I went to see the Christmas decorations at a local historical house today . It was a nice tour . The house is always decorated so beautifully . About twenty rooms are decorated . Individuals , groups or companies can ask to decorate a room . Each room has a different Christmas theme . One room may have Christmas dresses , the next may have a lot of ornaments . The kitchen may have many old Christmas cook books one year and a lot of Christmas cookies the next year . The kids didn 't want to go with me . They have gone on this Christmas tour many times . Years ago they would go twice , once with their grandma and once with me . After the tour I always want to do more needlepoint . It gives the house such a homey , warm feel . I need to make some New Years resolutions . I am not sure what to choose . They should either be to start or to stop a habit , or be something that will bring me closer to God . I need to finish writing the Christmas cards and send them out today . We have already started getting cards from other people . We are sending out the picture of the kids in front of the tree . We went out yesterday and got haircuts . William likes his hair really short , but still long enough that he isn 't shaved , or asked if he is in the military . His was so long that it was starting to curl up around his neck . Maggie 's hair is about waist long . She got an inch or two taken off . Beth 's hair is between shoulder length and waist length . She got about an inch taken off . She also got her bangs cut . The style today is that the girls have bangs that hang in their faces . Beth get her bangs cut so that they could be high maintenance . . . every couple of minutes the bangs fall into her face , and she needs to brush them back . She is really delighted with her high maintenance bangs . I got my hair trimmed . When the kids got to grade school they were allowed to pick their own hair cut . , not their color , just the hair cut . William right away picked a spiky , shaved , cool cut to match the tail that he already had growing . We got gel to hold the spikes up . It didn 't work . The spikes fell . It didn 't matter if we gelled them when the hair was wet or dry , or at night or in the morning . We used a little gel . The next time we used more . We asked people for advice . The spikes wouldn 't stay up . After about two weeks , the shaved parts on the sides grew out and no one could tell that they had been saved . He said that he wanted to go back and get a regular cut . He has had conservative cuts since then . He had his tail until high school . Then he said that it was too much of a bother , so he had it cut off . It is cold now . Some days are 17 deg F . Next week it may be forty deg F . Last year it got cold and stayed cold . I don 't know what the weather will be like this year . We put up our Christmas tree last weekend . We had fun . We had Christmas music playing and my camera was out so Beth took some pictures . We had the branches for the artificial tree mixed . When we put it up there weren 't enough of the largest ones to go on the bottom row . We left the blank spots in the back of the tree and went onto the next row . Later we found the rest of the bottom rows branches and put them on the tree . We used about five strands of lights . We have one strand of colored bulbs and the rest are white . This year the colored ones are on the tree going around from the bottom to the top . Last year , I think that all of the colorful lights were all in one area , like all in the middle , or all on the bottom two rows . This year it looks more normal . We have enough ornaments to put three on each branch . There are a lot of stockings that are hung all over the house . We took a picture of the kids in front of the tree . We took a picture of the cat too . Maggie and I made crispy rice treats tonight . It is always nice to get to have some time with one child at a time . We put some M & M 's in them and more on top . Christmas M & M 's would have been festive , but I could only find regular ones . We used the non - peanut ones . It is still rainy here . It should be about 30 degrees for Christmas . It would be nice to have snow , but they say that we won 't get any . William had said that he would shave once a month , at the end of the month . Christmas is this weekend . I have asked if he wanted to shave for the holiday , he is thinking about it . Maggie gets her wisdom teeth out this Friday . She is ready to have them out . Hopefully it will go well and she will heal quickly . They come out at noon but she is going to take the whole day off from school . She can 't have anything to eat or drink for twelve hours before the surgery . The doctor said that she could go to school , but there would be a temptation to get a drink from the drinking fountain , so it was better to stay home , rather than to have to re - schedule the surgery . Maggie goes the the Doctor / Dentist tomorrow to have them look at taking out her molars / wisdom teeth . Tomorrow is the first meeting . Hopefully they will come out soon . I hope that they come out without any problems . William 's came out nicely . We don 't know if Beth will need hers out , they don 't hurt her . Maggies teeth have been hurting . First we talked to the regular dentist about them hurting . He referred us to a dentist that takes the teeth out . It took a month to get into see him . Every week Maggis says " I can feel them growing today . " William just finished this quarter / semester at college . The morning after Thanksgiving we did a lot of our Christmas shopping . I had asked the kids a few weeks ahead to start thinking about what stores they would like to go to . They said the mall and the book store . We got to the mall at around 6 : 30 am . It was busy but not packed . The kids each knew how much money they had to spend . I will go and get them a surprise gift later . I am not sure what we are going to do about church on Christmas . Since the kids are older , they don 't have a Christmas program to be in . Also , this is a new church for us I am not sure if they have a Christmas program . William and I were going to the new church last Christmas , but we were also going to the previous church too . So we went to the previous churches service too . We had Beth 's birthday after the birthday date . She couldn 't decide what she wanted for a present or even what store to look in . We tried to wait for her to decide , but we couldn 't wait too long because we wanted to have her birthday before Thanksgiving . Beth likes cake and ice cream . We didn 't measure the cat again . Thanksgiving was fun . The day before we cleaned the house . One person vacuumed , one cleaned the bathrooms , one swept and mopped the floors and one did clean - up of all of the little things that needed to be put away . Two years ago on thanksgiving , when grandma and my brother came over , the whole meal was done and on the table . We all sat down and ate . It seemed wrong not to have any time together getting the meal to the table . Last year we didn 't have anything done . The night before Thanksgiving we were still setting up the new chicken coop . When they arrived we had to finish up everything . Not good either . This year was better . I planned for the mashed potatoes and the deviled eggs to still need to be done after they arrived . We also had to put all of the other dishes onto serving plates and bake the biscuits . There was a lot for us to do , but it was fun . The kids took turns using the blender on the mashed potatoes , and we spent a lot of time saying to people " did you put a dish - up spoon in that ? " We celebrated William 's birthday yesterday . We had pie and ice cream . Trying to put twenty - two candles in a pie isn 't easy . The candles are close together , but not close enough that if we light one , they all catch the flame . We measured William on the measuring stick . He is 6 ' 2 " . He hasn 't grown in a few years . We also measured our cat . I think that the kids were holding him differently from when we measured him at Beth 's birthday . . . we measure his back , not the top of his head . . . his back must have been arched higher because he has grown two inches since Beth 's birthday . Maggie says that if the cat keeps growing she is going to put a saddle on him . We found a new home for the chickens . William and I took the chickens to their new home today . We couldn 't fit all four of us and the chickens into the car . We loaded the chickens into a cardboard box , with a garbage bag under it to protect the seat , and a towel on top to keep it dark . They didn 't fuss too much on the car ride . The new place is more in the country and has a larger area for them to run . The family already has about seven chickens . They have a coop and an enclosed outside run area . They also have about an acre or two that is fenced that the chickens are sometimes let out to play in . They said that they will keep them in the coop and enclosed area for a few days , so that my chickens can learn where home is . Then they will come back there at night and lay their eggs there each day . It rained today so we didn 't take apart their outside chicken run . We had had the chickens for about a year . Maggie had picture day last week , Beth 's is next week , but we don 't have her order form yet . Maggie has parent / teacher conferences tomorrow . She is in high school . We have an appointment time with the homeroom teacher . Then we can go see the other teachers as they have openings . It is raining sort of hard . It has rained a lot this week . The tomato plant and the beans haven 't needed watered in a long time . Saturday 10 / 1 / 11 William shaved last night ! ! ! He did an excellent job . This was his first time shaving at home . He said that he would shave once a month . In the past we have been having his beard trimmed when he got his hair cut . Last night was a clean shave . I need to start writing the Christmas cards soon . In the cards I put a note about the things that we have been doing over the last year . Last year I had a terrible time thinking of what to say . The note should be more than just what grade the kids are in , but we haven 't had any ' ' big ' ' events this past year . We have a lot going on , but it is all everyday things like homework and cutting the grass . On the cards last year we wrote that everyone was bigger and we were going to try to do more volunteering . Writing every ones address on the card is easy , thinking of what to say isn 't . It might frost soon . We have one tomato plant and a row of beans that will need to be covered . We are going to get rid of the chickens this weekend . They aren 't laying eggs and I need the winter off . If we can find a home for them before the ground freezes , we can pull out the fence posts . If we want more chickens , next spring we can get chicks . We got movies from the library this weekend . The kids watched some of them , but I only watched a few minutes of a couple of them . Some of them looked like fun . Oh . . I 'm sorry . . . I forgot . . . I did watch " K - 9 " staring Jim Belushi ( sp ? ) . It was fun . We need to have a movie night , get movies and sit down and watch some of them . We haven 't had a movie night in a long time . When we watch movies if there is food in front of us we will just eat because there is food there , not because we like it or are thinking about it . Sometimes we have food while we watch movies . First we have cut up vegetables , then we have cut up fruit when the vegetables are gone . Everyone has their own plate and dishes up for themselves . I like to have salad dressing to go with the vegetables . After the fruit we may have a main dish , then if they are still hungry , we have chips with cheese and salsa . It 's a good way to get a lot of fruits and vegetables into the kids without any complaining . William cut the grass today . It was warm today . We went for a walk without a jacket . The grass in peoples yards had just been cut . There was still grass clippings lying in the rows . This week should be easier . We are getting William 's alergy shot on Tuesday instead of Monday . That means that we will have Monday evening off . My next project needs to be cleaning out the basement . When we were going to move a year or two ago , I packed up half of the house . . . half of the towles , half of the sheets , etc . . . and put everything into storage to make the house look less full . When the house didn 't sell we brought everything back and put it in the basement . It all needs to be unpacked . If I could sort out one box a night it would help . I really don 't want to move all of this when we do move . There are not enough lights in the basement , thats why I don 't go down and sort the boxes there . Beth needed duct tape . She has a three ring binder at school that is falling apart . She wants to tape it back together instead of replacing it . We got her some tape at the store today . They have a good selection of colors and designs . When I was young , it only came in gray . William put styrofoam in the opening to the attic and in the two vents for the crawl space . He measures the openings and cuts the styrofoam . This keeps more of the heat in the house for the winter . We checked the boiler today to make sure that it worked . It does . I try to check it before it is needed , then if there is a problem we have time to schedule a repair before winter . Last year it didn 't work . The motor needed to be replaced . The pipes should be bled before we start using it , then the water that is drained out won 't be so hot . The girls have their sandwiches made for their lunches next week . I need to make mine . We put the sandwiches in the freezer , each one of us has their own container . . . William doesn 't have one this semester , he doesn 't have any day time classes . Maggie 's container is round , Beth 's is square and my sandwiches go in the freezer door . It makes the week go so much smoother if we don 't need to make lunches each night . We also try to lay out our clothes for the next week on Saturday . We took Maggie 's Bible back to the store to exchange it . She wanted a teenage Bible . Maggie has a big report to do this semester . She would like to do the report on women in the military . The report must be about something that happened over twenty - five years ago . My only concern with this topic is that there might not be many books about it . Maggie must have at least ten sources . We hope to go to the library this weekend and see how many books she can find . The report is due in about a month . We need a second cat . Our first cat is sweet , but he is lonely . I would like to get another white cat . Our first cat is white . He is a mixed breed with an almond shaped face . . I want a white cat so that if we get up in the middle of the night , there is a better chance that we will see him and not step on him . It would be great if we could get a kitten . We put the Christmas tree up last weekend . The boxes of decorations were in the basement . Every time that something was needed in the basement , everything is re - arranged . After a while the boxes get turned around and moved to different locations . When we needed the boxes this year , none could be seen . I went through the whole basement , sorting and moving and combining boxes until all of the Christmas decorations had been found . Putting up the tree was fun . The kids helped . We had the local radio station playing Christmas music . Always in the past the tree has leaned so much that we had to tie it to two chairs to get it to stand up . Then we put blankets over the rope . . . to make it look more normal . We don 't want the ropes in the Christmas pictures . Then . . . sometimes from the living room . . . we would hear someone call out " tree . . . " and we would all run into the room to help keep the tree up and re - secure it . This year we must have found the correct base . The tree is up straight , and it isn 't tied to any chairs . I am going to give the other bases to Goodwill . We are keeping the rope behind the tree . . . just in case . I have found a green storage box to put the decorations into at the end of the season . Next year should go very smoothly The order forms for school pictures are starting to come in now . Maggie brought hers home today . I have always tried to treat the kids equally , but school pictures are now the exception . The girls go to different schools , so they have different choices , and William doesn 't get school pictures at all , because he is in college . I would love to get a family picture , but William says that he won 't go with us . Tonight William 's class got out on time . He had gotten his homework done during class . Maggie has a spelling test tomorrow . She had a small amount of homework tonight . Beth also had a small amount of homework . So far everyone is doing OK in school . We need to get our volunteer hours done soon . . . before it gets cold out . Maggie needs 12 volunteer hours this semester . Last year we waited until the week before they were due to finish . It was difficult to find places to volunteer in the winter . We could have gone to the parks , but decided that that would be too cold . We ended up volunteering at the Food Bank and at church . A lot of places that we called said they needed volunteers in the summer , but didn 't have any need in the winter . We all go together to volunteer . Sometimes we take a friend with us . My car can only hold 5 people , so we can only take one friend . The leaves are starting to turn colors and fall . I am not ready for cold weather . We went to a local arts festival . Maggie needed another cultural event for school . We took a friend of Beths with us . We had trouble finding his house . I think that at 9th grade the kids haven 't given directions to their house to many people . Luckily Beth had her cell phone and we could call him along the way to get directions . It was a big festival . There were at least 50 booths with work from individual artists . I think that all of them were local artists . There were a lot of pictures , sculptures , jewlery , glass work , drawings and paintings . Beth and her friend got their faces painted . Beth 's open house was fun . We met almost all of her teachers , one was out . Almost every time that we go for an event there , they are giving out popcorn . We stayed a short time in each class . School had only just started , so they were group meetings . Maggie 's birthday was fun . She is 16 now but says that she doesn 't feel any older . My mom and my brother came over for the party . We had spaghetti and garlic bread . Maggie doesn 't like cake so we had pie and ice cream . She got her books and she wanted a Bible . After the party she asked if she could take the Bible back and get a high school one , instead of an adult one . We exchanged it on a different day . We measured everyone , including the cat on the measuring stick and recorded Maggie 's new height . She has grown some . William is taller than the 6 foot stick , so we put his mark on the bottom of the board by whatever amount he is taller than the board . Now that Maggie is 16 , she can have her ears pierced , wear make - up , within reason , and get her learners permit . She says that she isn 't ready for pierced ears , or to wear make - up . At first she said that she would get her permit , but now she says that she will wait for Christmas break to study . Last Tuesday was a busy evening . William had an allergy shot . He had gone to the mall and wasn 't home yet when I came to pick him up . He was a few blocks from the house when I got him . He didn 't have his school book with him so we came home for him to pick it up . I took William to his allergy shot , picked up the girls , and took them home . Then I went and picked up William from his allergy shot and took him to the computer store to get a USB drive to save things on for his class , then took William to school . I went back home and got Beth and took her to her schools open house . After the open house I took Beth back home and picked up Maggie . There was a local book store that was closing and she wanted to get lots of books for her birthday . After that I took Maggie home and went back to William 's school to pick him up . His class ends at 9 : 10 but if he has a little homework he can stay and do it there instead of going back another day . At about 10 PM the gentleman who was cleaning the rooms after the classes were done shut off all of the lights in the building . I went and asked him if one class was still there . He said no . I told him not to worry that William had probably walked home . He walks over there a lot . I went back home , William was already there . They had had a sub and had gotten out early . When I was driving over to pick him up , I probably passed him . The day was over . It was good to be home . William wanted to back the car out of the driveway yesterday . He did a great job ! ! ! Maybe he will want to get his drivers permit soon . - - - - - There was a big rain storm here last night . The electricity went off sometime in the night . In the morning , the food in the freezer was still frozen but the food and the air in the fridge was not as cold as normal . The power came back on at about 9 : 30 AM . This time we had a flashlight with batteries . I would like to get a radio that has a crank to generate power . Then we wouldn 't feel so isolated in a storm , we could tell if it was only our neighborhood or a larger area that was without power . - - - - - Maggie turns 16 this week . I wonder if she will want her ears pierced ? She also could have her drivers permit . We went to the German - American Festival today . William didn 't want to go . We took Beth 's friend . We tried some of the German foods , listened to the bands and watched the German dancers . It was fun . The festival wasn 't huge , but it was fun . - - - - - William starts classes next week . - - - - - The beans in our garden are over one inch tall . The other rows haven 't sprouted yet . We put some old hay between the rows to use as mulch . We do have a mulch pile , but the items aren 't turning into mulch very fast . - - - - - There is a hurricane going up the East coast of America . It came on shore in I think North Carolina and is going up by Boston , New York City and going through the middle of Main . There are so many large cities in it 's path . Beth had her second day of school today . She had fun . They did projects , had to crawl through a string wall without touching the string and do a PowerPoint presentation about their group of four students . When school starts , they will not have classes for a few days , or maybe a week . All of the grades will be there . . . 9th - 12th grade . They will be in groups of one student from each grade . They will do a project together . Starting school this way helps the freshmen to get used to their classmates and the school first , then to get used to all of the other students . The principal said that it cuts down on hazing of freshmen . - - - - - Maggie has been in school for about a week . She isn 't getting the piles of homework yet so we are trying to do a cultural event . This weekend we are going to the German - American Festival . - - - - - William got his new computer screen . He took the whole computer apart and showed us how it worked and what it looked like inside . He did this at the dining room table . There were a lot more pieces than I thought that there would be . Maggie got together with the Girl Scouts last week . They made smoothies and covers for three ring binders . - - - - - Beth has her first day of school today . It is freshman orientation . She is so excited . She took off all of her bracelets and necklaces until she could see what was allowed at her school . She has two days of orientation . I am not sure what day classes start for her . She is going to ask a teacher which day school starts . We all prayed for her this morning for a good year , just like we did for Maggie , and like we will do for William . I took her picture . They also get their picture taken on the last day of school . - - - - - Maggie needs a cultural event and volunteer hours this year . We need to do these soon , since she doesn 't have much homework yet . I went to the library this morning and got all of the local free newspapers to see what cultural events were going on this weekend . - - - - - Our beans have come up in the garden , but nothing else . I think that we put too much dirt on the other rows . I am going to re - plant the other three rows today . Each row is only about four feet long . We got everything done today except for having Lizzy pulling the car in the driveway and me calling the church . I called the church , but the pastor is on a mission trip and will be back in another week . - - - - - We started fall cleaning today . We have a lot to take to Goodwill , the resale book store or throw away . It feels good to do deep cleaning . - - - - - Maggie 's first day of school went well . Her best friend was there . The kids had placement tests and talks about being polite in their college classes . They had pizza and bottled water for lunch . They could buy ice cream to support one of the clubs . - - - - - Maggie saw a lot of her old friends and talked to two freshmen . She also got her schedule . That was a big relief to her . She really wanted to see what her classes were . - - - - - William is ordering a computer screen for his laptop from E - Bay . He will know tomorrow if he won the item . His screen is cracked . . . bent . . . . he is able to take his screen off of his laptop and put a new one on . Maggie went to her first day of school today . They didn 't have classes , but had standardized testing . Maybe this is placement testing . There weren 't any parents there so I came home . If there had been a chance for some parent volunteer hours , I would have stayed . Maggie looked very comfortable with her friends . - - - - - Our turnips have sprouted . - - - - - Today we need to get William 's allergy shot and get him a calculator for school , pick up Maggie from school and get Beth some safety glasses for school . - - - - - I need to call the old church today and tell them that we are going to go to another church . I am not looking forward to calling . I need to call the Pastor and call someone from my Bible study . I don 't want to call , but if I do it today , then I can stop thinking about it . I did get a short nap today . - - - - - The girls and I took a short walk around the cemetery today . Just a short walk . It was good to get some exercise . - - - - - We have been having the kids pull the car up to the garage . Maggie pulled the car in today . It was her first time to drive . Beth is next . William was last week . I want them to start pulling in the car all of the time . They should get drivers licenses . . . someday . When they feel ready to get their licenses , I want them to feel comfortable in the car . William will be 22 on his birthday , Maggie will be 16 and Beth will be 15 . They just arn 't ready yet . No one wants to get the learners packet . - - - - - We grew some melon plants inside from seeds for part of the summer . When we planted the garden in the backyard these two plants . . . and all of their vines . . . were moved outside . Their leaves have started perking up . I haven 't seen any melons starting to form . - - - - - William got his braces off today . He has such a big smile and his teeth look great ! ! ! We planted the garden today . William planted peas , Maggie planted spinach , Beth planted cauliflower and I planted turnips . Our garden is about four feet by five feet . We had some dry whole corn that the chickens wouldn 't eat . The kids spread it around the backyard . We are hoping that the birds will begin to eat it . - - - - - We got some of the school supplies today . Maggie didn 't have a list of supplies , but she knew that she needed two more shirts and a planner . Beth had a list from two teachers and William needed lead for his pencil . We found everything at one store . If the kids get additional lists from their teachers , we will go out again when after school starts . - - - - - We went and saw the movie " Cowboys and Aliens " . It was a lot better than I thought it would be , and a bit scarier . . . I am a chicken . . . The aliens kept jumping out of nowhere . - - - - - Tomorrow the only thing that we have planned is going to church . William signed up for school today at the college . He has a late class one night a week . He was excited to be signing up . - - - - - The garden is ready to plant . On top of the newspsper , we have put flattened cereal boxes and straw . Then we dug up dirt from the chicken run . It has a lot of chicken droppings . On top of that I would like to put compost . The garden should be planted soon . When winter comes we can put the hoop house over it . - - - - - School starts soon . The kids need haircuts this weekend and we need to look at school supplies and clothes . - - - - - Maggie finished her summer homework today . I want to take a look at it before it is printed . - - - - - I would like to move to a house that has a bigger yard and a wood burning stove . Posted by We need to plant the garden this weekend . Today we choose which seeds to plant . There are too many choices , so all of them can 't go in . We want to switch churches . This is a painful decision . The kids and I have been going to another church for a few months , along with going to our current church . We all like the new church better . We fit in better . The current church is a traditional church , with most of the congretation coming from that area . . . we drive across town to get to it . It is in the area that I went to high school in . We are from another area . . . the kids don 't go to the same schools , so they may have different holiday days off , and different snow days . . . and we have just never felt comfortable there . We have been there for about ten years , so we did give it a fair chance . I want to be sure that we are changing because this will be a better place to worship God . Last weekend William trimmed the hedges in front of the house . They look so nice when William cuts them . When I try , they look like eye brows . The girls cut the grass . Maggie cut the front yard and Beth cut the back . This was the first time that they had cut it . When we first bought the house we had an old - time lawn mower , a push mower with no motor . It might be called a reel mower . The girls were too short to push it . When we got a new one . . . with a motor ( because we can 't find anyone in town to sharpen the blades on the first one ) . . . William and I mowed the grass . All three kids did a great job . - - - - - I started the garden . The first layer on the grass is newspaper . . . to kill the grass , I put sticks on the paper so it wouldn 't blow away . I planted some parsley , carrots and a few other plants . Not many plants , but a start . As we get more plants , they can go in , and when the compost is ready it can replace the sticks . I know that it is late in the year to start a garden , but the kids and I built a hoop house ( framework for a greenhouse made of PVC ( plastic ) pipe ) last summer and it can go over the garden when it gets cold out . School starts soon . - - - - - Maggie is finishing her summer homework . She had to read three books , listen to three songs and watch three movies from the teachers list of choices . Then she needed to write a short paper on each one . She still needs to watch two movies . Tonight we all watched " 13 Days " . It was about President Kennedy and the Cuban Miscle Crisis . We are going to start a garden this week . I know that it is late in the year , but a lot of gardeners plant successive plantings throughout the summer . I looked at my seed packets and some of them mature in sixty days . If winter does not come until October , November . . . December , we could get a good harvest . The garden is about five feet by five feet . We didn 't plant at the beginning of the year , there were rabbits in our neighborhood . The rabbits are gone now . - - - - - School starts soon . I 'm not ready . I need to order school shirts for Maggie and Beth . Sign William up at college , get school supplies and the rest of their clothes , and haircuts . Have I forgotten anything ? - - - - - We may go ice skating this weekend . There is a rink here in town that is open year round . We need to do something fun and different this weekend . - - - - - Our three chickens have quit laying eggs . It could be because it is too hot , above 90 deg . each day . Hi , I 'm back . I have missed blogging . There are entries in my journal that I would like to share . The entries start from July of this year . Since my last post , William is in college , taking programming , Maggie is in Early College High school . She is a Sophomore , but they have two years of high school , with a few college classes , then the last two years are all at the college . The classes move pretty fast . This school isn 't looking for the brightest kids in town . . . even though she is bright . . . , they want the kids who could pass college if they got a chance to go . . . but maybe English is their second language , or their parents didn 't go to college , or they are poor , etc . . . . She is really happy there . We are all holding our breath waiting for all of the homework to start being assigned . Beth just started high school . I didn 't want her in a public high school , I think that they are too rough . She is in a charter school , which is really part of the public school system . . . so it is free . This school studies engineering . She had wanted to go to the performing arts charter high school , but we couldn 't find her standardized test scores from grade school , and the school filled all of their spots . She likes it there . - - - - - We have three chickens that I call " Millie " , " Hattie " and " Nettie " . The kids call the " Breakfast " , " Lunch " and " Dinner " .