Time off for Christmas

Hey guys, I'm back, and I'm here to tell you all about our Christmas. It was awesome! Jeremy (my husband), took leave and it was great. His leave started on the 18th and today is his first day back at work. Having him home for all of that time was great, he organized the playroom and the livingroom. He also decorated and organized the boys' room. It was all his idea as well. His leave basically started with him saying "On my time off I would like to organize everything and finally decorate the boys' room." I normally don't ask him to clean or do any of this stuff when he is home, because he works a lot, and his job isn't the easiest, so when he's home, I let him relax. It also surprises me, when he takes his well earned off time, to help me out. I really wish now that I had taken before and after photos, because he did a great job. I really married an awesome guy. :)

Okay so organizing isn't all we did during his leave. We took the ferry to Seattle, and that was fun. Seattle is a nice city, it's one of the better kept ones. I'm not saying it's as beautiful and well kept as San Diego, but it's still pretty good (I may also be a bit partial to San Diego). We had a few errands to run in Seattle, because our Ipad broke, and Jeremy wanted to get a gift for himself at the Nike store. The ferry takes an hour, and that doesn't include waiting and docking time. It also takes and hour to drive to Seattle, so on our way back we just drove. The Apple store (in Seattle), was in this awesome shopping center near the college. While we were waiting to get our Ipad fixed (or in our case, replaced) we got cupcakes at this place called Trophy Cupcakes. They were awesome! I got eggnog (of course). I really like eggnog, and pretty much eggnog anything. I love to drink eggnog, I love to bake recipes with eggnog in them, and I love Bigelow's Eggnogg'n Tea. I was really sad the day after Christmas, because I couldn't find eggnog anywhere :(. I guess this eggnog season is over.

We also made a lot of great food, and baked a lot of cookies. We relaxed at home, and played video games. It was a blast! We told the kids that we would let them open their presents a day early if they beat us at poker... and they took us to the cleaners. It was us against them, and it was their first time playing. It was really Zachary who kept getting us, he has a really good poker face. Yes it's really embarasing, but I'm also kind of proud of him, so what can I do? I my head it like "Wow I was beaten by a 8 year old." but it's also like "Wow my son is an awesome poker player."

So yes we opened the presents on Christmas eve. We got them some lego sets, build your our robot sets, super hero dress up stuff (fairy dress up for Olivia), action figures (little people for Olivia), and books. They love to read. I was really happy and excited about the gifts we pick out this year. We also got snow on Christmas day! It didn't stay long, because the rain washed it away (yeah what a surprise). I'm so thankful for this time off, it was such a blessing. :)

Date night, found a new church, and I broke our Wii U

Hi again!

So I'm sure that you read the title and I'm sure I know which subject you are most interested to hear about, but I'm going to start with date night, and you'll have to wait to hear about the Wii U.

Date night!

Jeremy and I went on  a date! Can you believe it? I actually should have put this in my last post since it happened the day before Thanksgiving, but I just forgot to mention it. A few weeks ago, we hired a babysitter (YAY). We found her on sitter city, and we did an interview before hiring her. She is also a navy wife, but they don't have any kids yet, just a puppy. She was really nice and seemed up to the job. So yes on the 21st she came and watched the kids. Jeremy took me out to dinner, and the to the movies to watch Breaking Dawn Part 2. I loved the movie, it was awesome. I think it was the best out of all of the Twilight movies. This was also my first time going to a movie since we moved here. We went to the downtown theater, and it was really nice. When we came home, Sarah (our babysitter), was doing the dishes, and she said the kids were really good, and that she had a lot of fun. I think she's a keeper :). Jeremy and I are going to try to go out like that once a month (which would be super awesome). I loved the break and I just loved how I was able to sit in a theater with my husband, and enjoy a movie. A few hours of freedom can do wonders.




Okay so about the Wii U...

....

This happened on friday, which was a very hard day for me. Jeremy has been working like crazy, and he hasn't been coming home until 8pm, and this is after starting his work day at 6am. Also on top of that he is on 3 section duty, which means every third day he has duty, and has to stay on the boat over night. On Friday the kids (the boys mostly), were really rambunctious. They were bad, and just not listening, so I sent them to bed early (the boys anyways), which is something I hardly never do, and lately I've been letting them stay up later, so they could spend more time with their dad. I did it anyways, then settled down with Olivia to watch a movie (because she was really good that day). So Jeremy gets home, and shortly after we put Olivia down. Jeremy mentions that he wants to play Zombie U, so we go down stairs to do so. After about 10 mins, he's bored with it, and I ask if we can play Nintendo land, because I had not played that yet. So we do, and we are having so much fun... until... Jeremy hands me the gamepad controller, and in the process of handing it over I dropped it and it hits the corner of the coffee table. Now I thought it was alright, so I just picked it up, and was ready to play...

...

but... yeah this is what I saw...

Yeah... I was shocked... Really shocked... My mouth fell open, and it stayed like that for a few minutes. Then the crying came. I just broke the Wii, something my kids love dearly, and play often, and I'm the one who broke it. I didn't have to play. I could have just watched Jeremy, that would have been fine. I felt so bad, about the wii and even about sending them to bed early. What they did seemed so little compared to what I just did. How could I? Why wasn't I more careful? By this time Jeremy is already on the Internet researching the matter. "They don't sell that gamepad separately, and they are not going to anytime soon." Is what he told me. This made me cry more. Why wouldn't Nintendo sell it separately? Don't they know that accidents happen? So long story short, we ended up getting a new one, but note to self and anyone else out there, the gamepad screen can break easily. 

New Church

So I've been trying out Churches here, still trying to find one I like and one were I fit it. I don't know about you guys, but I find it really hard to fit in. I think a lot of people just don't understand me, and they really don't want to try either, and that doesn't leave out good church going people apparently. But this past Sunday I really hit it out of the park. We tried Westside Baptist, and everyone there was super nice. The pastor can up and talked to me after the service, and told me that 80% of the families were homeschooling (just like us). He also introduced me to some of the other Homeschooling moms. Yay! I really need some local mom friends, I have really been struggling in that area since we moved here. So I think I'll be going back next week :)

Okay well that's all for now, thanks for reading :)

Thanks giving break, Wii U, and Christmas is coming!

Hey everyone, sorry about the long time no post thing. I was just really busy, and it was the last thing on my mind (as I type this, my daughter is bugging me for more milk in her cup).

So I'm going to first start off with the Wii U. I have noticed that a lot of people don't even know about it. The Wii U is nintendo's newest system. It came out a couple of weeks ago. Being a gamer and being in a house full of other gamers, we just had to get one. Our Wii broke on the move across country, so the fact that this system played the old Wii games as well was just a bonus for us. The graphics are great, and the games for it are fun. We currently have Mario Wii U, Zombie U, and Nintendo Land. The kids love Mario Wii U, and they really love Nintendo Land. Zombie U is more for older people (not for kids), it's a first person shooter with Zombies (okay yeah you know that much). Mario Wii U is a side scrolling action packed awesome game. One to five can play at a time, with four wii motes and one game pad (game pad comes with the system). The person with the game pad plays in boost mode, where you can set blocks to help the others out. Nintendo Land is a bunch of little mini game, all based after the nintendo franchises. The kids love that game! SO MUCH! They play it all of the time. It's one to four players, so they all can play, plus Jeremy or me (if we have time).

Our Thanks Giving was great! Jeremy invited his friend Lance, so it was us and Lance. We had all of our favorites, and we played Mario. That was fun! We ate dinner and watch the game ( :P ) , then we brought dressert downstairs to our family room, and played Mario (best part). Okay I'm sorry, but I'm not following foot ball this year (nope not going to do it). Have you guys seen facebook during a foot ball game? Yeah that's what I'm talking about, and you guys all know who you are. I'm not telling you to stop, but just to think. Is it really worth it? It's just a game. For me it's not really worth the stress. You watch the game and stress about all of the bad plays, and jump up and down over the good ones, and it's just not worth it (not to me anyways). I'd rather play Mario, a least I have control over that.

So Christmas is almost here! YAY! I'm so excited. It's my favorite day of the year, because Christmas day consist of staying home, and giving gifts to my favorite people. I love seeing my kids faces light up, and I love watching them play. I love eating good food, and snuggling with my kids. What could be better? Our Christmas break starts on the 17th (yay for a break). I need it just as much as that kids do. This will also give me a chance to catch up on grading papers and filing them (oh joy). We finished ordering the kids gifts, and now I need to get Jeremy something. Yeah it's a lot harder that it sounds. The things on Jeremy's wish list are things like a BMW and a puppy. No way we're getting any of those. :)

Okay I should go now, my daughter is now asking for water. Thanks for reading.

You Might be a homeschooler if...

I love these :)

Halloween and the day after.

Hey everyone. Did everyone have an awesome Halloween? Ours wasn't to bad.

Darien and Zachary were both the Hulk, and Nathaniel and Olivia were both pirates.

Since Halloween was on a Wednesday this year, the kids were able to go to their Off Campus classes in their costumes. That was great. They loved showing their costumes to their friends. When I picked them up that afternoon I got to see some great costumes. The big surprise was, most of them were not store bought. I guess us Homeschool moms are really resourceful. :)

We didn't end up going trick-or-treating though. It was pouring all day, and I know most Washingtonians would just go in the rain (because this time of year it rains everyday), but not us. So I just bought more candy, and dived it up between the kids. They were fine with that, and loved it.


So yesterday I put up the Christmas tree :)

I know, I know. It's to early, and I'm crazy, but I don't care. I love decorating for Christmas, and having my tree up makes me happy.

Olivia loves the tree. When Jeremy got home, she spent 30 mins showing him all of the ornaments and where they were. Which was noting compared to the 90 mins she spent walking around the tree over and over again, once it was up.

I have also started Christmas shopping :) . I love Christmas shopping! I really can't wait for Christmas, it's my favorite day of the year. Only 53 more days to go!



I also have some exciting news. We are planning a trip to Disney World for late February! We are not 100% sure if we will be able to go, because our leave could get canceled due to the schedule of the boat (the one my husband is stationed to). We will most likely get to go, but you never know. I'm so excited though, and I can't wait for us to finally have a vacation.

Okay well I'm going to go now. Thanks for reading.

Real conversation between Jeremy and me

Me: Honey I had a dream last night that you threw me a birthday party, and invited Wil Wheaton and Adam Savage.

Jeremy: Cool! Did they come?

Me: Yeah, and it was awesome. Any chance that would happen in real life?

Jeremy: Totally! *Wink*

Me: I look forward to it. *Wink*

About those pictures I promised...

Okay here they are. I'm going to have to say I'm sorry it took me so long. The truth is I forgot, and didn't remember until just now, when I was looking over my old blog post. Yeah I do that... okay so here you go :)

 Okay so these first 4 are of the outside of the house, and I know what you are thinking. "It's really small." Yes it's looks really small, but in this small looking house is 2200 square feet of livable space. It has a fully finished basement, which is what adds so much to the square footage.

 Living room and kitchen

 This is the basement family room (AKA the best room in the house).

This is one of the best parts. We were able to spare a bedroom and turn it into a school room. I love it!

Okay well that's all I'm going to post for now. Bye guys!

Moriah Peters - Well Done

Love this :)

Off Campus

Hey everyone, so remember when I told you guys that my kids, were in the Off Campus program for home schooled kids? Well I thought that today I would write about it, beings that today is their second time going to the off campus classes. I want to first start off by staying that it's awesome. They go every Wednesday, and they love it, and I get a break. I drop them off at 9:30am, and don't pick them up until 2:30pm. When they are there, they have a class for their grade, so my oldest who is in the 5th grade, has a 5th grade class. In that class they learn things for their grade level. Last week Darien said they did graphs. Then they have P.E. (awesome), and then break for lunch. My kids love that they get to bring a packed lunch, they go bananas over it (tee-hee). After that they break off into multi age classes. These classes are ones that the kids get to chose themselves, and they get to go to 2 of them. Darien choose "Smash, Crash, and Launch" it a class where they try out smashing crashing and launch things, and look at the science to it as well. For his second class he choose "Fabulous Fall Crafts" the name is self explanatory. Zachary choose "Fun with Card Games" they teach you a lot of different card games, and for his second class he choose "Fun and Games" where they teach all different kinds of games. Nathaniel choose "Fabulous Fall Crafts" for his first and "Fun and Games" for his second. Last week they talked for hours after I picked them up, and it was all about their first day and how much fun they had. As for me, well this break is nice. Sure I still have Olivia, but she takes a nap for half the time that they are gone :). I really thinks it's the best of both worlds. They are still Home schooled so I still get to give them that personalized education, and they still get to go to class and meet other kids. I get to spend a bunch of time with them, and I still get a break. :) Life is good!

Teacher's Pet

We have a new game in the Legates household. It's called Teacher's Pet. It's a game my husband Jeremy came up with in-order to help the kids with their school work. We made the game board out of foam board and the game cards out of colored card stock and note cards. The game pieces and dice was something we borrowed from another board game (we have a lot of board games).

 The game looks like this. You have grades pre k - 12, there are 4 spaces for each grade and everyone starts at pre k. At the beginning of your turn you pick up a blue card.

They look like that  --->

Then depending on what card you get, you are asked a question.

Nathaniel's cards look like this (above). We ask him to write the letter if he gets Spelling. He doesn't see the card and he has to write it from memory. If he gets Fill in the Blank, or in his case say the letter, then he has to tell us the letter or letter sound of the letter at the top of the card. If he gets Multiple Choice or in his case point to the letter, then we cover up the letter at the top, and he has to chose from the 4 in the boxes.

These are Zachary's cards...

And these are Darien's. 

If they get Spelling, then they have to spell the word at the top (Darien and Zachary never see their cards). If they get Multiple Choice than they are asked the question on the card, and are read the choices. If they get Fill in the Blank they are ask the question, but they aren't read the choices.

If they get the answer right they get to roll the dice, and move up however many spaces, but if they get it wrong, they move back a space.

At the end of 12th grade they move on the final exam where they must answer 3 Fill in the Blank questions in a row, and they must get them all right. First one to do that wins.

The questions come from the tests and quizzes that they are having during that particular week (yes I do have to change them out and make up new cards every week). A lot of work, but so worth it in the end. We have used this for 3 weeks now, and I have seen a great improvement in our test and quizzes. The kids also really like to play, and I guess that's why it works so well.

It was very easy to make, so if you were looking for a teaching tool in game form, this would be awesome. You could put math problems on the cards, or for really little ones, you could have colors and shapes.

Okay well I just wanted to share. If you wanted help or ideas for making your own, just leave a comment or send me an e-mail. randi.legates@yahoo.com

If you do end up making your own I would love to see pictures, and hear of different ideas of how to make the cards, and what different kinds of cards you used. Good luck :)

We have moved (AGAIN!)

Yes it has finally happened we finally bought that house. We signed the papers last Monday (the 10th), and have been busy moving ever since. Okay yes most of our stuff has been here, at the new house for a while, and it's been a slow going process for the non essentials. We've been so busy lately. This whole process has made me realize that I never want to move again, but I know I will have to eventually. The Navy will most likely move us again in a few years, and I also want to retire in San Diego, so... Yeah I'm going to have to move again, and most likely again after that. For the record, I hate moving, and I'm really worn out from this one, and I hope I never see another box again.

I love this house it's awesome. It really fits our needs. Okay now I know what your saying. "Randi didn't you say that about the last house? You know that one you only lived in for 3 months?" Okay you got me, yes I did. I have a very over positive personality (I'm not kidding). I did like the other house, and it did fit our needs mostly. What made us change our minds were the awesome housing prices around here, and the people living around us in navy housing. We were living in Jackson Park, and we discovered that it is the ghetto of Navy housing. Don't get me wrong the navy tries to keep it nice, but the people who move into these units just aren't good quality. They enjoy partying very loudly on Friday nights, and they let their kids wonder the neighborhood all day, and I'm not talking about 10 - teens, I'm talking about little kids, some as young as 5 (believe me, I wish I was joking). I just can't stand lazy parents, you sit around on your lazy butt all day, while your kid is raised by other things and other people, and you wonder why your kid doesn't respect you. Hummmm.....

We are almost all the why done with unpacking, and when we are I'll post pictures. I still have a lot of work to do today, so I have to go. Thanks for reading :)

On the up and up

Hey guys! So things are looking better. I got everything set up with the state for homeschooling this year (YAY!). We're doing the off campus program. In this program you homeschool, but your kids still take one class a week with other homeschooled kids. During all of this you are still supervised by a person from the state. It works, and that's how I feel about it. I am more than willing to do whatever the state needs me to do, as long as I still get to homeschool my children. I feel so much better, now that that's all taken care of, and I don't have to worry. My kids will be going to Silverdale Baptise Church on Wednesdays for classes, and they get to stay there for a few hours. They do gym, science, math, clubs, and lunch. I let the kids all pick out a lunch boxes today. Olivia had to get one too (of course). God is so good, I was having such a hard time, and I didn't know what to do, and he took my hand and lead me straight to were I needed to be, when at first I didn't even know where to go.

The mortgage is still a mess. We went through Navy Federal, and I guess this is just what we get for going through them. From what I have heard from others, is that they are always like this. They are hard and slow. So if you are looking for a mortgage, don't get it through them. I'm just trying to take it all one day at a time, and accept that we may not get this house. They are taking so long, and we are getting way to close to the deadline. If we don't get it, then I'm just going to take it as a sign, that maybe God doesn't want us to buy this house. I can deal with that. The house we are in right now really isn't that bad. So I am feeling better, just not all that way yet.

To be honest I just wish I didn't have to deal with all of this extra stuff. In truth I can handle teaching Nathaniel, and dealing with Olivia, but with all of this extra stuff, it just makes the little things that much harder. It's like what I told my mom "If I could get to a point where all I had to worry about was teaching my kids, then that would be fine. I would be fine with that. That's all I ask for." I think in a few weeks everything will be all better. We will have either moved, or not. Olivia will most likely grow out of this naked thing, and Nathaniel will be use to the school schedule again.

Going Bananas!

Have you ever had a lot of work to do, and in so many different areas, and while your trying to do the work, things just aren't working out for you?

My youngest son Nathaniel has ADD, and I've been trying to work with him to the best of my abilities, but it's still hard and frustrating. Getting him to learn anything takes so much longer, and I know it's not his fault and he tries. It just really hard for me, and I'm always worried that my best won't be good enough for him (if that makes any sense). I know God wants me to continue to homeschool him, so I just have to keep trying. Along with that, I've been having to jump through hoops just to homeschool my kids in this state. It feels like the world is trying to work against me. I just have to remind myself that God is on my side, and He loves me, and knows just what I'm going through.

We are also currently buying a house. I haven't said anything yet, because I didn't want to tell anyone before it was set in stone (or mostly). The paper work has been a mess. Since Jeremy works all the time, I have to be the one to handle it, and most of the time that's no big deal, but when you have to call up all of these different companies and bug them for documents and all they want to do is talk to your husband, it can get a little frustrating. Then when they do finally agree to send it, they can't fax it or e-mail. No! They have to send it the old fashion way. Yeah even more frustrating! So it's taking such a long time, just to buy this house that we want.

My two year old, has been playing the naked game. She just likes to take her clothes off. The big problem is that she likes to do it at bed time, and at nap time. She'll take off her clothes and pee in the bed, every single nap time and bed time. I get to change the sheets, and give her a bath after all of this (every time!). Olivia is smart about it too, she'll wait until I think she has gone to bed, and she can take off any item of clothing. Zippers do not stump her and buttons and snaps are no help. I have also made no lead way in potty training her. My daughter is just to busy, she has so much she wants to do, so asking her to sit on the potty is like pulling teeth. (Are all of you Moms of toddlers laughing at me right now?)

I also have some other things going on, that are just as equally frustrating. Yes I know deep breaths.

The title (of this post) I got from Olivia's favorite tv show, The Fresh Beat Band. On some episodes they get into a situation and they feel stuck or frustrated, that's when one of them says "This stuff is making me wanna go bananas", then they do this. I wish I could just dance around and sing the bananas song, and feel so much better afterwards...  Yeah...  I just like to shut the door to my room and cry it out, but you know as long as it works then that's okay.

Okay so yes once again I'm not trying to get sympathy, I'm just really speaking to anyone going through a tough time, and showing them that we all go through it, and you are not alone, and God sees you and knows what your going through. :) And it really helps to take deep breaths, and cry it out, and if that doesn't work go grab your favorite hot tea, and drink it somewhere quiet, so you can imagine yourself on a quiet beach somewhere. :)

I think I'm going to do that right now :)

One more year older... another year of marriage... Trip to Forks WA... and house cleaning help :)

Okay... yeah... so... long title, sorry about that. I've been super busy lately, and haven't had time to do an individual post for each thing. This will have to do, but I'll brake it up, to make things easier.


Birthday
As of July the 27th, I am 28 years old... Yeah wow. Well I find it a little hard to believe, but I guess it's okay. My birthday was kind of a bummer though. I had to clean, and it was a very noisy day in the Legates house hold. Jeremy also got home late that day, and I didn't get much time with him. Okay I know, I sound like I'm whining, and I don't want to sound like that, and I'm sure you don't want to hear it, so I'll stop. :)

Anniversary

This Friday (the 3rd), was Jeremy's and mine 10 year anniversary. I can't believe it! 10 awesome years! Guess what we did that day... ... ... We got the car fixed. Ha ha right? Well it had been acting funny, and it was the only day we had time. That's life right? You got to do what you got to do, and sometimes on days you don't want to do them. The car is fixed and we are both happy, so I don't think it was that bad. We ended up just celebrating over the weekend, and that was great.

10 years is an awesome milestone. I've enjoyed being married to Jeremy, and he's great. I'm so thankful to be blessed with an awesome husband and an awesome family :)

My Little Brother Got Married

A day after our 10 anniversary, my little brother Wesley got married! The only bad thing was, I couldn't be there    :(. I did get to see pictures, and a video, so that's better than nothing. I'm so happy for them, and excited for them. I met Jessica (his new wife), about a year ago (on fathers day), and she's so nice and sweet, and I think they make a great couple. We became good friends (Jess and I), back in February, and she is so much fun. We skype all of the time, and I always look forward to it.

Trip to Forks, WA
Alright all of you Twilight fans are you curious about the town of Forks? We took a trip there Saturday. It was an adventure trip, our destination was Forks, but if we saw anything cool along the way, we would stop.

Okay yes I like twilight, but not as much as I use to, and I think I know why. After reading the books (if you read them back to back to back to back), you kinda fall in-love with that whole Bella and Edward idea. In your head it's like "Oh Bella, Edward would do anything for you, and you for him, that's so sweet, what a perfect couple. Wow" *sigh* Then reality hits you, and you wake up any realize, the whole thing just seems fake. The first time I watched twilight I was like "WOW I love this movie!" now I watch it and I'm like "What in the world... what is up with this dialogue? Who would say that? What was I thinking?" It's true, that movie gets worse every time you watch it.

I did like the books, and I still watch the movies on occasion, so since we are only a 2.5hr drive away, I thought it was worth it.... .... ... All I have to say is I'm really glad we stopped at Lake Crescent and walked the Marrymere waterfall trail, because that made the whole trip worth it.

Okay Forks wasn't that bad, it did have both Bella trucks (one based after the book, and one based after the move), and they had tours of the town, and things described in the book. They had fan based shops, and great places to eat in the town. However the town looked nothing like the movie.

Cleaning day
So our house really needed a day. Just one to focus on cleaning and get the house looking great. It worked out well. I made a list of all of the rooms in the house, on our white board. Once a room was clean, than we could put a check by it. If all of the rooms were checked off, then we would get ice cream. It was very motivating, and we had it done in no time, and it looked great. The boys are great helpers :) (makes me a proud momma).


Well that's all for now, thanks for reading :)

Legates' nightly event :)

I'm writing this post to share an awesome game with you guys. This game is so awesome that we play it every night (just about). It's our new favorite!

It's...

Munchkin!

It's an awesome game it which you are all munchkins, and your goal is to get to level 10. To do that you need to defeat monsters and use cards. The best way to learn how to play, is to watch this video (thanks again Wil Wheaton)...

In this game when you come across a monster that is to hard for you, you can ask your friends (or in our case family) for help, and if a monster is to easy for you, those same friends can make it harder.

Although we play it most every night, I have only won twice (I'm not kidding). Jeremy, my lovely husband wins most of the time. Now this would make you think... "Well if you and the boys would start ganging up on him, then maybe he would lose." and yes that is true, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I don't like being mean to people, and I love him so much (yeah that's really not helping me right now).

We bought this game right after seeing the TableTop episode (the very same video up there). Thanks to TableTop we have a long list of games that we now want. I think it's great though, more family time.

One thing that all of you parents should know is (if you buy the game). Their is one card that has a bad word on it. We just ended up taking that one card out of the game. This does not effect the game play in anyway what so ever, because in Munchkin you can add and take away any number of cards, and kind of play it your own way. You can also make up your own cards :)

This is what we came up with

This was Zachary's idea (all of us love pirates)

This was Darien's idea (we are big Mario fans)

This was Nathaniel idea

This was my idea (Lame-O-Potato is one of our favorite phases in the Legates house)

The game was easy enough that it only took the kids a few times watching to catch on.

They love this game :0)

So if you don't have this game, then you need to go out and get it right now... (are you going? right now?)... You also need to start watching TableTop (on youtube), if you haven't already.


Thank you :)

It's has been weeks!

I want to first start off and apologize for the gap in post. Things have been pretty normal round here, very hooo hummm. The good news is things are less stressful and easier than my last post (sorry about that). So I'll tell you what we've been up to.

The boys started swim classes at the YMCA. They are really excited to go (every time), and they are doing great. Their teacher just told me today that they are very entertaining in the class, and that he always looks forward to seeing them. Wow (makes this mommy smile)! During the boys' class Olivia and I swim in the other pool. She can be a handful! She thinks she can already swim, and she doesn't want me to hang on to her. The problem is of course, she can't swim, and so she sinks. I pull her back up, and she kicks to be free again. Once she turns 3 I'll have to put her in a class as well (If only to just get a break, although I'm sure she'll do well).

The weather here has been hotter than normal (about 74), and it has been raining less. As a result of this our neighbor hood has put in sprinklers (??? I don't see why). Okay so I guess they are worried the grass might dye, but I don't think that would ever happen (not in this state). I think it a waste of money. All of the locals here think it's to hot, and they complaining and stay inside with their AC (we ourselves don't have any AC, and I don't think we need it). Yes it's 74 (with very little humidity), and the poor east coat is going through a crazy heat wave where it was in the 100s, but no "it's soooo hot here" (  :P  ). I'm enjoying the weather, I think it's great. When it's nice like this, we (the kids and I), go for long walks, and explore our neighbor hood.

I also just ordered my Homeschool books for next year (YAY), well the rest, the ones that I didn't already have. It's really exciting for me, and this is our 3rd year. Woo hoo! The kids are doing better now with their summer school work and they are just doing great all around. Olivia can now say "Pokemon", yeah she loves to hang out with her brothers. She is talking a lot, and working on telling us things that she needs (much better than fussing). I'm really glad, and she is getting so big (a little part of me is sad about it though, yeah no surprise there).

Well I think that's all, I just didn't want to guys to think that I was just giving up on the whole blogging thing. Thanks for reading! :)

Life is hard... at times

So the last two weeks have been hard and stressful. Jeremy went back to work, and he is still adjusting, I started the boys on some summer work, and we have yet to fall into the right pattern with that, I attempted to potty train Olivia, but after two days, stopped and realized she wasn't ready yet, I'm working on getting Nathaniel's shot recorded all caught up, and I lost Zach's, I had a couple days when I wasn't feeling well, and the kids were really loud on those days, and there are a few other things, that I really don't want to get into right now. Okay yes I know, that was a long run-on sentence, and I'm sorry. Now I will explain all of it, or most of it.

-Jeremy went back to work about two weeks ago, and because he is still adjusting and his job isn't the easiest he was stressed, and because of that I was too (that's just how it happens, no wife likes to see her husband stressed). It's not his fault it's just the way things are.
-I started the boys on summer school work because they were bored, and when they are bored they tend to get into trouble. They also have subjects they need to work on. Nathaniel and Zach, need to both work on their reading skills, and Darien needs to work on his studying skills. Science, History, and Health have test and quizzes that you have to take notes and study for. Sometimes someone is lazy and thinks he doesn't need to, because... "I already know all of the answers." ... um no. So during the summer we are working on that. Not everyone is happy about it though (not a big surprise), so two of them are giving me a hard time (can you guess which two?).
-I was going to start potty training Olivia and I did try, but it went something like this... She has 12 pairs of underware, and she used all of them in one day before 2pm (and both days were like this). I just don't think she's ready.
-Nathaniel's shot record... now this is an interesting story. Right before we moved to Fort Meade (from San Diego), I stopped by the clinic (military clinic) to pick up a copy of Nathaniel's shot record to carry it with us (when moving you need to do that, and when switching to a new doctor) (I had everyone elses). They told me, they couldn't hand it to me (which I later on found out that was a lie), but they could mail it to me. Okay whatever, sure. It never made it. So when we lived in Maryland we were never able to get his 4 year old shots because I didn't have his records, and the clinic on Fort Meade wasn't able to pull them (despite both clinics being military clinics). So of course I sent in a request of records (several times) and called them many times, but they never sent them. It finally took Jeremy calling for anything to happen, and I just finally got them two weeks ago. So now we get to go through all of the fun of getting him all caught up.
-I couldn't find Zachary shot record. So after all I had to go through to get Nate's, I couldn't find Zach's. I had everyones records in a folder that I carried with me in the car (well all but Nathaniel's). So after finally getting Nathaniel's I open the folder to add it, and Zach's is missing... "NO"... Luckily the Naval hospital was able to pull them up for me. So that was taken care of.
-The loudness in the house has been a big issue lately. I'm not sure if it's because the house is older, so the walls are not as sound prof, but it's been bad. No matter how many times I tell the boys to be quiet when Olivia is sleeping, they always end up waking her up. EVERY SINGLE TIME! I just don't get it. Okay yes we need to start working on self control.

During all of this is when I felt like curling up in bed, and crying my eyes out. Have you ever felt like that? Sure Randi, you can take the stress of moving across country, but you can't take a few days of your house being out of order. I know this may seem silly to you, but I'm not telling you all of these things to get your sympathy, because everyone goes through hard times, and yours may even be worse than mine. I'm sharing these things with you to show you that this is normal, and you are not alone, everyone has hard times. So I'm going to share with you a story that my sunday school teacher told us (back in the day)... something I should have remembered during all of this.

There once was a traveler walking along the road carrying a large heavy backpack. Then came along a guy driving a pick-up truck. He stopped and told the traveler to hop in the back, and he would give him a ride. The traveler did so, but still wore the back pack. The driver told the traveler he could take it off and lay it down, there was plenty of room, but the traveler insisted on keeping it on, even though it was heavy and hurting his back.

We are like the traveler, when we are stressed and we insist on carrying that stress with us, even though we have God who will take care of us, and help us. Sometimes we forget or we want to do it all, and we don't have to. We don't need to worry about tomorrow, or stress out about the little things that pledge us. Stress is bad, it ages us, and makes our hair fall out, and makes us snappy, grumpy, and scary.

So as a lesson to me, and all of you, take a chill pill and give your troubles to God. :)

Update time

Hey everyone, so I think this post is long over due, since I haven't updated everyone very much since we moved. The reason for this is because my husband is still on leave, and because of that we've had a lot of family time, and I really didn't want to take away from that. I have about an hour right now while my husband is out, so I'll try to catch everyone up.

Our time in Washington has been great! I'm really glad we moved at the beginning of Jeremy's leave, because it has given us a lot of relaxing time. The move is over we are here, we are happy, and now we can enjoy each other. The first week was awesome the sun was shining it was warm, and all of the locals were confused about the nice weather. Jeremy said that God was giving us nice weather to help us with the transition. The week after that it went to what I'm guessing is normal Washington weather. On most days we have rain and overcast, but there is still the occasional sunny day. I'm fine with that, and I think we are adapting well. Besides getting use to the weather, we are also getting use to the area, and so far it's been really easy to lean the layout (or where everything is). The tricky part is getting use to the "new places". There isn't a lot here, so if your looking for something that maybe a bit harder to find you'll have to go to Seattle (we have done that yet), or order it online. Yup it's all about adapting. I'm really happy to be back on the west coast, Jeremy and I would really like to go back to San Diego one day, and this just puts us closer.

So what fun (going out) things have we done? We went mini golfing, we've been to the mall a few times, and we went to the Great Wolf Lodge. On most days however we just had a lot of family time. We played a lot of card games, we took our bikes out for a spin (we watched the kids ride up and down the street), we went for walks around the neighborhood, there are a lot of playgrounds here, we played a lot of board games, and we had a Harry Potter movie day (just this week), we also made new friends and hung out at their house. All in all it's been great.

So Great Wolf Lodge (for anyone who wants to know). Great place, a lot of money. We stayed one night, and racked up a bill of about $400 (I'm not kidding). The room was awesome and had bunk beds and it was great (it was the KidCabin suite), and it cost $289.99. I can understand that cost of the room, it was a nice room and the tickets (to the water park) were included. The problem was that rest of the hotel, all of the shops and food were expensive (really expensive). Oh and there is also Magic Quest. What is that you ask? Well it an activity that you can do all over the hotel. You buy a wand ($20.00), and the wand gives you the ability to interact with curtain objects around the hotel. There are quest you can do, and it's basically a giant scavenger hunt. So yes $20 times 3 wonderful boys. Our stay was fun, but I'm not sure fun is supposed to cost that much, so I' don't think we'll be doing it again any time soon. Or if we do, we may have to go else where for food, or bring our own. The rooms come with a fridge and microwave, so it is possible to make your own meals.

So what's left? Jeremy has a few more days of leave left, then it's time to get busy again. I have some summer workbooks to get the kids started on, and I have homeschool things to do. I have to buy books and get the kids in the system here. So much fun! I also have some medical thing to do.

I'm going to a home school curriculum sale tomorrow, and I'm super excited! I always love those, and I get to go by myself! Yes that doesn't happen often. I get to shop for books at my own pace and not have to worry about anything else.

Okay I'm going now, bye! :)

Another birthday !?!

Happy Birthday to Zachary! He's 8 today (wow)

What? You're taking a picture right now?

Okay whatever I'm going to play my new game :)

Favorite toy : Legos

Favorite thing to play : Video games

Favorite thing to eat : Tacos

Favorite TV show : Sponge Bob Square Pants

Favorite color : Blue

Favorite place to visit : Mommom's house

Favorite book : Green Eggs and Ham

Favorite movie : Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows part 2

Favorite Video game : Just Dance 3

It should be a great day! I can't believe he's 8. Zachary is an awesome kid, and we love him so much.

Happy Birthday too...

DARIEN! 

He's 10 today (wow)!

This is the only picture he would let me take, because he was busy with his new presents. He was so busy that he forgot to get dressed this morning and he is still in his jammers.








Favorite toy : Legos
Favorite thing to play : Also legos
Favorite thing to eat : Pizza
Favorite TV show : Sponge Bob Square Pants
Favorite color : Green
Favorite place to visit : San Diego
Favorite book : Harry Potter and the Deadly Hollows
Favorite movie : Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows part 2
Favorite Video game : Skylanders

What an amazing kid he is! I feel so blessed :)

So far, so good :)

Well it's been a week, and... I really like it here :)

Our house is old, and a little small, but I really like it. I think the age of the house really gives it character, and it's really easy to clean (and that matters).

So this is it! (can you see my cat at the door?)

This is our living room (the couch is new). Notice the window behind the couch? Yeah, I'm not sure why it's there, but it's kind of cute.

this is the kitchen...

the pantry (this house didn't have one, so we made one)...

and the dining area

The best part about this kitchen is it has doors to both the entry ways, so I can close off the kitchen completely if I need to. I do our homeschooling at the kitchen table, so this is awesome.

I really like the layout it this house, it really works with what we have. This really surprised me because of the house's age. This house also reminds me of other houses we have lived in. The layout to this house is a lot like our house in Fort Meade. The kitchen in this house looks a lot like our kitchen in Charleston. We currently have birds living in our attic, so that reminds me of Virginia (better birds than a raccoon). 

We are right by the bay, and the neighborhood is really pretty :)

So far I really like it here :)