FOTR

What is FOTR?  Find out more here -- http://www.familiesontheroad.com/

We are in the beginning stages of figuring out what we need to do for this to become a reality (and I love the idea of downsizing to a simpler life).  There is so much of this country that we haven't seen and this is the only way it will happen.  Not to mention we have friends/family who live all over and we'd get a chance to see them.  And, we homeschool, so it would be a great learning experience for the kids.  They weren't too sure of the idea when I first started talking about it (I grew up in a family that camped and I loved it!) and then we went looking at RVs.  That was an eye opener for them and now they are excited, too.  Even if we don't go on the road, we've decided we want an RV so the kids and I could at least visit different campgrounds while Kirk is working jobs that cause him to drive too many miles everyday (the joys of living in a rural area).  So, either way, it looks like an RV is in our future, provided we can save enough.

I have become friends on-line with another homeschool mom who's family lives this way, and we may be able to meet up with them this summer (Yeah!).  It will have to be in a tent but that's what we are used to anyway ;).  She keeps a blog of their travels if you want to check it out.

Off to daydream some more...

Ah, Spring!

I am absolutely loving warmer weather!  Noelle and I rode bikes and it was so nice to get around quickly.  We walked a lot over the winter and that works but bikes are so much better :-)  For dinner we had grilled chicken, baked potatoes, and Broccoli Normandy.  Kirk and I even had ours on the deck which I spent most of Saturday putting back in order.  I love a simple life!

Pymatuning

On Saturday, we decided to go to Pymatuning Reservoir.

We stopped at the car wash on the way and the kids and I took some goofy pictures.
We had originally planned to go to the deer park (actually a small zoo) but the place was crowded beyond belief (we'll go back on a weekday). We were hungry anyway so headed into Jamestown for some lunch. Then we drove over to the dam to explore.
Next we drove to the other end of the reservoir to feed the carp. Noelle has a joke she tells about how to cook a carp: Take a pine board and nail the carp to the board, cook in a 350 degree oven for 4-5 hours, take out of oven and throw out the carp, eat the pine board ;o)
Here's a couple videos of the hungry buggers:

We stopped at Family Ties on the way home and ate dessert instead of dinner. I mean come on, who has room for dessert after eating a meal? ;o)

To top off the day, we went for a walk to see how progress was coming on the community swimming pool. The plaster crew came all the way from Texas and they were swarming all over the place trying to get things finished for the opening in a few days.

All in all, a very busy day!

What is it

with my weekends being so busy lately?

Last Saturday (5-30) we traveled to Erie. We needed to buy Kyle a paint ball helmet for an upcoming air-soft battle with 9 other teens. We decided, since we were going anyway, to make a day of it. In addition to searching for the helmet, we also ate lunch at Ponderosa, watched Race to Witch Mountain at the discount theater, shopped for a baby shower gift, and wandered around the mall. Sunday morning was church and then the baby shower. Poor Noelle got stuck, along with two other girls, watching the little ones. She didn't find it fair (but handled it very maturely), she wanted to see what gifts the baby got, especially the look on Cheyenne's face when she opened the gift from us (an absolutely adorable little blue bathrobe that Kirk picked out).

Last night (Friday) was the air soft battle and Ky had a good time but came home exhausted. Kirk picked him up so that this morning Noelle and I could go to the community yard sales in Pleasantville (I haven't missed this in 4-5 years). We got up early to pick up Cindy and help her get her sale set up (Barb let her set up in her front yard), then off we went. Lets just say it involves a lot of walking because Pville may be small but it is spread out. We found many bargains and a lot of good food to eat. Tomorrow we have church and an evening fellowship time around a fire. It was going to be a dinner but changed, now I need to return at least one of the bags of fresh spinach I bought for the salad I was going to make. See what I get for being prepared ;)

Evaluation Day

Thursday, May 28th

I really do want to be better organized for evals next year. However, this year I spent a lot of time putting things together over the last two weeks (ie. not much sleep). We are supposed to learn from our mistakes and I sure hope to learn from this one.

Anyway...

In the van we went, along with our paperwork and our DVD National Treasure 2 (yes, our van has a DVD player in it). I wasn't sure if trying to watch a DVD and riding in a vehicle wouldn't make one of the kids sick. They said they didn't have even a hint of queasiness, as they could see the road and watch at the same time. Obviously, all I could do was listen since I was driving but even just listening made the trip go faster.

We travel to Erie for the kids' evaluations because we really really like Myrilee and she came highly recommended :o) I think its normal to hope you've done enough to satisfy the state where homeschooling is concerned and when we left Myrilee's house I felt like a champion, lol. She lives on Lake Pleasant Road and we usually have a picnic at the lake on the way back home. This year it was pouring down rain so we waved at the lake as we drove by and decided to eat at McDonald's in Union City. Kyle and Noelle really enjoyed this as we haven't eaten at a McD's in a long long time. I thought thank goodness for dollar menus.

I slept well that night.

Treasure Hunting

I just found out about Letterboxing and think it sounds very interesting. We love being outside and this would be a great way to explore new areas. There is a book called The Letterboxer's Companion by Randy Hall that introduces you to this. Our library doesn't have it but another library in our county does so I'm going to reserve it. There is also a Wikipedia page on it.

Have any of you done something similar to this before?

Another Family Trip

It was a whirlwind two days and the kids had their first stay in a hotel, although none of us got much sleep. We were going to go camping but the weather made us make a change in plans.

We wanted a whole day at Carnegie Science Center, so we slowly worked our way there the day before. We drove, ate brunch at Eat n' Park, shopped at the Grove City Outlet Mall, drove, checked into The Red Roof Inn off the interstate, shopped at The Cranberry Mall, ate Wendy's for dinner, back to hotel room, watched some tv, and went to bed. Next morning; ate donuts for breakfast, got ready and packed everything up, drove into Pittsburgh (ah, the exhilerating stress of roadwork and messed up traffic), walked around until CSC opened in an hour, saw Heinz Field, walked along the Ohio River, and took pictues. Time for CSC, four floors of science and a submarine to explore. After experiencing everything we could, we started our very long drive home (we did break it up by stopping to eat dinner at Hoss's).

Family Trip to Rimrock

What a view!




A fissure in the cliff with a stairway.


On the trail below the stairway. This is so cool!


Is this a fairie haven? If not, its a good place for a rest.


Kings of the rock!



Big rock! My family look like ants!


A cave!



God's creation is so amazing!!!!!

My Transportation

My bicycle tires went kaput about a week and a half ago (can we say dry rot?). Kirk offered to buy me a new bike (my Schwinn was 16 years old) but I told him to just buy me some new tires and inter tubes. Well, a couple days later he came home with what I asked for but the valves on the inter tubes were like nothing I had seen before. So onto the Internet I went to search them out. There are two different types of valve stems; shrader and presta, mine were presta and I needed an adapter to inflate them.

While I was waiting for all that I needed to get my bike back on the road again, Kyle let me ride his mountain bike. Wow, it needed constant peddling to get anywhere so I have been getting a real workout using it.

Today, with the help of Bicycle Tutor, I put my bike back together! Boy does it feel good to be able to coast again ;)