Jonah and the Great Fish

We started a new weekly project of acting out one Bible story each Sunday for daddy. So today was our first Bible story and we did Jonah. I hope you enjoy.

Drumroll please . . . and the winner is . . .

I would like to annouce who won my First Blog Contest. Jacque Dixon won both the book and T-shirt! Please check out her blog and say congrats!

Thanks to everyone who participated. I really had fun and hope to have another contest.

Clean Your Room!!!

I'm gonna solicite help from my few readers. I am a homeschooling mom, who really does love the fact that I homeschool. I know kids will be kids. I know that there are many things that I need to change about myself as a mother. But what I need help with today is the daunting task of cleaning their room. On a daily basis their room looks like a bomb went off in there. This is regardless of its condition in the morning. I have limited their toys to one bucket and a tub of trains. Each child has their own shoe tub, closet space and two drawers. Organization is not lacking - it is there and easily accessible. I just can't seem to teach them how to keep clothes in the drawer, shoes in the tubs, and toys in the bucket. I even printed out a chart of how to clean your room with pictures, had it laminated and hung it in their room! I want my kids to learn how to take a task and break it down into smaller jobs. I want my kids to grow up and be able to take care of their belongings. I would love to hear ideas on how to encourage the kids to want to clean their room. Standing over them for several hours is not my idea of a good day. They have cleaned their room enough times to know how to do it. It is the "want to" that is missing. Grandma? I know you are reading this. Got any ideas??

The two pictures are after "cleaning" their room for 2 hours. I'm so frustrated.

Free Vacuum Cleaner!

Every mom needs a good vacuum cleaner - including me! So I entered in this contest at 5 Minutes for Mom for a pink vacuum cleaner. Go check it out!

Contest Reminder

I wanted to remind everyone that my contest ends Tuesday evening. So spread the word and sign up to win a free book and T-shirt! Click on the link below for details.

http://felipsha.blogspot.com/2007/08/my-first-blog-contest.html

Back in AL

We made it back to AL this morning at 5:30! Boy were we tired. We unloaded the truck and that was all we did today. Tomorrow I will have to get off my butt and get some work done before the week starts. Here are some pictures of our trip.


Here is our first flat tire on the way to Texas.



First state line: Mississippi.



Second state line: Lousiana.


Katy enjoying camping. She was such a trooper. She rode well in the car and here she chose a comfy spot to rest in the 5th wheel.



And finally made it to Texas!!!! Colby's first thought as we crossed the border was that we could go to HEB now - we were in Texas. What a kid!

Our Road Trip

Well we made it to Texas! It was a bumpy ride, but we made it. Let me tell you our adventures.

Our trip started out with a good laugh. We pulled out about 8:00 Sunday morning. My husband had used our map program and decided to cut across to the freeway. That didn't work so well and we ended up back in the town we started in! So in an attempt to try it again we thought we would go the route we knew well. Half-way to the next town, I discovered that my thoughtful husband had turned off the electricity to the house. Oh no! My fridge!! So we turned around and headed back to the house. So at 10:00 we are back on the road.

But lo and behold, less than an hour down the road we have our first flat tire. So my capable husband quickly changes the tire and we head for the first Wal-Mart for a new tire. A bunch of money later and we are back on the road. Around 5:00 we made it across the state line and entered Mississippi, so we started looking for a place to camp. We found a nice, shady place with a swimming pool! The rv park said they were modem capable, but my computer didn't have a dial-up service so no internet. This might have been a minor detail, but my homework was due that night via internet. AHHH! I went to bed with the hope that I could email my professor the next day.

The next morning we headed out for Lousiana with the hopes of reaching Texas, our beloved state! 70 miles from the Texas border the A/C clutch went out on the truck, melting the serpentine belt. God was watching over us, because the next exit was a rest area and the belt didn't actually break until my husband brought the truck to a stop. My husband called a local auto parts store and had parts delivered. He is so handy - he had that truck back on the road in about an hour! But alas it is now 6:00 and time to find a camping spot. We almost made it to Texas, but not quite.

We pulled into the first rv park, and although it was a bare spot in the road, they had wireless internet!!! I got my homework turned in and I rested better. We pulled out at 8:00 and before we reached the state line we had another flat tire. My husband changed that tire with speeding 18 wheelers flying past. We stopped at the Texas state line a few miles down the road. Oh the feeling of coming home!

By 3:00 we made it to Isaiah's Place - one of our favorite places in Texas! Ahhh! Next we will head to our hometown for a visit and then bravely face the return trip home.

Contest for a year subscription to TOS!

I love this magazine. It is a homeschool convention wrapped up in a magazine and shipped to my mailbox! Alligirl is giving away a one-year subscription in honor of her two-year anniversary of blogging. Check it out!

The Mule Pull

Wow! This was so cool! On Labor Day every year a little town (pop. 800) hosts a mule pull. Thousands of people gather around to watch as these huge mules and draft horses pull incredible amounts of weight. I would love to share this with all of you because it was so cool. Words can't explain it, so I will let the pictures and the video do the talking.

This video is of the draft horses pulling. This was only a little over 5000 lbs for a team of horses that weighed about 4000 lbs. They got up to 7900 lbs!

Here is a picture of how big these mules were:

Here is a good shot of the draft horses:

And of course we had fun too! Here is a picture of the local culture:

And Tobie getting to ride a paint (my girls are dreaming of owning a black and white paint, so this was very special):

Happy Birthday Jeff Cook!

Recently we had the privelage of attending the birthday party of Jeff Cook here in Alabama. Who is Jeff Cook? Well for all of you non-die-hard-Alabama fans (the band not the state), Jeff Cook is the fiddle player from the group. I attached a picture of us sitting around the table waiting for the festivities to start.

What a night! It all started when we went to pick up our tickets, they had been sold to someone else! Jeremiah's boss had bought VIP ($50) tickets, but now all those tables were full! So to make it up to us, he sent us home with Band ($100) tickets. We were excited! We were supposed to have better seats and a waitress. We show up only to discover they shoved us off to the side and the waitress didn't know they were supposed to wait on us. The table sat at a horrible slant and was under trees instead of under the tent. We tried to make the best of it . . . until is starting raining.

Here in Alabama it doesn't just rain, it storms. You can be sitting outside enjoying the breeze and then all of sudden a thunder storm is on top of you and you are soaked before you can reach cover! So we are sitting at our crooked table and trying to get comfortable, when it starts to sprinkle. We all look at each other and think "Oh no!" We grab our belongings and run for cover. We were only about 6 feet from the tent, but we still got wet! Now this storm starts to blow and within minutes the top of the tent is filling with water. Men were taking folding chairs and pushing the water out of the tent to prevent the topple of the tent. We are having to all huddle in the middle of this tent because out here we get side-ways rain. The band had covered all their equipment, but because of the wind they were having to hold the tarps down. Then a part of the trellis fencing fell down. It was looking bleak.

We had ordered the fancy cruisine that a $100 ticket affords (a BBQ sandwich), but they informed us that they were not cooking anymore. Jeremiah and I decided to run into the building and see if we could get some food. Now to get into the building we had to run all the way around, so by the time we arrived at the front door we were soaked. Then the bouncer had the audacity to tell us he was supposed to charge us the cover charge to get in! He didn't. We found a place to stand inside because there were no more chairs. We finally found a waitress that was willing to help us order some food, only to find out it would be an hour before we could eat! Now for a hypoglycemic who has not eaten in several hours - I'm getting mad!

We took off for the local chicken eatery. We ordered our food in "to go" boxes and brought it back to the bar. The rain had stopped and the band was now in full swing again. I sat down and enjoyed my meal. The band was good, but very loud. And we did have fun despite all the problems. But I will never go back to that bar!

Added note: I learned that this bar is now closed due to a fire that happened about three days after the party. Oops!

Frontier Freedom Magazine Is Ready!

I wanted to share with my friends and family about Froniter Freedom Online Magazine. I am the homeschool contributing writer for the magazine and really enjoy the content of the magazine. There is also an extensive forum available for discussions on anything pertaining to homesteading.

Check it out at www.frontierfreedom.com.