Enduring

Despite finding yet another leak in our house the latter part of this week was actually really fantastic. As I took a quick rest on the couch I noticed a brown spot on one of the ceiling tiles which led to a Saturday of house tasks for Nate...including a date with a very high ladder to fix the problem on the outside.

I was enjoying an eight mile run while my 'Mr. Fix it' husband was attending the leak. The only bad thing about running at the HS track...no available restrooms, and I had to pee SO bad the last three miles. I even thought of peeing in the grass but was fearful I would get caught and that is just what we need, LOL. 

So I kept on running to end my fourth week of training, which is going really well actually. The only downside I am finding to this is actually taking the time out of my Saturday for a 'long run'. Next Saturday I am doing a ten mile! Let's hope my bladder can go that long! 

I still haven't actually registered for the April 11th marathon in Dallas because I'm unsure if I should run one on a Sunday. What's one Sunday? I don't know. I definitely want to do this before we have another baby but the only choices around here are on Sundays. There are some half marathons on Saturdays. That is just not challenging enough for me though. Eh, I'm sure we will figure something out even if I make a trail from Bonham to Honey Grove.

That of course raises the issue of bathroom breaks. Where in the heck would I go 'potty' in the middle of the country? Yes of course I could squat but what if I got caught? Geez, so many things to think about.

With  the heater still not being fixed, a leaky roof and a window that Charly discovered leaking yesterday I'm still in pretty good spirits, which surprises even myself. These past few days have been delightful.

Friday morning a great friend brought over her boys to play with our girls and they had so much fun. It was great to hear all the kids giggling! They ate cinnamon popcorn, leftover junk food from the pinewood derby (sorry Beth) and some other yummy snacks while I read to myself. It's always nice to have these boys over, they are so kind.

And of course we couldn't have the Brooks' kids over without some art time.

I was inspired to clean after they left, imagine that, and ideas flowed through my head to rearrange things so the girls could have a little 'house' setup downstairs. 

Throughout the rest of the day I played sneaky spy with my camera to catch them being sweet to each other.

Enjoying the reading corner....

They made bunk beds out of the learning tower.....(check out the book Piper is reading, so funny!)

They stacked blocks in the hallway....

And rounded off a great day with a bubble bath.

Can you blame the cat for wanting to join?

Things are a work in progress at this house and it's nice when things start to come together. There are days when I wonder if the girls will ever get along and play together as friends. Friday and today are proof that those days are closer than I think.

Karate chops

Nate has been so helpful with helping me think of ways to get Charly some friends and we came up with a few things we want to take a try at.

Girl Scouts, T-ball, and Karate top our list.

Charly wants to do Karate but the place in Bonham is $75 a month, which technically isn't too bad considering you can come up to four times a week to practice with the instructor.

I will call some other places and price them. We are trying to cut back on costs not looking for new ones. Although I could justify a Karate charge over a $160 cell phone bill to nowhere, which BTW we canceled (only have the cells for emergency now).

We are waiting to hear from a local Girl Scout leader to get back to us about when and where to meet and the T-ball doesn't start until April I think.

For the time being I believe she will have to learn to be content with her Nephite friend, AKA Piper, LOL.

New Heights

The other day Piper let us in on her new discovery, something she has been trying to master for some time now.

The only problem...she can't get back down.

Charly was amused with the whole idea of her little sister climbing as high as she did. Heck we all were!

Thai it...you may like it?

Or not....While Charly was doing very well at chopstick handling, the rest of the gang was trying to figure out the very complicated menu and out of the ordinary service we were having at a  new restaurant.

Usually when we meet with my dad we will head to his house or this amazing Chinese place in Bandera,TX (Cowboy capitol), however since I had only a full day down in SA ,I convinced him to meet us in SA so we wouldn't have to be in the car for three hours a day before we would be driving back to HG.

(This was last weekend when I picked them up from my mom's house after hearing Nate may be going to Haiti. Yes, I'm a little behind on the blogging circuit.)

It was funny and strange meeting at a new gathering place. It was almost as if we had never been to any other restaurant in our lives. The food was different and I think both my dad and Rochelle were wishing we would have been at the China Bowl.

Rudy and I just kept looking at each other and shaking our heads at the constant questions. "What's this, what's that?". We certainly enjoyed our delicious Pad Thai. Don't know if I can say the same about everyone else though.

At least the girls had fun afterward in the breezeway.

Trying to organize them all into a Partridge Family picture was a little bit harder than anticipated...can you tell?

Rudy thought it would be funny to try and give my dad another heart attack by hanging his 'stunt devil' niece upside down. My poor dad was terrified.

Next time we will meet at our usual dive and eat our usual food, which is delicious, and have our unusually strange conversations.

I'm still waiting for you(Dad) to come up here so we can see what kind of great eateries we can find in these ole' parts. *Hint, hint*

Jan 26. 2010 The day in Campbell family history that NEVER happened

Can we all just agree to never bring this up again? Agreed? OK, read on.

It was a slip up on my part that I wish could be blamed on booze, LOL, and not my constant questioning of whether we were doing the right thing. We are indeed doing the right thing for her /our family by homeschooling.

But here are a couple of pictures  just as a reminder of "the day that never happened".

Dear Charly,

My most lovely, sweet, intelligent little girl, I forever hope we can remember this day with memories of ending it by laying in bed giggling about how silly the experience was for you/us.

Love,

Your sometimes crazy momma

You want me to sleep where?

Oh my gosh I just had the best ending to a very traumatic day for me. Charly went to HG school today for the very first and last time ever in history. Anyways waiting for her to be home and thinking all day how bad this decision was to let her try it out was torture. 

I just came downstairs after putting her to bed (we let her stay up until nine tonight) and we had the best chat ever. When I say best I mean epic!

She was close to being asleep and all of the sudden she starts talking about school today and  how they had a nap. She told the teacher she didn't have a blanket to lay on ( I wasn't told about nap time) and the teacher told her to just lay on the floor. Then Charly, while she is telling me the story, says this and throws her hands out....."What? you mean you don't have an extra towel or anything, the mat would have been softer than the floor!" Of course she goes on to tell me she thought this but obviously didn't say what she was thinking.

Story after story kept coming. During lunch she needed help with her drink I packed her, I guess she thought it was still a little frozen and she needed a new drink. An aide comes near her and asks if she needs help to which Charly replied...yes can I please have another drink?.....Uh, I can't help you with that.

What!??

Seriously the way Charly was describing it was just cracking me up, it was certainly a wonderful laugh fest to end our day.  We were laughing so hard about her school escapades that even Nate came up to check what we were up to.

So glad to put a pleasant cap on a day that I would otherwise wished never happened. Now I can say AGAIN with 100% certainty that we are doing the best thing for her by homeschooling. Thank goodness for that!

BTW have some mediocre pictures from this morning that I'd honestly rather not see ever again. Let's just pretend this day never happened OK? OK. LOL

Happens to the best of us right?

PS, when life gets back on track I will surely post some new pics and share some more stories.

To 'school' or not to 'school'

This is the question still looming over my head.  Right now I have moments where I just want to send Charly to school and she would be fine but then I start thinking about how the principal answered certain questions.

Like for example when I asked about how much parental involvement there was or could be for me and he replied...

     "The PTO isn't really active and there aren't opportunities for parents to help in classrooms because of confidentiality reasons and maybe if I made my voice heard to the teacher they would send me home with things that need to be cut out from laminate."

What!?

Or when he said they didn't really like the parents to be involved too much because it discourages kids from being independant. I am going to assume he is not educated on the benefits of attachment parenting.  Just a guess. Or the fact that when parents are involved and care what their children are learning it makes school an all around better place for everyone. Why are no other parents questioning this? Is it crazy to want to be involved in what my five year old will be doing? So strange.

I'm also thinking about why he would say I couldn't pick out a teacher I wanted for Charly when I know full and well that I do in fact have a choice. The underlying bullying really bothers me about public school. Like all of the sudden if you have a child there you are no longer in charge of them....sort of reminds me of another place I can think of *ahem* hospitals.

Lucky for me, I know my options so it doesn't intimidate me to stand up for myself/Charly.

Doesn't the obvious choice here seem to continue on with homeschooling and forget all the hoopla? A part of me is thinking I am crazy for even considering this place. I literally was shouting in my head on the way into the school to get the heck out of this place..."What are you doing here?'.

So for now I stand in limbo on the whole thing, but even as I read this back my head knows the obvious choice...but what my heart will say, that is the magic question.

Or is it the other way around?

New York, New York

As I ran today around my mom's neighborhood six times for my seven mile run I imagined myself in Central Park. I was thinking about how after my whole life of wanting to go to the Big Apple and being here in Texas instead I was OK.

I'm OK with the fact that I put my family first and I realize what is best for my husband and kids even if it means putting my wants aside.  This makes me feel really grateful actually.

I should probably back pedal a little bit to catch those up who have no idea what I am talking about.

Wednesday night Nate and I found out he would be going to Haiti for two to three months with the Guard. That was all we knew and still know. With one day to go before our 'girls getaway' to NY I decided that there was just no way I could be in NY when he left, if that were the case. There was no way Charly and Piper would not get the chance to see him off. That was a chance I just could not take. It seems to me that that would be the obvious thing to do.

New York will always be there.

So here I am still waiting. Waiting to find out when and if Nate is leaving. Tomorrow I'll be heading home to HG with the girls (who were supposed to be in SA until Wednesday) and hopefully get to spend a few days with him before he leaves.

As for the meeting with the Principal, I'll blog about that tomorrow. Maybe.

The Thinking chair....

Once upon a week ago a family got back from a most glorious place.

Back home, tired, hungry and did I mention tired from all the traveling?

The scene above is what happens when the Dining room table is full of everything but our dinner plates. At least we ate together right?  Charly and Piper's little green table was very cozy for us.

Don't you just love the matching hats?  If you look closely you will still notice Nate wearing the bracelet Charly made for him. So tender!

Afterward Piper decided that her wardrobe was just too plain so she removed her cloths and added some dish towels.

The Monday after we got back I got a false start for cleaning but only made it across the bottom floor of our house, it was a great cover-up for our dinner guests later, which turned into a Wii/Snuggie party.

Anja kicked but at boxing while Keith *ahem* made himself cozy in the pink Snuggie while reading a first grade level book. Classic.

Some great laughs and a terrific meal later and our fabulous guests had to venture home, not after I showed them a piece of pipe Nate replaced to our bathroom sink that we drink water out of when brushing our teeth. Nice right?

To me it looks like a dead finger....perhaps it is.

Things were slowly cruising along as I tried several times to unpack our clothes, which BTW are still unpacked, and then we came to Wednesday.....oh Wednesday, when it all came down and I can't believe I am even putting this on here.

Still seems so unreal to me.

I had to go to church for a Primary meeting that night. Half way through the meeting I got all choked up and felt the strong urge that Nate and I needed to consider sending Charly to Public school....in Honey Grove! What does this mean? Why? What!!!?? After everything I have learned about why we SHOULD home school and now to be prompted the complete opposite! I didn't get it then and I still don't get it now why I'm having these feelings but when God tells you to do something you do it!

So here I am still thinking, which I have actually had a lot of time to do this by myself with all the running I have been doing.

In order not to feel like this is a failure on my part I am thinking positively about all the things that could come of this. Like maybe perhaps there are families who could benefit from Charly's testimony whom we wouldn't come in contact through any other way. For whatever reason maybe she is needed there. I don't know.

I have an appt. set up with the school Principal this Thursday and depending on how I feel after that, I would like to sit in on a class with Charly for a whole day before we make any decisions. And of course Pray.

What if this is all just to make clear to me that homeschooling is just where we need to be? It could be to clear up any questions in our mind that we are doing the right thing, but what if it's not?

I have only allowed myself to think of the positive of this and focus on families I know who have great well rounded kids who go to public school. 

Maybe this is what we need, maybe this is what we need to get our scripture study on a more regular basis. I just don't know. But like I said earlier, only thinking on the positive.

I'm nervous and scared and just confused. So I just sit (not in the yellow chair) and ponder and wait. That is all I can do right now.

On another note, my running has been going extremely well, I have been faithful to the program and after only two and a half weeks of running I can already see improvement in my stride and endurance. Saturday evening in the light rain I ran six miles, nonstop! Never in my life have a I ever ran more than 2-3 at a time, so this is a pretty big thing for me.

There may be a tiny kink in the plan this weekend when I go to NY. I'm hoping I can find a running buddy to do my long run this weekend, a seven mile.  I will do my shorts back to back this week and if I just can't find a way to safely run my long then I will just make it up next week.

Wouldn't it be great to run in Central park? Oh I so want to!

With it being 60 degrees outside today Nate and I were playing with the camera and my little fish-eye converter (some inspiration from a fellow photographer Kelly) I really suck at making art out of 'things' but Nate is better at it...he just needs to learn how to change the settings on my camera. Someday, LOL. Nate took these below and I managed to get the yellow chair above.

*Just to throw this in and to make things clear, I in no way am downplaying the importance of homeschooling and I still believe that kids don't need public school to be socialized or educated so please, please, please consider that with any comments you may have.*

24 hours

The night before we left back home from Utah I met my SIL's at The Olive Garden for a most delicious dinner filled with laughter and some tears, *ahem* Courtney.

I always enjoy their company and it was awesome to finally get to see Ashley(above left), whom I love dearly!

For some reason the tables there were really high so I asked our waiter to fetch a phone book to sit on, boy did it help bring me up to the right level!

Yeah, you read that right...I was sitting on a phone book.

 

On our way to the airport the next morning we took some last minute pictures of the girls loving on Grandma and Grandpa, Great-Grandma too.

How could I have gone the whole trip without taking pictures like this??

I have enjoyed so much all the time I have spent with Nate's Grandma, she has taught me many things and I am so thankful for her infinite wisdom.

 

 

 

 

 

Piper showing Grandma her 'Hulk' hands..this cracks me up!

I'm still coming down from my Utah high. It was so wonderful to spend Christmas with all of our family there!

Spring Fever

In the midst of trying to unpack and stay warm there was a moment where I realized it was warmer outside than in the house and the sun was shining brilliantly in the sky.

The past few days have been glorious here in Texas with highs in the mid 50's. I am reminded of last year at this time me feeling the same excitement that spring is on our doorsteps. Dreams of luscious gardens roam through my head as the girls giggle and ran back and forth on the sidewalk.

I wish I had this scene on video, Piper was belly laughing the whole time while trying to ride tandem on the scooter!

Can't you just feel our warm Texas weather? The kitty has enjoyed it too, but unlucky for us she is crazy and frisky from it too...we all have scratches to prove it!

Earlier in the day I baked some bread and attempted to bake some cookies(they never rose up so they were flat and hard, perhaps my baking powder needs to be replaced) and while I was distracted with the cookies I had my back turned to Piper in the kitchen.

Not a good idea, but cute none the less.

I caught her red handed taking the fresh bread apart  with one hand, slicing with the other and stuffing her face. It was too cute to say anything so naturally I ran for the camera....she was pretty amused!

Charly had a sweet surprise for Nate when he got home and because he is such a good dad he wore it immediately and was still wearing it when he left the house this morning for work.

She loves him!

Just keep swimming.....

 Our homecoming this week was definitely not without obstacles. As you all know our heater went out before our trip to Utah and since they couldn't come out before we left they had a scheduled repair for this past friday. My mom, the girls and I were counting down the time when the heater man came. 9:15 and he was right on time, whew we would be warm soon....or so we thought.

I jumped for joy when after about 45 minutes he had the heat turned on only to be shut back down when it cut off and he came inside to inform us that there was a Carbon Monoxide leak on the unit and obviously he had to cut off gas/power to it. The very nice gentleman told us that it would be tuesday or wednesday before it would be fixed. Yikes, I thought to myself, four or five whole days without any heat?

Lucky for us we had a few helping hands willing to lend us some heaters to put throughout the house to warm us up (currently we are sleeping in the living room and shutting the bottom half off so we don't have to heat the whole house with space heaters).

On the way to go pick some heaters up from the Abbotts I got a call from the heating company informing me that the part needed to fix the heater ( a measley $100 piece of plastic) is on backorder and won't be available for two weeks!

Luckily a Snuggie party was in order at Dee's house to warm us up, chili, movie, popcorn and all. Charly even got her Snuggie embroidered and to my shock there was a Barbie pink one waiting for me when I got there, and PS...I did use it, LOL...Don't tell anyone though.

I have had quite the case of scrambled brains from this whole heating fiasco and today I have come to just accept what comes at us, whether it be frozen pipes (five so far), broken pipes, forgetting to set my alarm etc.....

Today also marks the end of my first week of marathon training(15 miles) I decided that it would be fine to do the long run today and let Charly come with me to ride her bike alongside throughout the whole five miles.

We walked to the HS and the plan was just to do 20 laps around the track so she could kind of do her own thing while I ran.

 'No wheels of any kind on track'- Read a sign just as we were entering the track. Crap.

Plan B:

Run with Charly along the five miles of HG streets, *sigh* I initially thought I would have to be stopping every five minutes but I was proven wrong.  Charly rode the entire hour I ran!

When she got tired towards the middle/end she kept telling her legs this.....

"I know you are tired and want to stop, but I know I can do this" then she proceeded to thank me for the encouragement and said it really meant a lot to her to say she was doing a great job. Charly even mentioned that one day she could run a marathon!

I was so proud of her for not giving up and it was such strength for me to see that. She was probably just trying to keep warm in this frigid weather we are having.

Nate told me a cute story about a conversation he had with Piper on the way to Wal-Mart to get some fuel for one of the heaters......

Piper in the car "Daddy...Nana's house?"

Nate "No we are in TX and Nana is in Utah"

Piper "la la la Treehouse, Temple la la snow...Great Grandma,  grandma, grandpa house?"

Nate " Did you enjoy the treehouse when you and I went?"

Piper "Oh yes, definitely yes"

Muah ha ha, isn't that such a Charly way of answering?  Nate later told me it was like having a conversation with Charly.  So glad he told me about it!

Oh and to all the family in Utah- I haven't loaded all of the pictures from our last couple of days, but plan to very soon, promise!

We miss you all!

Run, run, run

As I was running today (day 2 of my official marathon training) all I kept thinking was how powerful my body was and that I was not dying, LOL. I am drawing so much strength from memories of labor and how intense it is and how at times you feel like you can't do it any longer, but then you push past the pain and at the end are so glad you did.

To me this marathon is like a baby, only instead of a sweet smelling infant, I will get a huge burst of empowering confidence at the end. I can't wait.

Yesterday I only ran 2 miles, today I ran 4 and my legs are feeling the burn, which I love! I plan on doing 14 miles this week and adding a mile each week until the actual run in April.

While I was listening to my music this morning I had a memory from middle school pop into my head. I recalled nights before a soccer game my dad always made me spaghetti or something very pasta like so I would have energy for the next day....Dad, how about coming to make me some fettuccini April 10th?

Has anyone seen Rudolph? No, not my brother...the reindeer

In an attempt to try absolutely everything Utah has to offer Nate took the girls and I to Hardware Ranch this morning to meet up with his cousin Summer, her boyfriend and their kids.
Hardware Ranch is a giant area up in the mountains where, during the winter, elk gather and eat while you watch them from a sleigh.

Now for those who know me, I am the complete opposite of Nate as far as animal trivia.  I was describing where we were going to Charly and told her that perhaps she could spot Rudolph in the pack.

Rudolph is a reindeer....Thankfully Charly didn't catch my mistake.

Don't judge me.

She seemed just jolly regardless of the missing sighting, besides there were bear hides, telescopes and stuffed cats in the waiting area.

 

With the smell of horse poop in the air we were ready for our journey into Nate's dream job location Cache Valley to get our fill of  all the elk we can eat...err I mean see.

 

We saw a whole lot of elk eating, and lots and lots of elk butts and elk raisins, AKA poop. Charly called out to me in the middle of the ride that they looked like grapes, so funny!

Piper got cold and hopped up in Summer's lap midway through the ride.

Smart choice.

She had a blanket.

We saw so many beautiful sights on our drive up there and kept discussing dreams of coming back here someday for a Forest Service job in a 'real' forest.

Charly entertained herself by making up songs (she is always singing) the whole drive out of the canyon while Piper kept suggesting, in not so friendly tones,  to 'stop singing'.

I wanted to stop so many times and play with my different lenses to capture what beauty my eyes were seeing...the snow on the shoulders limited when we could do that. We certainly didn't want to get stuck in the middle of paradise, that would just be awful.

 

While we were out we also thought we would check off 'walking on a frozen lake' from our bucket list, although Nate has already done that.

He is very seasoned, what can I say.

Lucky for me, we now have proof that we walked on water...frozen water at least.

Too bad I forgot my fishing pole, ice drill, and ice house. It would have been nice to actually perch on the ice for hours waiting for a bite on the line and then to eat the scrumptious fish....wait a minute, I don't eat fish.

Eh, there is always Sweedish fish, I love those!

A little penguin buddy was waiting for us on the ice. Some sweet little child must have known we would need an ice creature to cheer us on while we risked our lives walking on 12" thick ice...whew!

Check out how deep the snow on the shore was....

We also drove by the Logan temple and while I was photographing the beauty Nate was teaching Piper how to throw snowballs barefoot with no jacket(per her request). Yup, she is officially a Utain(sp).

Days like today and every other day we have been here make Honey Grove feel like a speckle in our imagination, like the past year has all been a dream....a good dream, but a dream none the less.

I can't believe we are leaving in only four days. Three weeks has not been enough time to show our appreciation to all the people and things here.