Vacation stories later.. right now I just wanted to pass along some interesting links:

~Ikea Hacker posted our paper train stations hack the other day. We have been getting new visitors all weekend, so “Hello, new visitors!”

~Subway restaurants hate homeschoolers. This is very disappointing. I understand the prize is for a group, but as the commenters in the blog post suggest, a homeschool co-op or sporting organization of the homeschooler’s choice could have also benefited from the prize. Guess it is a good thing we like Chick-Fil-A and “Happy Donald’s” (aka McDonald’s) more.

~We might be heading toward buying a new all-in-one printer. The old one we have (a Dell) doesn’t pick up paper on its own anymore. We have to force feed it sheet by sheet. Very annoying. I keep seeing this Kodak printer on infomercials, starring Caroline Rhea. Anyone have any experience with it? The ink is cheaper because the microchip is not on the printer head, but in the printer. And the ink is supposed to be more durable because it works with pigments. I also like the idea of the separate tray for the 4 by 6 pictures. I love to know if anyone has one and likes/ dislikes it.

Technorati Tags: Ikea, Ikea hacker, Subway, homeschool, Kodak printer, Caroline Rhea

When I was sharing with a friend our lake house plans, I mentioned we would be going to church on Sunday. Her response was, “You say that like you don’t go to church.” The truth is, we don’t normally go to church when we visit The Lake. But this visit is special.

The church Damon grew up in is merging with another church. Today is Faith Presbyterian’s last Sunday before their merge, so Grandma Linda asked her children to come for the last service as just the Faith church family. So this morning is a mad dash to get ready and out the door before 8 a.m.

We are all rested and happy after a beautiful day yesterday. Some of us are a tad pinker than we were on Friday when we arrived, but we will live (and I will remember to reapply sunscreen sooner than I did yesterday).

Damon’s Aunt Frankie invited us over to her house to swim in her heated pool. This was a welcomed invitation since someone put ice in Lake Martin (as Damon said when he attempted to go in yesterday morning). We took the boat to Aunt Frankie’s house, so we had a relaxing time on the lake.

And with no intelligent segue to this topic, the wireless here isn’t working correctly. I might try to fix it this evening, but I might not try too hard. Keeping my laptop off is kind of relaxing, but I do suffer from a bit of withdrawl. The downside is I’m keeping our pictures to myself until I can upload them to flickr from the laptop. If you don’t see an update from us again until Monday evening or even Tuesday morning, all should be well. And, as mentioned previously, I do update from twitter when I have cell reception (which I don’t have here at The Lake).

Technorati Tags: Lake Martin, family travel

Fuller’s awareness of the space-time continuum is getting better. When we told him we were going to visit Grandpa Albert and Grandma Linda, he waited a whole day before demanding to get in the car and go.

This morning has been difficult, with Fuller’s demands not being met. I have been trying to involve him in the packing process, but he keeps being distracted by toys or a piece of lint. And then he requests to get in the car, now.

I have given him hope we will be traveling soon after Daddy gets home and mows the grass. There isn’t an exact time for this event, but it does give him something to look forward to. Because when I put the bags in the car in the next 20 minutes, he will be disappointed again.

Travel updates found on twitter.

Gardening requires lots of water – most of it in the form of perspiration. ~Lou Erickson

After the poison ivy scare of 2008*, I suited up in long sleeves and finished clearing out the mass of growth behind our house. I was left with a rather tidy spot of dirt that looked… dirty. It was blank and boring.

I had imagined we would have a flower or vegetable garden in this area. It wraps around the side of the house going from total shade to full sun, making it tricky to pick out the perfect inhabitants. And then there was the concept of keeping up with the stuff… I would have to water and weed, deadhead blooms and keep the three year old from mutilating the pretty ones.

I worked hard last Saturday. I went to Lowe’s (by myself!) to pick up various plants- annuals, perennials, herbs, and one tomato plant. When I got home Damon had to help me get the tiller going and then I prepared the soil. Eventually I got down to digging holes for the perennials, found flower pots for the annuals, and put the herbs in a strawberry pot. Damon took charge of making an upside down planter for the tomato plant.

Originally I was really excited about the hydrangea plants, because I have always thought hydrangeas would look good next to our house. And I look forward to cutting the flowers to bring in the house to spruce it up. I bought two that already had pink blooms. We will see if they stay pink or turn blue (it depends on the pH of the soil).

However, my excitement shifted to the Sentimental Blue Balloon Flowers we planted on the side yard. They require full sun, and their picture looked pretty on the plant tag. Within a day of putting them in the yard, the blooms were starting to puff up to look like balloons. As they got bigger, they started to turn blue, and today our first “balloon” popped open.

Small blooms like that make me think our garden will survive and maybe we do have a little bit of green in our thumbs.

*I am still not sure if it was poison ivy or not. But I prefer to be safer than sorry.

Technorati Tags: garden, flowers, hydrangea, tomato plant, upside down tomato plant, sentimental blue balloon flowers

Fuller’s last swim class was yesterday. Here he is with a smile on his face:

The truth is, the class ended in tears. They didn’t use their swim bubbles which seemed to make Fuller really nervous. But it reaffirms my thoughts that Fuller’s lessons will still continue with me and Damon.

I’m still really happy he isn’t scared of the water and can’t wait to go swimming in The Lake this weekend.

Fuller woke up this morning and may have thought it was Christmas.

Damon and I decided Fuller could have his toys back and last night we spent a few hours going through them. We put like items with like items, found all the pieces to puzzles, and put all his toy tools in a new container. We also removed toys we hope will be used by a sibling, were broken (and couldn’t be fixed), and the ones we just thought he didn’t need.

Our church’s Moms Group had a junk swap this morning and I had plenty of things to offer.

Fuller is happy to have his toys back, but it is great to see him putting to use the lessons learned from his week and half of no or fewer toys. I hope the lessons stick.