It's Cold Outside!

But not in Houston :o) However, in PA, it feels like the freakin' North Pole! This will be my first Christmas up North. Despite the cold, I'm excited about the possibility of a White Christmas - with snow that actually sticks to the ground.

It was a two-day journey to get here, but the gorgeous Appalacian Mountains make it worth the drive. We even got to stop along the way to let the kids play in the snow in Virginia. The kids are having a blast staying at the craft store, I mean, Gram's house. Gram's house is pretty cool. It's over 100 years old, right in the middle of town (unlike Houston, you can actually walk to where you want to go without the fear of getting rundown on a 5-lane road) and there are more crafty items and knick-knacks to look at (and for the kids to mess with) than your local craft store. It feels warm and homey here. I like it. Although, my backside has knocked a few things off the wall since we arrived :o)

Court and I thanked God for the small blessings today. On a whim we decided to take a small drive to Hershey's Chocolate World and were pleasantly surprised to find that the tour is free - our favorite price! Especially during this season of paying escrows and buying gifts. Last night, we woke up at 2:00 AM to see the lunar eclipse, which was freaky cool. The moon was an eerie red and I can now understand why ancient cultures freaked out over these things since they had no idea what was going on.

Right now, the kids are playing with their cousins and we are watching 'Baby Mama' on TV. If my little guy goes to bed without a struggle then I can officially call this a great day.

I wonder what else we'll do this week....

Yes, I'm Still Here :o)

As the first semester of 1st Grade comes to a close, I'm finally able to think about things that I want to do - like updating my blog!  I prayed a dangerous prayer at the beginning of this school year.  I prayed that the Lord would remove the things in my life that distracted me from what His will is for my life. And I think He was happy to answer that prayer!  

This school year has gone great so far mainly because I've been so focused on the kids and less distracted by other things.  I almost feel as if I've been in some sort of hibernation, however, not isolated.  We've been very active in our homeschool group and have enjoyed several exciting field trips so far: Museum of Natural Science (special mummy exhibit), Renaissance Festival and Six Strings Music Academy.  Each week we enjoy attending classes at our teaching co-op and playing at the park with our homeschool friends.  Ella's reading skills are improving and I'm so proud of her!  However, she is shy about it and tends to clam up when other people put her on the spot.  She's always been that way.  My little guy says that he wants to 'do school like Ella' so I'm going with it!  He sat down and did several preschool worksheets with me the other day.  I taught him the correct way to hold a pencil and he was very careful to do it the right way.  He knows his letters/numbers, but this was the first time that he every tried to trace them.  He was very proud of his efforts :o)  And his sister was proud of him, too.

Our Girl Scout Daisy troop has been wonderful for me and Ella.  The girls have had fun earning petals and patches.  They have also enjoyed grooming horses at the GS camp, seeing 'The Nutcracker' together, and doing service projects such as cleaning up a local park, putting together a birthday box for a girl in need and purchasing farm animals to help needy families across the globe.

Thanksgiving was a fun time for us.  We bought a new car, hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our house (complete with fried turkey!), baked a WONDERFUL pie that we have dubbed the "Court and Leslie Campbell Annual Holiday Pie" (our newest tradition for our little family) and camped in the hill country with my best friend and her family (it was Allison's first time ever to camp.  She did AWESOME!).

December has been a wonderful month for us as we look forward to spending the holidays with family.  The kids have enjoyed some holiday fun, such as: decorating gingerbread houses with friends, watching Christmas movies and listening to Christmas music, decorating the tree, and we are looking forward to the homeschool association's annual Christmas party.  

Several upcoming blog posts will include: The Alford-Campbell Camping Trip, Having a Christ-Focused Christmas, Thanksgiving Lapbook, Most Awesome Holiday Pie Ever and whatever else I like writing about :o)  Blogging is sort of like designing in the fact that I have to feel inspired to blog.  No inspiration means no posts.  I've had plenty to blog about over the past few months, but no inspiration or motivation to do it.  But the blog has been on my mind lately and I've felt the itch to write again.  We'll see what I come up with!

Talk to you soon,

Leslie

(As Christmas approaches, I thought a pic of Buddy and the Coca-Cola bear would be an appropriate choice. The picture above was taken at The World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta)

I Say Ephesians!

 

I'm proud of my lil' booger :o)  He memorized his first Bible verse and got a prize for saying it to his Sunday School teacher today.  He told me, "Mommy, I say Ephesians!  I say Ephesians and I got a prize!  Ephesians 2:10!"  The verse was shortened for his class of 3 year olds to say, "God made us to do good"

I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.  If he can memorize quotes from Harry Potter and Caillou then surely he can memorize a Bible verse.  The Bible verse will benefit him more than the TV quotes, anyway.  It certainly inspired me to share more of God's word with him.  Never underestimate how much a toddler can understand!

In the picture above, he is sitting in the ferris wheel at the Downtown Aquarium.  He was a little bit afraid at first, but he loved seeing all the tall buildings and the highway below.

September Happenings

Sometimes I forget that one of the purposes of this blog is to update our friends and family on what's going on with my family.  So for those of you who must know, here's what's going on with the Campbell's:

We began school several weeks ago and so far so good.  Our homeschool association is also picking up again after a long summer.  We'll begin our co-op classes this month and our first field trip is scheduled for next week.  In fact, the association has planned 2 field trips per month.  Next week we'll be seeing Clint the Snake Guy at the library and in a couple weeks we'll go to the Museum of Natural Science to check out their new mummy exhibit (which will thrill my kids to pieces!).  

Ella is in Girl Scouts again this year.  In fact, just this past week we had our first Girl Scout Daisy troop meeting - with me as a troop leader!  I'm super excited about Girl Scouts!  There are so many benefits to scouting.  I think every kid ought to be a scout!  The girls seem to really enjoy it, too.  But I have to say that I couldn't do Daisies without my co-leader.  I'm sooo grateful for her!  Both of us are fully committed to the troop and we're hoping to lead them as far as they want to go in Girl Scouts.

We signed Christian up to play soccer.  It ought to be interesting...!  He has a LOT of energy and prefers to run instead of walk.  I think soccer may be a good fit for him.  We'll see :o)

The hubby is enjoying his new job and adjusting to his new schedule.  I'm also adjusting to it.  I began waking up at 5:40 to pack his lunch and snacks for the day and make his coffee.  He appreciates it and I enjoy chatting with him before he leaves for the day.  We're still working out at the gym together three days a week - because of his encouragement and help, I can fit into my college jeans and lift more weight than I ever thought possible :o) 

Once he's out the door in the mornings, I'm in my loveseat reading my Bible and spending time with God in prayer before the hustle and bustle of the day.  That special quiet time has made all the difference in my heart and in how I respond to the events of the day.  I've come to crave that time reading God's word and I look forward to spending time my Lord each morning.

I'm still freelancing and enjoying the creative outlet it brings. 

I apologize for not doing a better job of keeping up with our friends and family out of town.  I used to complain about people who do not keep in touch and I've become one of those people!  We get busy and I feel good if I can simply keep up with the day's to-do list.  It's still no excuse, though.  I promise I'll try to do better!

Oh, and that's my husband tearin' up the living room in the picture above.  It's 95% finished and I can't wait for it to be done!

That's what's new with us!  What's new with you?

Strawberry Pickin'

Earlier this past Spring, we went strawberry picking with our homeschool association.

Baskets ready, now time to walk past the blackberry patches to the strawberry field.

Look, she rolled her socks :o)  As a child of the 80's, this makes me quite proud!

Those big boxes fill up in no time!

My little guy loves the color green.  He wanted to pick the green strawberries.  

Row after row after row of strawberries!

The kids loved this.  I encourage you to take your kids to a farm in your area.  It's great for them to see where their food comes from.  And it's just plain fun, too.

Hello, Weekend!

 

:o)

City Girl Goes Camping

In April of this year, the hubby and I were fortunate to get away for a weekend and go camping.  This was the first time I had been camping since I was 14.  When I told my family that we were going camping, they looked at me with disbelief.  Their confusion and amusement was not without good reason.  On the last family camping trip, 16 years ago, I was miserable.  It was hot.  There were bugs.  Lots of bugs.  Bugs love me, but I didn't like them.**

**Although, I must point out that I've overcome my fear of bugs from not wanting to freak out in front of the kids, thus passing the fear along to them.  However, I do have my limits.  I don't do cockroaches and I don't do spiders that are more than 1/2" diameter.

Back to my story: No hot showers, only ice cold water complete with big spiders on the wall (we lived in Oklahoma at the time.  Spiders are to Oklahoma as cockroaches are to the deep South).  Not only was I miserable, but I was miserable to be around.  My family bases my camping abilities on that memorable trip.  They also got a laugh when I said I wanted to be 'camp certified' after I informed them that I am going to be Ella's Girl Scout troop leader next year.  I'm determined to prove my love of nature and the outdoors...as much as a city girl can (with my make-up bag and hair dryer in tow).

So anyway, I was a little apprehensive about staying in a tent at first, but I was willing to do anything to get away for a WHOLE WEEKEND with my hubby!  Thanks to my parents and my dear friend, Tisha (who already has 4 children, bless her heart!), we were able to make it happen.

Our destination of choice was the beautiful Texas Hill Country - Canyon of the Eagles in Burnet, TX on Lake Buchanan, to be exact.  We have stayed in Canyon of the Eagles twice before, but we stayed in the cabins.  This was our first time to stay on the campgrounds.  I have only one condition when it comes to camping: I will NOT go camping in the summer or at anytime when the temperature will rise above 82 degrees.  Luckily, we went on the first weekend of April so the weather was PERFECT!

Isn't our tent cool?!  We bought it at the REI garage sale.  Yep, we got in line at 5 o'clock in the morning for that sale, but I'm glad we did!  That baby only cost us $90 - quite a deal considering a they go for $329.

We also brought along our mountain bikes.  The hubs is really into mountain biking now.  I jumped on the bandwagon because I, too, want to ride a few trails every now and then.  Plus, I like having fun, active stuff to do with Court (that sentence leaves me totally open for all kinds of inappropriate jokes...).

I did help with the preparations a little: I gave my input on what we needed, what we should bring.  But all the credit goes to Court.  He made sure that we had everything we needed for our trip (I'm sure Google helped him with that).  Beer and Words With Friends on my iPhone kept us entertained in the evenings.

Perhaps the best part of our camping experience was getting out and exploring.  We drove along the road until we came to river and thought it would be fun to check it out.  We parked on the side of the rode and crept through the barbed wire onto someone's beautiful ranch land and hiked up and around the river.  I felt like a kid looking through all the rocks to find some nice one's to take home to the kids (my kids love rocks - plus, they make a really cheap souvenir!).

There's nothing quite as relaxing as cooking over a fire in the woods.  Ahh...I wish we were still there....

Another highlight was going to the observatory for a star party (no pics of that since it was pitch black and did not want the flashes of our camera to contribute to light pollution).  The astronomers there were great at showing us all sorts of cool things like Andromeda (our galaxy's nearest neighbor), Saturn, Mercury, constellations, etc.

This big-ass beetle was awesome!  He was so huge that we heard him trampling across the ground before we actually saw him.  See, I can appreciate bugs after all!

You won't catch me camping in the dead heat and humidity of summer, but come Fall I'll be ready for another trip!  As long as the air is cool and the bugs are minimum, I'm a happy camper :o)

Summer at our house:

lazy days, POOL, sleeping in, ROAD TRIP, vacation, PUSH-POPS, wet swim suits, MOVIES, dinner with friends, BASEBALL GAMES, beach, FLIP-FLOPS, grilled steak, TO-DO LIST, reading story books, STAYING UP LATE, day trips to the aquarium, ZOO, washing the car, PLAYING WITH FRIENDS, iced tea, WATERMELONS, 

and still more to come!

Unplug yourself for a while and enjoy life :o)

My Boudoir Dream Has Come True!

As of Monday, I will be the proud owner of this GORGEOUS bedding from Pottery Barn (and it's organic, too!).  

Those of you who know me know that I have been in search of bedding ever since I got married.  The problem is that I'm super picky about bedding.  The only place that has bedding that I like is Pottery Barn.  Throughout the years, I've seen several bedding sets that I love from PB come and go before I was able to buy it.  I could never quite get the hubby on board.  Bedding just isn't that important to him.  Therefore, I was waiting to have the money to purchase it myself.  However, my money always needed to go towards something else other than bedding (no, not clothes and shoes - mostly it went to the kids or groceries).  So, I just had to wait, my wait is about to come to an end!  And guess what - the hubby bought it for me :o)

How has this boudoir miracle occurred?  I guess I have Steve Jobs to thank.  I got a phone call the other day and the hubby starts with, "You're going to kill me."  "What did you do?  Or rather, what did you BUY?!?", I ask.  "An iPad", he replies.  You can imagine where the conversation went from there!  In response, I mentioned that I thought he should buy my bedding...wish granted, however, much sooner than I had thought.  

When I mentioned that he should buy the bedding, I assumed that I'd receive it as a Christmas or birthday gift.  Instead, he called from work a day later and says, "It's done."  "What's done?", I ask.  "I bought your bedding.  Now you can enjoy your quilt and your SHHAAAAMS", he says.  Not only will I enjoy the bedding, but I think the hubby will, too.  We had a hard time finding a set that we both agreed on, but we both like this one.

So, thanks, Hon, for the bedding.  I will enjoy my quilt and my SHHAAAMS for years to come.  And we can sit in bed together under our new quilt while playing Words With Friends on the iPad :o)

From the Mouths of Babes

I'm just dropping by for a blog quickie.  I just HAD to share the conversation that took place between Ella and I last night:

Me: (jokingly) "I wish my mommy was here to tuck me in at night."

Ella: "Your mommy can't tuck you in because she growed up.  When she was young, she married Opa.  Then they had you and you were a child.  Then you growed up and now you're a big woman and Oma and Opa gotted old.  And you know, their going to die someday.  That's just how it goes!"

Well, you can't argue with that!

(the pic above was taken at church - Ella was proud of her Lego creation)

The Month of May and Such

I thought I'd just drop in and give a quick lil' update for the month of May:

*We are in our final weeks of Kindergarten.  I'm almost the proud parent of a 1st grader!  Our homeschool group may have a Kindergarten graduation - I hope they do because I think it would mean a lot to Ella.

*Christian is doing awesome with his potty training!  He has few accidents (although they do happen) and is wearing 'big boy underwear' now.  Diapers are just for nap time and night time.  We take our little potty everywhere in case he needs 'to go' when there's not a restroom nearby.

*I've had more design jobs this month than any other month.  I have finished up three small projects so far and am working on a large project at the moment.  I'm so blessed to have a profession that gives us some supplemental income while allowing me to work at home in my jammies :o)

*Field trips galore!  This month, we will take many nature walks, visit an alligator farm, spend a day at the beach, and probably go to the zoo again.

*I turn 30 this month!!!  I'm determined NOT to feel old.  Instead, I plan on being the sexiest I've EVER been now that I'm eating right and working out at the gym like a mad woman.

The pic above is from mine and Court's campsite in April.  We both wish we were still camping :o)

Kid Currents - April 2010

For those of you who are friends and family, I thought it would be fun to periodically share current bits of information about the kids:

* Christian is constantly singing "Love Shack" by the B-52's.  "LOVE SHACK BABY!!!!!!!!!"

* Ella is reading!!!  I'm so proud!  She's not into novels and newspapers yet, but she can read at an age-appropriate level.

* Christian love the number 1.  When we say he's 3 years old, he says, "No! I'm #1!".  If there is a keyboard or a calculator around, he likes to push the #1.  Then he wants you to push #1.

* Ella is taking a kid's yoga class at the YMCA.

* Christian recently loaded his pockets with crayons at church (without us knowing) and to my surprise his load of laundry was covered in orange crayon.  Luckily, a soak in hot water and a wash in Tide got it out.

* My son simply cannot handle pop-up books.  He eats them.  He makes spit balls with the paper and the ones he doesn't digest get thrown on the floor.

* Poor Ella has had to throw away many sticks of chapstick this year due to her brother eating them.

* Ella and I were playing make-over when she announced that Prince Charming was stopping by for tea.

* Christian has officially bonded with our pug, Big Stuff.  He won't let him out of his sight.  Christian jumps on him, pets him, helps feed him, and plays chase with him.  

* Ella finally understood the importance of learning math when I told her that she had to learn math in order to go shopping when she gets older.  My child loves to shop.  Hey, you gotta use whatever motivation that works!

* My kids think their Daddy is the most awesome guy on the planet (and they're right, he is!).  

* Ella gets mad at us because we won't let her watch iCarly on Nickelodeon.  Does a kindergartener really need to learn all about dating, kissing and liking boys??!! 

* Christian wants a Hubble Space Telescope toy for Christmas...I have a feeling I won't be able to just pick that up at Target.

I hope you enjoyed these quick little updates.  Have a wonderfully blessed day!

Space Center Houston

A couple months ago when my in-laws were in town, we took the kids to Space Center Houston at NASA for the day.  Our 3 yr. old son, Christian, is obsessed with space.  He absolutely loved this place!  His dream is to be an astronaut and visit Mars - along with Uranus ("Her-nus"), the Sun, and the "Dark Nebula".  He told me the other day that he wants a Hubble Space Telescope toy and a Lunar Module toy for Christmas.  And even though Ella doesn't read space books every day like her brother, she still thought Space Center Houston was pretty cool.  And, the trip definitely counts as an educational field trip for our homeschool.

Here is Buddy (a.k.a. Christian) standing next to a rocket booster.

This was pretty cool - it's the front end of a space shuttle.  You climb up the stairs to see the cockpit inside.  That's me, Christian, Ella (behind the blue bars) and some random kid at the top of the stairs.  Who did that kid belong to anyway?!

It's stuff like this that makes lil' Buddy's heart sing.  Astronauts, replicas of the International Space Station, pure joy for a little boy.

In addition to a very large play structure for your child to get lost in, there is a miniature kid-size version of Mission Control in the kid's area.  Buddy loves buttons, so this was perfect for him.  My child did get lost in the play structure, by the way.  We were able to locate him by following the sound of his screaming.

Here's Court trying on a space helmet.  Those things are pretty heavy, by the way.  I guess it doesn't matter much in zero gravity, though.

Unfortunately, I don't have many good pictures of Ella at the Space Center (and the only picture I could find of my in-laws was one with Christian throwing a fit in it).  But, here is Ella looking down into the astronaut training building.  They have exact replicas of a space shuttle and of all the different components of the International Space Station for the astronauts to train on.

Me and my Space Buddy.

This, my friends, is one of the three Saturn V rockets.  It's HUGE and seems to go on forever.  It is so worth going to NASA.  I really hope Mr. Obama changes his mind about cutting NASA's budget - the work they do there is so important to our daily lives, whether we realize it or not.  Plus, they need to stay in business so my little boy can have a job there one day :o)

Our First Science Fair

Well, it's 10 o'clock on a Sunday night so that means that I finally have time to blog about the CHA (Cypress Homeschool Association) Science Fair that took place last weekend.  At first, I didn't think we would participate this year.  I thought we would just visit the science fair to give us an idea what it is all about.  However, a few weeks before I decided to just go for it and asked Ella if she wanted to do it and she was thrilled.  

I asked Ella what she wanted her project to be about and she said, "I want to do a project about Egypt."  What?!  How do you do a science fair project about Egypt?!  Thanks to Google, I found a simple experiment having to do with mummies at Science Kids at Home (click the link to view the details of the experiment).  Ella is fascinated by Egypt's mummies so this was perfect!

The ancient Egyptians used a natural salt called, natron, to dry out the body.  In our experiment, we tested different salt compounds to find out which one would make the best 'apple mummy'.  We purchased two apples of equal size, cut them into fours and placed them in plastic cups.  Ella labeled each cup and measured the salts that would go into each one.  Our apples sat in a dry, dark place for 7 days and then we brushed off the salt for the big reveal.  In our experiment, plain old table salt made the best apple mummy.  

The hardest part was putting our board together.  While Ella can write, she could not possibly write all of the information that had to be on the board.  So, I printed questions for her to answer in her own handwriting (she thought I was torturing her with all the writing I made her do!).  I also printed out some Egyptian images that she colored and then she helped put all the elements onto the board.  She was very proud of her work and was excited to display it at the science fair.  The judges later came around and asked each child questions about their work.  I was afraid that Ella would be shy and not talk, but she did a great job explaining her experiment.  I was so proud of her!

We didn't talk much about winning or prizes before the fair because I didn't want to get Ella's hopes up.  In fact, she didn't even know it was a competition involving prizes until the morning of the fair!  But to our surprise, Ella won second place in the Kindergarten -2nd grade category!  She received a 2nd Place ribbon and got a tadpole habitat as a prize (so I guess this means we'll be the proud parents of a pet frog in the near future!).

Ella was equally excited to see the work that her friends had done.  I was very impressed with all of the kid's entries.  It was awesome to see how the kids took pride in their work and how they were eager to share what they had learned.  

Of course the solar system model was Christian's favorite display, along with the display about the planet Mars :o) 

The best part of the whole experience was seeing Ella enjoyment in learning.  Perhaps that's what I love best about homeschooling.  I pray that learning would be a lifestyle in my home and that my kids will always have a sense of wonder about God's world we live in. 

Like I always say, there's no school like homeschool!

Not Feeling So Very Martha Lately...

I just realized today that I haven't been my creative, crafty, decorating self lately.  Honestly, I haven't even had time to consider such things.  In fact, I let Valentines Day fly by without getting my lovely Valentines decor out of the attic - GASP!  And with Easter just around the corner, I have yet to feel the urge to decorate with little bunnies and eggs.  What the heck is wrong with me?!?  Am I loosing my crafty edge?!

I feel lucky to find the time to keep the house clean, let alone decorate.  Our days are full of homeschool and lately, working out at the gym.  Yes, the Campbell's (hubby included) are trying to get fit.  Although, I have to admit that I'm quite happy right now - I'm doing what I love to do which is teaching my kids.  And they are actually learning, too!  I even realized that lil' Buddy knows half of his letters by sight just from watching me do school with Ella.

This week is Spring Break for public school, but school is still on for us.  However, this week is filled with fun field trips and working on Ella's science fair project.  We'll be taking a trip to the zoo and visiting the Houston Livestock & Rodeo Show - and tomorrow is my 8th wedding anniversary :o)  I may not find time to decorate this week, but my week will be filled with love, fun, laughter, occasional whining, frustrations, hugs, kisses and chaos - Life :o)

But I still want to decorate...I have a reputation to uphold!

Happy Day :o)

Have a Terrific Tuesday!