Our Homeschool Journal: 2013

April 2012

West Side Story, Stephanie is Anybodys, the rebellious girl who wants to be part of the Jets. She did a fantastic job. The choreographer of the show was concerned when he saw she was cast as Anybodys as he saw her as a quiet girl who wasn't that good at dancing (and thankfully, they didn't make her do much!). He knew the character was rather outgoing so wasn't sure that Steph was the best choice. When he finally saw the final performance he told her she "nailed" it. Best compliment she could get!

April was very busy with all the rehearsals and performances that Stephanie had to do. In the meantime, Cassie and Eric worked with Eno, trying to train him to be a good dog. I have a great video of Eno attempting to play with Korn, one of our cats, but I need to figure out how to compress the file to upload it.

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March 2012

I envy those who have fancy cameras with good zoom lenses. But at the same time I'm not sure I have the brain capacity to learn a new skill, like photography. March offered us an eclipse of the moon to view. Here is my attempt to take a picture of it with my iPhone.

Our new home needed some sprucing up, so Cassie and Les teamed up with their gardening skills to tend to our potted plants we brought with us from Inarajan. Cassie learned how to plant tomatoes and cucumbers and how to tend to the plants, watering them, checking for bugs and pulling out weeds. We also grew green beans up the stair railings.

We added a new pet to our household, a golden retriever mix boonie pup named Eno. He has become Eric and Cassie's best friend and though he terrorizes the cats at times, he has formed a special bond with Applesauce.

I can't remember if it was March or April when one of our favorite cats, Miso, died. We aren't sure what caused his death. He was found on the ground in our pool area. He may have attempted to jump off the second story balcony onto a shed and missed. By the time we found him, it was too late to help, and we ended up letting nature take care of his remains. In the end there was a cool skeleton of a cat left behind. Unfortunately I was the only one interested in such a find. Kids and hubby were too upset since it was one of their favorite cats. Gruesome me saved a jawbone as a souvenir. It can be found in the ashtray of my car in case anyone wonders.

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February 2012

Moving is always fun. February passed in a blur as we packed and cleaned and moved our household into the beautiful, two story 5 bedroom house we had found in Barrigada. Now a 10 minute drive to work, life was going to be much easier. And not a moment too soon as Stephanie was in full blown rehearsals for West Side Story with practices almost everyday.

A new house also meant new furniture so a cute little living room set was purchased from Designer's Direct. In hindsight we wish we had researched and tested our new couch set a little more as it turned out to be stuffed with foam chips and now that it's a year old, we have discovered it doesn't hold up well at all. I'm now on the lookout for an upholstery shop that could make new inside cushions for it, as it is a nice little set if it were only more comfortable to sit on!

Cassie adopted the single chair as her computer center, where she could multi-task watching her favorite TV shows while drawing on the computer.

In homeschooling activities, GHSA had their annual Valentine's Day gathering. We met at Yogurtland and enjoyed cool delicious frozen yogurt, exchanged home-made valentines and socialized with each other. Cassie made her own valentines using my Stampin' Up products.

February was also the beginning of a serious get healthy mom program. I started the Isagenix cleanse program and though I'm jumping ahead of the narrative, managed to lose 25lbs in the first two months! Thanks to my friend from Canada's daughter, Chanci.

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January 2012

One thing that happens when you leave an artistic 9 year old alone for too many hours unattended is they begin to experiment and do things you'd much rather wish they didn't do. Such as this little art project I discovered on the wall:

You have to give Cassie credit. She DID attempt to wash it off. When asked why she did this, her pat response is "because I could!"

Biggest problem with this little art activity is we decided to move into town. Gas was getting too expensive and the 45 minute drive each way was taking it's toll on our pocket book, as well as my feet! I had developed plantar fasciitis in both feet from the long car drive. and my heels were killing me. I could barely walk after a long day at work. So near the end of January we found a house in Barrigada that could house our family. It had a pool (defunct, but still....one could dream) and a "suite" that was perfect for Adam to have his privacy. Master bedroom is big enough to act as a bedroom/living room. And a huge balcony outside is perfect for our outside garden.

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December 2011/New Year 2012

Christmas 2011 found us living in the Inarjan house. A 45 minute drive from our office. Music production took place in our "library", the addition to the house.

Traditional Short Bread cookies were baked to give away to friends (or to eat ourselves)

My stamping area was organized so that I could be more productive with my chosen hobby and so that Cassie could access art supplies as needed.

And Christmas came and went like it does every year. It was a low key Christmas year. Cassie recieved a box of Trixie Belden books - a re-gifting of her sister's collection. Cassie proceeded to read through this series as fast as she could devour them. As they were my favorite books as a pre-teen, I was thrilled to introduce her to Trixie and her sleuthing skills.

Stephanie, in the meantime was busy in GATE theater rehearsals for West Side Story, where she had landed the role of Anybodys. Adam composed his music. Les wrote lyrics and practiced singing. And Eric worked on his computer skills, designing "skins" for minecraft and gaming levels for his own video games via Game Factory.

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What Happened to 2012?

It has come to my attention that life has suddenly fast forwarded to mid way through 2013. Whatever happened to 2012? For that matter 2011 seems to be much of a blur as well. I guess we all have our seasons and I seem to have just passed through a non-writing season. I think I spent a lot of time watching TV shows online and reading what other people wrote.

It is important not to let our years fly by so fast without really keeping track of what transpired. So for the next while I'm going to attempt to recreate the lost year, documenting it as well as I can through pictures taken over that time. With commentary thrown in as I remember the events.

So let's begin....

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