Playing catchup!

Hi everyone, well it's been some time (not much mind you) (but some), since I updated you on just the things going on in the life of Randi.

Well lately I have been getting ready to start home schooling next year, and I'm excited. I'm sure the excitement will wear off once the hard work kicks in, and the kids start to misbehave, but for the moment I'm looking forward to it. Last week I went out to get school supplies, and that was fun. I found everything we needed (yay) and a few things I never knew we needed (of course) (*wink*). I now finally have all my home school things organized. I don't, how ever, have all of the books yet, I have a little over a 3rd of them (19 of 51) (I know it's a lot). I have to get teacher's keys, test books, and work books along with the regular ones, so that racks up the number a bit. Tomorrow, how ever, I am going to a Home School Curriculum Fair and Workshops, and I hope I can find some of the books I need there. If not then it's back to ebay! I have been getting them used on ebay, and it's about half the price (most of the time).

We started going to a new church yesterday. We have been looking, and trying out for quite sometime now, and I'm so glad to say that our search is finally over. We thought we would try out the church that runs our home school umbrella, Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Pasadena, MD. It's a very small church! Jeremy counted 29, and that was including us, but we did like it, and we both want to go back. The last church we went to was Faith Baptist Church in Glen Burnie. That church was huge, but no one wanted to talk to us, and Nathaniel's Sunday school teacher was very rude to us. We went twice, and that was enough to know that we didn't want to be a member.

Jeremy is taking a college class online (pre-calculus), he has been doing this after work on week days. I'm glad he's taking it and catching up on college, but this does mean less Jeremy and Randi time. We are use to that though, and it has taught us to make the best of the time we do have. Lately we have been spending that time watching Star Trek Voyager. We just got the whole series on DVD, and we are almost done season 3. We are excited to move on to season 4, because that's when they get rid of the character Kes (Jennifer Lien), and get the character Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan). Seven of Nine is much more exciting than Kes, and much hotter (yup I think she's hot).

Olivia is 4 months now, and she is going for her appointment in 2 days. She is getting so big, and she is growing more and more beautiful. She has been laughing up a storm! Her favorite thing to laugh at currently is me singing the Subway Five Dollar Foot Long song. No matter how hard she is crying, that song always brings out a giggle or two.

It has now been a year since we came back to Maryland, and I can't decide weather it went by fast or slow. I guess that means it's in-between. I still feel like I haven't reconnected with some of my family and old friends. It is partly my fault for being busy, but I also feel like some of them still haven't forgiven me for moving away in the first place, and they have acted bitter and mean to me, and I have been avoiding them. Jeremy and I are deciding weather or not to re-enlist, and this is what made me think of how long we had been here. I miss being away, but I also like being home again. Next May would be the best time to re-enlist, so we have a year to Pray and think about it. I'm sure God will lead us to the right place, and take care of us. He has done a great job of that in the past, so I'm not worried.

Well I think I have told all that I can think of. Thanks for reading!

Another Birthday!

Today is our middle son's birthday! He is 6 years old, and we are so blessed to have him as our son. I love you Zachary! Hope your day is wonderful!

Day off...

This is not about me having a day off, no that is unheard of. This is about Zachary's day off. He has today and tomorrow off, so that leaves him to tag along with Nathaniel, Olivia, and Me. Darien was very jealous, and wanted to know why only the kindergartners got the two days off. I told him that parent teacher conferences were going on, and they just wanted to give them the time off. So today Zachary came along with us, and it made things more interesting, but in a good way. Zach likes to talk, and ask very interesting questions. He can think of the most goofy things at random times.

We were walking out of the clinic on Fort Meade, I had just gotten my prescription refilled, and he heard a car radio. He asked "Mommy why do other people's music sound different from what we listen to?" and I said "Because everyone likes different things." (also my taste in music isn't the most popular, but I didn't say that) (not many people can listen to switchfoot and classic rock all day long, and be perfectly happy, but whatever.) Then he said "But not cake! Everyone likes cake!" Yup that's right everyone (EVERYONE) likes cake, and if you don't then you're just weird (Very weird!). Then he totally switched subjects and said "When I grow up, I want to be a daddy, and Nathaniel and Darien are going to do that to." Yup awww, that's so cute, but then Nathaniel cut in and said "Hey I'm not going to be a dad! I'm going to be a kid." Haha! Yup Nathaniel has a mind of his own, and won't let anyone make it up for him. Good for him!

After the clinic we had to go to a parent teacher conference, and on the way I stopped by McDonalds, so I could get a Frappe (yum), and I got the boys each a hash brown. And this brought up the question "Why are McDonalds' hash browns big, and Burger King's little?" and "What are hash browns made of?" Yup it's important to know.

After the conference, we went home and got lunch. I gave them a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and some yogurt. Then this led to the question "Is this yogurt vanilla or strawberry?" and I said "It's both, (it was both) they mixed it together just for you." then he said, "Oh well can I have just strawberry tomorrow, and not both?"

Yup and there is still more of the day to come. Silly Zach, I love you.

Finally finished The Hobbit

Okay yes, so we are finally finished. We actually finished about 2 weeks ago, but I haven't gotten around to posting about it because Jeremy was on leave, and I was spending time with him.

I loved the book! It was a great story, and I would totally read it again.

Okay I'm about to write and over view of the book, so if you want to read it for yourself without knowing anymore about it, please do not read.

It starts out with Bilbo meeting Gandalf, and after their meeting a whole bunch of Dwarfs show up to Bilbo's house, 13 Dwarf to be exact. The Dwarfs' names where Thorin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Dori Nori, Ori, Oin, Gloin, Dwalin, Balin, Kili, and Fili. It was funny listening to Jeremy read off the names. The Dwarfs needed a burglar to help them get their treasure back from a dragon. Gandalf thinks Bilbo is the perfect person for the job, and of course Bilbo thinks otherwise. He ends up going, and is promised 1/14th of the treasure. One of the first things that happens, is they run into some trolls who nearly end up cooking them. They visit Rivendell along the way. They get chased by Goblins in the Misty Mountains and that leads to Bilbo finding the ring. Then they pay a visit Beorn, who is one of Gandalf's friends, and at the edge of Mirkwook, Gandalf leaves them to finish the journey without him. They end up getting very lost in Mirkwood, and getting captured by Elves (all but Bilbo). Bilbo helps all of the Dwarfs to escape by hiding in wine barrels and riding in them down the river, and they finally make it to the Lonely Mountain. Of course there is more, but I think I have told enough, but I will say that he does make it back home in one piece only to find his relatives selling all of his things. Gotta love family! He was gone for a year, so his family thought he was never coming back. Poor Bilbo! Anyways It's a great book, and I think next I'll read it to my kids.

Happy birthday Darien

On this day 8 years ago, Jeremy and I became parents. Happy birthday Darien.

Kings Dominion

Friday we went to Kings Dominion! I hadn't been in 6 years, and I missed going. We took the kids and my little sister Shelby. We had a blast! It brought back a lot of good memories. My first roller coaster ride was Kings Dominion's Ghoster Coaster (I think I was 6), and Me and Jeremy's first kiss was on Kings Dominion's Grizzly Coaster (I was 16). My parents use to take us a lot when we were kids (almost once a year), and I always had fun.

This was our first time taking the kids, and I had forgotten how many rides they had for little kids, because they have a lot. Even Nathaniel got a lot of ride time in. All I had to do was stand by the Exit, and watch them go on things over and over again. I'm so glad we went! Olivia also had a good time, she got to do one of her favorite things, which is ride in her pink stroller, and she got a sun tan on her legs.

I also got to ride a lot of things, and coasters so I didn't feel left out at all, and it made things a bit easier with Shelby there. All in all a great day!

Oh for the love of cats

Link! The Hero of time...

Wielder of the Master Sword...

And keeper of the triforce of Courage!

There was a time not too long ago, when I would have not considered myself a cat person. Sure I liked cats a little, but I didn't really have one growing up, and I didn't see myself ever owning one, but about 2 years ago, my son Darien started asking for one. He must have been talking to some of his friends at school, his friends that had cats. He really like the idea, and when he asked, I then brought it up with Jeremy. We decided, that if he showed his responsibility with Samson (our dog), that we could get him a cat. About 2 weeks later we had decided it was time, and Darien was ready, and we started looking. We found an add for free kittens, there were 6 of them 2 boys and 4 girls, so we called and went. It was mother's day. The Mom cat was calico, and the kittens were all different colors. I asked Darien if he wanted a boy or girl, and of course he said boy, and then from the 2 boys he picked out our wonderful cat Link. He's a beautiful white and Orange Tabby. We picked out his name in the car, Link is named after our (the kids and mine), favorite video game character. In the video game Link is the Hero of time. Link was such a sweet kitten, he loved to sleep with me, all curled up by my neck. I started to fall in-love with him. Yup and it happened, I became a cat person. His is still a wonderful cat, and I love him dearly, we have now had him for 2 years, and I have loved every minute of it. He is great with Samson and his new sister Midna (who was adopted in August). He has always been good with the kids, if he needs time away from them, then he just leaves the room.

I wanted to write about him, because I am thankful for him. When we were looking for a cat, we asked God to send us a wonderful cat, and He did.

Mother's Day

Yup it's that time of the year again. The time when all mothers get treated like a queen. Yup and I'm one of them. The kids have been sneaking around this place like crazy the past 2 days, I think Jeremy and the kids are planning something. The kids have let a few things slip, I know that part of it is a craft.

Sunday I'm spending the day with my family. There is going to be a lunch at my grandmother's house. This will be Olivia's debut, because most of the people who are going to be there, haven't seen her yet. Yup I have a cute outfit picked out (for both me and her, tee-hee).

The kids have been good lately, and I'm looking forward to the summer. It has been hot this week and the humidity has been really bad. Today is better though, today feels like San Diego weather. When I walked the kids to the bus stop this morning I felt so at peace. I always do when the weather is really nice. This may explain why I liked San Diego so much.

Olivia is eating really well, and she has been trying to turn over. She can almost do it. She is getting so big, and growing more and more beautiful. Zachary reading is greatly improving, I'm amazed at the things he can sound out. Darien has been doing a lot better with his bossy behavior, and has stepped back into the brother position and not the parent one most of the time. Nathaniel is going thought a not to fun phase though. I haven't let him ride in a shopping cart since before I got pregnant with Olivia, and that was fine, but now all of the sudden, he wants to ride again. He knows he can't, there is no way, Olivia is the small one now. So I don't know, I just hope he cuts it out and soon.

I have made a new friend. We started talking about a month ago, at the bus stop in the afternoon, her name is Trudy. Her kids go to a different school, but they get dropped off around the same time as my kids. She has 2 boys ages 7 and 5 (I think), and their names are Hayden and Reuben (I hope I spelled those right). She is really nice, I like her. Her husband is in the Army National Guard, and is going to deploy soon (sad). I hope this summer our kids can have fun playing together.

Jeremy has two weeks of leave coming up (actually his last day of work is today), we both can't wait. We plan on taking day trips for our vacation. We want to go to Kings Dominion, The Maryland Science Center, Baltimore Aquarium, and Six flags. I can't wait! It's been so long since I've been to Kings Dominion, and I'm excited. Yes I'm excited about the other things too, but I'm most excited about Kings Dominion.

Okay I think I updated you on everything so far. Thanks for reading. Have a wonderful Mother's day!

Is Verizon Fios better? I think not!

Okay so here is the problem, I don't like Verizon Fios! There I said it. The two cable companies around here are Comcast and Verizon. When we lived on Fort Meade we had Comcast, we only had a few problems, and that was mainly because the wiring in our house was messed up and out dated.

When we had to get cable for our new house Jeremy wanted to go with Verizon just to try it out (he thought it would be better). I didn't want to, because it seemed like more money to me. In the end though Jeremy won (big surprise).

Now we both hate it and want to switch back. One of the problems is, we don't get the same channels that we use to get on Comcast. We have the Digital Preferred, which is the same package we had with Comcast, but we don't get the History Channel or Discovery Health, (there are more, I just don't know them off the top of my head) and we did with Comcast.

Also for some odd reason they kept sending our bill to our Fort Meade address. So when we finally got our mail all squared, and everything sent to our new address, we called Verizon to change the address. Jeremy was on the phone for 80 mins, after getting transferred 9 time, and finally getting to the right department (maybe), they were closed because it was after business hours. So we had to call back another day, by this time we were both ready to cancel. So Jeremy called again, and this time after only getting transferred 5 times, we found out, if we were to cancel it would be 350 dollars!! So not cool! So now we are stuck with them, of the next 2 years (fun!).

The crazy thing is, we really don't watch that much tv. Jeremy and I only like a few shows, which are.... The Biggest Loser, Mythbusters, 19 Kids and Counting, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, and Star Trek. He likes Lost, but I don't care for that, and I like Bones, but he doesn't care for that. So in reality all we really need is... NBC, ABC, FOX, Discovery, TLC, SyFy, and Nick (for the kids), that's all, so I keep thinking, "If only there was a cable company that let to choose the channels you wanted and only those channels, and it would be like a dollar per channel per month." Right? Wouldn't that be great? Wishful thinking right? I just hate flipping through all of those channels, and finding nothing I like, and I just find it useless, when I just end up watching the same old shows I always watch.

25 Random things

I did this on facebook about a year ago, but I wanted to post it on here. If you have read it before and don't care to again just skip it.

25 Random things about me...

Randi Legates

1. I cut my own hair, and it looks great! Moving on...

2. I'm a Trekkie, but you all know that.

3. I know how to solve a Rubik's cube.

4. My kids are the best.

5. The Mythbusters make me laugh.

6. I love to sing, but only in the car.

7. I've lived in 4 different states, and moved across country twice.

8. My first car was a 1971 Super Beetle! The coolest car ever!

9. I now drive a MOM car, named Phantom (by the boys), a 2004 ford Freestar.

10. I'm a Hufflepuff, for all of us Harry Potter fans.

11. I have been a Navy wife for 7 years. WOW!

12. I have all of Star Trek OS, TNG, and Voyager on DVD.

13. My first Hollywood crush was Wil Wheaton (he was Wesley Crusher on Star Trek TNG), I was 10 and I was in-love. (I had a crush on Wesley Crusher)

14. For the last 4 years, I have put up my christmas tree on the day after Halloween.

15. I like cheese A LOT!

16. Ice cream doesn't last long in this house (tee-hee).

17. My favorite food is Chili.

18. My favorite color is yellow.

19. I sleep with a stuffed pooh bear, I always have, ever since I can remember.

20. I can quote word from word the 3 original Star Wars movies.

21. My favorite song is "ShaBoom" by the Chords.

22. Switchfoot is my favorite group.

23. Legend of Zelda OoT is my favorite video game!

24. I've know my husband for almost 10 years, we met in June of 2000, when we were both 15

25. My son Darien is named after a character in the cartoon Sailor Moon.