even let out a few growls, much to Rose's delight. Most of the cats were basking in the sun on this warmer-than-usual day so we saw they pretty well but the neatest sight was the Amur leopard. He was just gorgeous and he's typically very hard to find in his habitat but on this day, he was pacing around too and we were close enough that I could touch his fur if I reached...not that I did. ;) He was also making noises and Rose was just mesmerized watching him. Rose was quite disappointed that the cheetahs weren't in this area. I explained that they were on the other side of the zoo by the elephants and the other Asian animals. The cheetahs are also typically very hard to spot - they like to hide away from the crowds and it was getting to be quite late in the afternoon. I asked her if we could look for them next time we came and she somewhat sadly agreed that was ok. We rounded the corner and got a quick biology lesson from the zebras (it IS almost spring, ya know).

So we'd seen all the animals the kids really wanted to see (except the cheetahs). But I suddenly said that I'd like to know if they have any meerkats. I guessed that if they were anywhere, they'd probably be in the Children's Zoo. If you've been reading my blog for any time, you know we just adore Meerkat Manor on Animal Planet and Rose's favorite gift for her birthday was a new stuffed meerkat, which she promptly named, "Mozart, when she was a baby".

Back at the bottom of the "big hill", we decided to ride the train. Being off-season, they only had one train running so we had about a 7-10 minute wait. Standing in lines of chain-link at the end of a long day will try the patience of almost any parent, as I was quick to notice around me. Fortunately Rose decided to entertain herself by going underneath the chains and declaring herself a duck. I said that she looked more like a silly goose. After a quick moment of pondering, Matthew quipped up, "Mom, this is a great day. You should blog about it. And I know what you should title it.... "Duck, duck, goose, goose". I think he was right on target. As a member, I get a number of Anywhere Passes. Zoo admission is free but a few sections require $2-4/person to enter such as the Children's Zoo, the train and the Sea Lion Show. Usually tickets are bought at the train station but there was no one in the booth. When we got ready to board, they just waved us on so we got to ride the train without using up any of our passes (something that typically happens off-season, I've noticed).

Matthew and Rose sat in the seat ahead of me and Jade. Jade was downright giddy about riding the train and could hardly contain herself. At the train stations we stopped at, we discussed that it was time to head home. Rush hour would be starting soon and the zoo closed at 5pm anyway. Rose said again that she wished she could see the cheetah but it's a long walk to get to them and she decided to be happy that she got to see all the other animals she wanted to see. As we came around a bend on the last leg of the train, there in all his beautiful glory sat a glorious cheetah, sprawled out in the sun, staring at the train as we passed. Rose and I couldn't have been even slightly happier. What a great ending!!

As we left the zoo, Matthew asked a worker if there were any meerkats in the zoo and he told us they were in the Children's Zoo. Matthew wanted to go back so that I could see the animal *I* wanted to see and I told him I was willing to wait until our next trip to seek them out. "We'll go on a meerkat hunt next trip," I told him.

The day just couldn't have been more beautiful. I don't even remember having to walk through ONE person's cigarette smoke, which is definitely a blessing, especially when pregnant.

On the way home, I wondered why this trip to the zoo was definitely at the top of my list. One reason was the special treatment we got because we came during off-season but I think the biggest reason was that I didn't rush the kids through. Typically when we go with other families or our own, we have an agenda...we want to see this animal and this one and eat lunch and these other two animals and walk past the rest and leave by this time and I seem to spend the day saying, "Come on, Matthew...Rose, we're leaving this exhibit now...etc." But on this day, I let the kids lead. I literally followed them around and didn't urge them on even once. When they wanted to spend 5 minutes searching for that lizard in the herpetarium that I thought didn't exist, I didn't rush them on. We stayed and searched for 5 minutes and found it. We even made it through the gift shop without anyone begging to buy something new. The kids weren't crabby, despite missing their naps; there were no tantrums about anything - it was just plain easy.

I think that's the draw to unschooling for me. When we (as in, Hubby and I) let our kids lead, it's just plain easier all around.