Homeschooling myths

Being a homeschooling family means I am very organized and patient and have it all together, right?

WRONG!!!

I am naturally a messy and lazy person.  I am very organized....in my head.  But applying that ideal plan to reality is almost always impossible.  I never account for how tired I will be, how long it will take to do some things, that children will not follow every guideline exactly how I imagine, or for unexpected distractions.  I try.  I really do try.  But, often, I feel like a miserable failure.

Growing up, I shared a room with 1 of my sisters.  Most of the time it was with my older sister.  She is the perfect first-born with every first-born quality.  I am the second-born.  My sister hated that I left a mess in our room.  My line of thinking was....if I'm just going to wear the clothes, why bother putting them away?  Same with making my bed.  I was/am comfortable with my messes.  I know what's there and how to find what I need when I need it.  It's when somebody moves something from my messes that drives me crazy because then I don't know where anything is!

 I was born 2 weeks after my due date.  It's no surprise to me that I was born so late.  When I'm comfortable, I like to stay put.  It takes great effort to move out of my spot.

My mom struggled with me because I guess I was the strong-willed child.  Whaaaaat? That one does surprise me a bit.  I have very few strong opinions.  Mostly because I don't have enough knowledge about some subjects to develop my own opinion.  I'm very much a follower.  However, when I do have an opinion, I'm very firm on it.  I guess I am strong-willed in a way because I have little self discipline when it comes to doing things I don't like.  I will do it when I feel like doing it.  I can pretty always find something else to do in order to procrastinate what I should be doing.  Unless I absolutely have to, I probably won't do something that I don't enjoy.

All of that makes homeschooling all the more challenging.  I was never great at keeping our house clean.  Even before children, it was very difficult for me.  My college dorm room, which I had all to myself, was always a mess except on inspection days or open dorms.  Like I said, I am comfortable with my own mess.  However, when I had to start picking up after other people, that's when it just became too much for me to handle. I absolutely HATE cleaning up someone else's mess.  It is often too overwhelming for me to even start.  So, with that struggle constantly hanging over my head, I decided my life just wasn't busy enough.  I'm sure most of you have heard the story of how I got started in homeschooling.  I was one of those people that said, "I will never homeschool.  I don't have the patience to homeschool.  There's no way I will be able to teach my strong-willed second-born daughter.  I couldn't do it.  It's great that others can; it's just not for me."  K and I often butted heads.  She's like me in many many ways.  One exception is the fact that she is a leader.  Although it's great for her, it can also make her strong-willed nature more difficult to deal with.   I didn't think we could be in the same room all day without killing each other.  I have a bit of  a short temper (it's a lot better than it used to be!).  I didn't think I could handle having my kids with me all. day. long. every. single. day.  Obviously, God lead me in a different direction than what I had planned and here I am in my 5th year of homeschooling.  Every time I hear someone say things like I had said, I just laugh.  Not out loud of course.  But I just think, "Yep, I used to say that.  You  never know."

Let's just think about what many people see as the typical homeschooling family:

Home made clothes.  Yeah, like I can sew.  I'm not sure if I can even sew on a button, even though my mom has shown me multiple times.

Healthy meals made from scratch.  I might do more cooking than some people, but sometimes I go for the fast, easy convenience foods because who has time to cook that much?!?!  I try to make sure my kids have fruits and veggies everyday.  Try.  Doesn't always happen.

Organized place to do school.  The first week of school, yes.  After that, it's more like find the cleanest room and get to work.

Always ready for company.  Not even close.  If you came by my house, I would do whatever I needed to do to keep you on the porch and not be able to see the horrendous mess inside.  And if you ever walked into my kitchen, you will never want to eat here.  This is where my laziness, tiredness, procrastination really kicks in.  I come up with a new plan every 3 months or so.  It works great in my head, but never in reality.  I do honestly become extremely tired by 2:00 no matter what I've been doing, how long I've been up, or how much sleep I've had.  By 2:00 I'm searching for some caffeine or a way to nap.  Getting anything done after that is not very likely.  If the caffeine works, then there's hope.

Well behaved children.  Ok, according to outsiders, they are generally well behaved.  However, grocery shopping trips can be a nightmare.  Or having a daughter who is almost exactly like me - excuses not to work, laziness, procrastination skills....and she plays to my sympathies.  If I'm feeling tired, she plays the "I'm too tired" card, and by 2:00, I'm too tired to enforce any rules.  My "care-o-meter" is nearly zero.  (Thanks, Amanda, for the term care-o-meter.)

Always quiet in church.  This makes me laugh.  We might be the loudest homeschooling family in our church.  This is one of the reasons why we sit in the back.  And my kids aren't even that young.  Ok, they're not so loud any more, but they can still be distracting....or be very distracted themselves.  My youngest usually has books or puzzles.  She likes to show us what she's doing or asks how to spell something.  My older 2, I'm working to make sure they are listening.  That's been a battle that has lasted a few years.  I finally told my older daughter that she is not allowed to sit with friends until she can sit and listen every week.  She thought after 2 weeks, she would be able to return to her friends.  Nope.  I told her I wanted her to sit and listen for a year.  Then, I could probably trust her to do the same while sitting with friends.  J generally doesn't have the opportunity to sit with friends, but keeping him from using his ipod for things other than his Bible has been the issue lately.

Of course homeschooling is not the easy choice.  How can I possibly keep up with dishes, meals, errands, house cleaning, laundry, and now a kid in public school, as well as church activities and running my own 31 business and still teach my girls at home?  By the grace of God.  Some days things get missed.  Some days I am just too tired to do it.  Some days the girls are uncooperative and I spend more time and energy on discipline that anything else.  Some days just don't go as planned.  But, when I give each day to God and let Him guide me through the day He's already planned for me, I can handle anything.

Some people might not understand why I am the way I am.  God does.  He understands that sometimes, I am just too tired to keep going.  He understands that sometimes, I have other priorities.  He understands that sometimes, I do fail.  That's why I have peace.  I let God take my days.  If I were to attempt my to-do list everyday only to never complete it because other things got in the way, I would drive myself crazy...probably into a deep depression...because I could never live up to my own standards.  But God gives me grace.  God knows my weaknesses better than anyone.  I am so thankful that the only person I have to worry about pleasing is God.

Kansas State Fair

We finally made it back to the Kansas State Fair this year.  The last time we went, it was 2010.  And we came home with this:

This was Sally, the bunny we bought K at the state fair.  She passed away over Thanksgiving weekend in 2011.  It was heart-breaking.

Although we had intended to return to the fair, particularly to buy a bunny for J the following year, it just didn't happen.  And with Sally's tragic demise, we never returned to buy a bunny again.  Especially since we now have a dog - a dog who is slightly bigger than Sally.  :)

We decided it was about time we made another trip to the state fair.  I have never been a fan of going to the fair.  It always resulted in exhaustion and pain because I always ended up with blisters on my feet to the point that walking was just plain agonizing.  Seth, however, grew up going to the fair and he looked forward to it every year.  And the kids do enjoy it.

Since Little A was only 3 years old the last time we went, she didn't have any memory of being there so it was all new to her.  She excitedly went running into the animal sheds and lead us all down aisles of hens, pigeons, sheep, pigs....she was seeing it all for the first time in her mind.

As we walked through the bunny aisles, I held K's hand.  We spotted a couple of Sally-look-alikes.  I was fearful that K would become emotional as we remembered picking Sally out and taking her home.  She was surprisingly fine.  I, however, had to ignore that lump in my throat.  She was a sweet little bunny.

After we had seen all the animals we could see, we looked around at art, crafts, produce, etc.  And, of course, we checked out all of the vendors.

We used to have a stroller or even a wagon with us.  It was great to put in all the stuff we left the fair with.  But this year, we chose not to bring the wagon and our kids are all too big for a stroller.  So, I had the girls bring their cinch sacs from 31 and I brought a new 31 purse and another cinch sac.  Throughout the day, we all stuffed our bags.  We ended up getting out the 3rd cinch sac to put more stuff in.  But, we actually survived without the wagon!

Of course, the kids love the rides.  They each got 22 tickets and off they went.  Little A and Seth hung out around the younger kids' rides while the older 2 and I enjoyed the bigger rides.  Well, I didn't actually get to ride, but it was sure fun watching them!

We all went on the giant slide together.  That was fun!  We also enjoyed a train ride and the sky ride as we headed back to the parking lot.  But not before we enjoyed some fair food!  I had a pulled pork sundae that included mashed potatoes, gravy, and cheese.  We always get roasted corn on the cob and the kids shared a large bag of cotton candy.  I also tried a deep fried snickers.  It's not as good as it sounds.  Unless it sounds gross to you, then I would say it was much tastier.  Let's just put it this way:  I would eat it again if offered for free, but I would chose a regular Snickers over it deep fried anyday.

How about some pics of the day?

With J in school, we had to actually try to leave by a certain time.  We left a half later than we wanted to.  I was able to walk to the car without limping because for the first time ever (I think), I did not get blisters at the fair!  It was a fun, but still exhausting day!  I'm glad we got to go.  I think going every 3 years is good.  Now to get Seth on board with that idea...

Back to school

You know how you think you're going to be sitting around all summer with plenty of time on your hands, so you plan to do a big project or two, but when summer actually hits, you have less time than you did during the schoolyear?

Yep, that was me!  Now that we've started school, I realize that none of my hopeful projects were even touched.  I can't believe how busy our summer was, but it was a great summer!  Now, school has started for all 3 of my  kiddos.  J is now going to public middle school and I will continue to homeschool the girls.

J has completed 2 1/2 weeks of school already.  He is enjoying it although the early morning as been a difficult adjustment for both of us.

All 6th graders had orientation the day before school officially started.  It was only a half day.

Since we started homeschooling, I always had in my mind that I wanted to put the kids back in public school by the time they were in middle school or high school.  I enjoyed all the extra-curricular activites when I was in school and I want my kids to have those opportunities as well.  It didn't hit me until January that J would be in 6th grade this fall, meaning middle school.  So, with a lot of praying and researching, we took that leap of faith and put him in public school. We chose 6th grade instead of 9th because everyone in 6th grade is new to the whole different classes and lockers and moving around type of format. J wouldn't be the only one trying to figure it out.  I wanted to find a school that not only suited J, but the girls, also.  We found it.  And it's fairly close to where we live, too close for a bus in fact.  Which I'm finding to be a blessing to have to take him to school every morning.  Not only do I have one-on-one time with him every morning, it also starts my day earlier and I feel more accomplished by the end of it.  It is also the same school that I would go to pick up my neighbor's daughter on occasion so I was already somewhat familiar with it.  God lead and we followed.

The girls and I finished our first week of homeschooling.  Traditionally, I start the day after Labor Day.  But, when I received their first quarter of books and compared my normal calendar with J's school calendar, I realized we needed to start a week earlier.  I got a little protest from K, but I think it worked out for the best.  Little A couldn't wait to start so she grabbed her books and did page after page after page.  She already finished her first book in her Bible curriculum out of a total of 10 books.  She was the same way last year, but I couldn't keep up with her and homeschool the other 2 at the same time, so I forced her to slow down.  This year, I might be able to let her go as quickly as she wants to...even if it means buying her 2nd grade books later in the year.

Since K really struggles in school, we've been on a search for different curriculums for her.  This being our 5th year in homeschooling, we've tried a few different ones.  Last year, we tried ACE for science with both J and K.  It was perfect for K.  J will get along great with any curriculum.  We found that ACE told stories as it taught.  The answers stuck more easily than other subjects.  And she could repeat back to me things she was learning in science without being prompted to do so.  So, we switched everything to ACE this year, except for Bible.  At the homeschool conference in 2012, I went to a seminar on working with kids with a learning disability.  We had suspicians that K was slightly dyslexic so I thought I could get some good info.  And I did.  We worked hard on helping her connect what she was seeing to translate to what she needed to write down.  It was a difficult process where I had to work more closely with her than the other 2.  We also took her to see an eye doctor who diagnosed her with .... a big long word.... and prescribed glasses.  The glasses also added to the improvement in her schoolwork.  This year, she's wearing her glasses and using what she learned through the language curriculum we got from the seminar and she is doing much better with the ACE program.

Although K is making improvements, we will have to make a decision by March whether or not she is ready for public school and join J in middle school next year.  I have told her that I may have to hold her back a grade.  I'm not sure if she's quite ready to handle it yet since she needs specific teaching methods.  She is excited to go to middle school and participate in choir, orchestra, drama, and sports so she plans to work hard this year.  There is a mentoring/tutoring program offered by the school, so we can also take advantage of that if we feel she needs it.  That will just mean less extra activities for K.

But, one year at a time, is how we've handled our children's schooling.  We now have a 6th grader, 5th grader, and a 1st grader.  This is my 5th year in homeschooling. I would have never thought this would be my life right now and I really do enjoy it.  Life is so much easier when I let God take the reigns.

For my own memory log

Some things just need to be written down so I can remember it years later.  This is one of those things.

A few weeks ago, one of Seth's co-workers got baptised and invited our family to watch the event.  Seth knew this guy was making some serious changes in his life and he wanted to see what kind of church he found and what they believed.  It was a huge celebratory event complete with a family cook-out and swimming.

When we arrived, we were a little nervous.  This looked like a rough crowd.  What did they believe?  Do they attend church just for the sake of attending church or are they serious about being followers of Jesus?  Honestly, it was hard to not judge them.  I really really tried to not jump to conclusions because I knew I did not know their story and God knows their hearts.  I prayed for my own judgmental heart a lot while waiting around for supper!  With smoking, bikinis, and other things, it didn't look like a church group at all.

But, after we were done eating and we listend to a couple of guys sing praise songs, most of which I had never heard of, the pastor got up and gave a short devotion.  He explained how he was a drug addict and hit rock bottom.  He came to a point where he had to choose between killing himself or giving his life to Christ.  He chose Christ.  He went on to explain that baptism does not save a person.  Baptism is a symbol of what the Holy Spirit has already done in the believer.

Praise the Lord!  This guy seems to be biblically sound.

We all moved towards the pool and one by one, people got in.  The pastor talked about each person, then each of those people told everyone why they wanted to be baptised.  Then we prayed for each person and then they were eached baptised.  It was awesome.  We were watching people who have been trapped in some sort of sinful life and were now choosing to give that life up for Jesus.  This church was created just a couple of years ago to reach out to the addicts, alcholics, the "low lifes" that some people think would never get saved.  We were watching miracle after miracle as people outwardly expressed their inward change of going from death to life.

During the prayer for one of them, I felt the need to open my eyes.  I don't know if I heard something or what caused me to open my eyes at that moment.  But, I opened my eyes to see my 6-year-old struggle to reach the side of the pool.  She had accidentally slipped in and we weren't sitting by the shallow end where she could touch.  She can swim, but she can't keep her head above water when necessary.  I quickly grabbed her arms and helped her out.  She was safe, but it was a scary moment that only a few of us witnessed.  Praise the Lord for moving me to open my eyes during the prayer and for watching over her!

Anyway, we were overjoyed to watch Seth's co-worker show his faith in Jesus by getting baptised.  His wife also was baptised.  Although we didn't know any of these people, we knew we were connnected by the blood of Jesus.  These people who truly accepted Jesus as their Savior were our brothers and sisters.  Many of them still have a long road of recovery and overcoming temptations ahead of them.  They will need our prayers to keep their eyes on the Lord and not fall back into the lifestyles they were once dying in.

So, it wasn't your typical church group and it was a baptism unlike I had ever seen before.  But I'm glad we went.  I'm glad we could see believers who live outisde our own little bubble of what we think Christianity should look like.  We saw Jesus, real and living and changing lives.  Praise God for this church, for that pastor, and for saving people from all walks of life.  God is love and He does not want anyone to perish.

Baptism does NOT save.  Only by trusting Jesus as your Savior, believing that you cannot save yourself but God Himself came and took your punishment on the cross.  He rose again and is alive and He wants you to live with Him for eternity.  God has already done the work.  You just have to believe.

A bit of a jogging adventure

With school starting and J heading off to public school this year, I am trying to get back into a workout routine.  Last year I started doing the couch to 5K (C25K).  It's a training program to get couch potatoes up and running a 5K in....I forget how many weeks.  I got to week 4 but couldn't get past it.  Then life got busy and I quit.

This week I started it up again.  Since it had been several months, I decided I should probably start all the way at the beginning.  Today I ran Week 1 Day 3.

After I drop J off at school, I get home about 7:00 in the morning and have breakfast.  Then I do my workout, the C25K is designed for 3 days a week.  So, I put my running shoes on, grabbed my ipod, and off I went.  Since the girls are still home, I just run up and down the sidewalk in front of our house.  Last year I did my running around 4:00 in the afternoon or later.  Since I'm now running at 7:30 in the morning, I don't have as many people watching me.  hahaha

The street in front of our house curves around.  It starts out going east-west, but then turns into north-south.  So, I get very confused on what direction everything on my street is because I don't know at what point it goes from east to north.  So, I will just say our neighbor to the north is having the roof reshingled.  I typically turn around in driveways.  I avoid driveways with cars parked in the way of the sidewalk and I avoid low hanging branches.  I always turn around in our south neighbor's driveway due to branches.

As I'm running, the roofers moved their huge truck into the north neighbor's driveway.  That left me with our driveway and the south neighbor's driveway for turn around points and a very short distance in between.  At first I tried to lengthen it out by running around our van.  However, today of all days I parked too closely to the bricks that outline the flower area (which doesn't have flowers) right in front of our house.  I hopped over the bricks and then caught my shoe on the drain pipe.  One of the workers stopped to watch me get myself unstuck.  Then I tried circling our driveway behind the van and run back and forth to the south neighbors.  I felt like all I was doing was turning around and couldn't really get a good pace going.  So, I crossed the street.

I felt ok being on the other side of the street because Seth was home.  Otherwise, I would be afraid the girls wouldn't be able to find me if they needed something.  Although, they don't wake up until 8:00.   Many of the yards on the other side of the street are fenced in.  I wasn't sure where I would find a good turning point.  One neighbor's dog went crazy and barked at me all along the fence as I ran past their house.  Then I ran into a spider web.  I bet that looked hilarious as I ran/walked while trying to pull off the web from my face and arms.  I think the roofers got a pretty good show.  Yes, they did watch me a lot.

I was able to run almost the entire length of the sidewalk.  I turned around debating whether or not to run past the house with the web and dog again.  Then, I noticed the roofing truck was pulled all the way into the north neighbor's driveway and I had room to pass it again.  I crossed back over and finished my run while the roofers watched me run back and forth in front of them.

I'm sure it was more entertaining for the roofers than it was for me.  But I can still laugh because it certainly was not a typical run!  lol  The shower is calling me now.

The trip home

The Piearsons did their own thing on the way back to Iowa.  The rest of us stayed together the next 2 days.  Friday, August 2, we woke up to rain.  We had to pack the van, get ready to go, and left Bob and Lou's house around 9:30.  There were now 4 vehicles with 19 people traveling out of Massachusetts.  We drove in the rain for a little while, but I don't remember how long or how hard.  I had taken an energy shot in the morning because I knew I would have a hard time staying awake to drive.  I wasn't the only one struggling with tiredness.

We stopped for lunch.  I had a caffeinated drink with my food.  Then we hit the road again.

We drove through Connecticut and New York and into Pennsylvania.  By the time we stopped for a break in the afternoon, I was feeling dizzy and nauseated.  Or is it nauseous?  Sick.  I was feeling sick.  I don't know if I had too much caffeine or what, but I was in no position to drive.  I asked Seth if he could take over the driving.  Of course, he did.

We decided that setting up tents in the dark wasn't any fun and if we wanted to get back home by Sunday night, we had to travel long days.  So, we arrived at a hotel around 10:30.

We got up and left around 9:30 on Saturday, August 3.  I was feeling more like myself so I took the wheel again.  We drove through Ohio and entered Indiana.  We stopped in Greenfield for supper.  In case you do not know the significance of this, we are from Greenfield.  Greenfield, Iowa, of course, but it was fun to stop in Greenfield, Indiana.  :)  We continued on into Illinois and again, decided to stay in a hotel.  We arrived around 10:00, back in Central time zone!

Sunday, August 4, we had to say our goodbyes.  The Iowa group headed to Iowa and the Kansas group headed to Kansas.  Since we were packed and ready to go, we left around 9:00, not sure if we would meet up with the Robleses or not.

We decided that we could spare a little time and stopped at the St. Louis Arch shortly after entering Missouri.

It was about noon.  We stood in line as everyone had to go through security like J and I did for the USS Constitution in Boston.  Seth and I had both been there before, but we thought our kids would enjoy the extra stop.  After getting in, we saw the next trip up inside the arch was at 2:45.  Plus, we would have to wait in line to get tickets.  We didn't know how long the line for tickets would take nor how long the ride up would be.  It had been several years since either of us had been.  We simply just did not have the time.  We walked around the museum and then decided we needed to get back on the road.

Seth and the kids are sitting on a bench.

We kept in contact with Andy throughout the day.  They decided to not push themselves any more and stayed in Kansas City for the night.  It sounded nice, but we wanted to get home.

On to Kansas.  We drove through a little rain in Kansas City.  It wasn't heavy rain, but there was a lot of it.

We stopped in Emporia and enjoyed a nice sit-down meal.  No fast food, convenience store food, or picnics!  A real restaurant with real food.  I checked in with my Iowa family who had just arrived home and were unloading their vans.

Finally, we arrived home around 10:30.  We unloaded the van and crawled into bed.

It was a great vacation.

The End.

Just Beachy

We all needed a day to kinda take a break before we hit the road hard again.  So, Thursday, August 1, we enjoyed hanging out in Rockport.

We decided we wanted to do some souvenir shopping so we headed to the little shopping area of Rockport.  At first, we thought it would just be a few of us, but everyone wanted to go.  Once there, we all split up, doing our own thing.  I found my own lunch and then joined the group Little A was with for lunch.  After we finished eating, Little A and I took off to shop.

In the first store, Little A found herself a beautiful stuffed snow owl.  She's been an owl lover since she was little - before owls were the thing to have.  I enjoyed looking at different things in the stores, but nothing jumped out at me.  What I really wanted was a shirt, not a typical t-shirt, but a nice shirt that somehow expressed my vacation.

We had decided to meet at a certain place at 1:30 and the time was coming up way too fast.  I found the shirt I wanted, but the cashier was nowhere to be seen.  I waited a while, even jokingly said, "Ding!  Ding!" and peeked my head out the doorway to see if anyone was nearby watching the little shop.  Well, it was time to go, so I placed the shirt on the counter and headed to our meet-up place.

Once I got there, I saw that Seth and J were the only ones there.  In the meantime, I had been texting my sister-in-law about cookie cutters because she collects them and I found a huge section of cookie cutters.  Since we were the only ones there, we decided to go back and get last-minute items.  I bought the cookie cutters and then went back to the little shop where I had left the shirt.  The cashier had returned and apologized profusely for not being there.  Seth looked around but didn't see what he wanted.  We went back to the meeting point.  A few people needed more time so Seth joined them to get the shirt he wanted while the rest of us headed back to the parking lot.

Seth somehow lost his way after finding his shirt and he couldn't figure out where the rest of us were.  So, he just walked on and was nearly at Bob and Lou's house before I pulled over and picked him up.

It was finally beach time!

We changed into our swimsuits, grabbed towels and beach supplies, and headed to the beach to swim in the Atlantic ocean.

Most of the younger kids stayed on shore and played in the sand.  K, J, my niece and a couple of my nephews went out and enjoyed the waves with us adults.

J is headed out with his cousin.  K is still standing on shore.

Little A

After I had spent quite a bit of time swimming with the waves, I came back to the beach.  2 of my sisters are headed out for some ocean fun.

Aunt Lou plays with my niece.

Sara buries my nephews in the sand.

Another nephew digs in the sand.

Another nephew enjoys the waves.

Little A had started building her rock pile on the beach, but with the tide coming in, it's quickly going under water!  My niece is also enjoying the beach.

My sisters are out talking to my dad.

Mom relaxing on the beach.

I'm here too!  :)

K got buried, too!

It was certainly a blast.  K took a fun ride on a boogie board in the waves.  She was out having fun with us adults.  When she was ready to head back into shore, my dad caught a good wave, gave her a push, and off she went, riding the wave for quite a ways back to shore.

I went out 3 times, each time it was getting more and more difficult to go out and back in.  We finally decided it was time to head back to the house.  We had a special anniversary to celebrate!

For supper, we were given the option of having lobster.  I had never tried lobster before.  Several people decided to try it.

So, I tried my first lobster ever.  Andy helped me get the meat out of the shell.  It was good...but it was hard to ignore the fact I was breaking apart an animal to eat it.  I will have lobster again (in fact I already have), but not in this form.  It was certainly an unforgettable experience that I'm glad I got to do.  But I will never do it again!  Haha

Uncle Ron grilled up hamburgers for anyone who didn't have lobster, and for those of us still hungry after the lobster.

The guys all worked together to cranked the ice cream.

After we finished eating, it began to rain, so we headed inside to have cake and ice cream and celebrate Bob and Lou's anniversary.

Ron and June, Mom and Papa, and Bob and Lou all got married on August 13th.  All in different years.  Ron and June and my parents were married on a Friday (yes, Friday the 13th) and Bob and Lou on a Monday.  They try to celebrate together every year.  This year is Bob and Lou's 40th anniversary.

First, we presented them with cake.

It has become a tradition for us 4 Cannon sisters to write a parody for such occasions.  Well, it's usually Lisa or me who does the writing.  I had surgery.  Lisa had a baby.  I had an extremely busy month of June.  Lisa had surgery.  But, somehow, I found the time and asked Lisa for some help when I got stuck.  But, we got it finished and ready for the celebration.  We sang a Green Acres parody including where Bob and Lou met, their pets, and their wedding day.  They really enjoyed it.  Then K and her cousin came up with this funny little dance and performed it for them as well.

Happy 40th anniversary Bob and Lou!!  And happy anniversary to Mom and Papa, and Ron and June!!!

It was our last day in Rockport.  The Piearsons were going to leave the group in the morning and take their time returning home.  The rest of us wanted to get back by Sunday so we knew we had a couple of hard days of driving ahead.

Time to go home...