No more alone time.... and Chinese food....

There is always one child home, now. With Kaitlyn doing the on-line school, I have no "alone" time. So my days of lazing on the couch eating Bon Bon's are a thing of the past. I have to at least put on the front that I do something all day. Like laundry, toilets, floors, running errands, etc. I'm exhausted from the effort..... I don't know if I can keep this up for another 9 months while she is still living at home. Anyone have some ideas?

Not much going on up here. Snow and a bit more snow are the main topics. David and I did do a Chinese New Year presentation for Hunter's kindergarten class on Wednesday. All the kids had a good time and we throughly enjoyed the experience. We started out with our 4 delivering a New Year salutation in Chinese to all the little ones. Then we played the video of Olivia making dumplings and took questions. We got a very sweet Thank you card at the end of the day signed by all the students. It is now on the fridge.

Day before yesterday we were invited to a friends house for a Chinese meal. So off we went to have a great dinner and spend time with Fen and her family and friends. When we arrived we learned the true meaning of a "Chinese Hot Pot" (example in pic). WOW! Fen had shrimp, lamb, beef, fish balls, meat balls, lobster, squid, cabbage, a type of chinese potato, glass noodles, and anothe type of noodle, another type of green vegetable similar to greens... the list goes on. We had typical Chinese snacks, real tea (not in a bag), wines, soda's, etc. Now this meal would be considered a "nice" meal not a typical family dining experience. Fen is so funny as she doesn't like "Western fare" and is always on me to cook Chinese. So we decided that when the time comes she and I will go shopping and she will show me what to purchase so that I can cook this type of meal (and others) at home. I guess one day I'll be cooking more Chinese than American.

I already cook rice soup a lot of mornings for the kids to have for breakfast and they love it. Everyone has their own special add-ons that they like. ie: honey, cinnamon, sugar and cinnamon, etc. Mom likes it plain or with honey.

more news coming shortly.....

Celebrations...

Well as usual I forgot to take the camera with me to the school for my run through all the classrooms for the Valentine Day parties. All the classes were decorated and filled to capacity with treats and crafts to be done. I ended up taking Ryan with me and we went to all the classes at least 3 times. So I've definitely had my walk for the day.

(Ryan is the son of the lady who teaches the kids Chinese on Saturdays. Rea-rea teaches the kids for free so on Fridays I pick up Ryan at about 3 and keep him for a playdate with my group until about 6. That way I feel like we're trading services)

This year we get to celebrate Chinese New Year and Valentines Day on the same day. But tonight we went to China Inn 2 for the Chinese Schools Chinese New Year celebration. This is a video of the kids reciting a New Year salutation to everyone. This is the year 4707 and the Tiger is the zodiac symbol.

Update: I've removed the video due to apparent technical issues.

Baby Sweaters, fish tanks, celebrations and more....

Would you just look at this face! How precious! I have no idea who's child this is but she sure reminds me of the 4 - I have in my house..... just as precious. We've got 1 new addition to the friends list with the birth of Jude last Friday in Toronto, CAN. and I've knitted this sweater for him. Just putting the finishing touches on it and then I got the bright idea of knitting one for another addition (a girl) that is due to make an appearance in a couple of months. So here are the sweaters with my own crocheted addition at the edge to weight down the rim.






just needs a button....





Well its been a while since I last posted a video of my fish tank. So I thought you might enjoy seeing just how much Bamboo, my shark, has grown since you've last seen him. He's now almost 1.5 years old and has grown quite a bit more than the projected 11" a year. Please excuse the cloudiness of the tank I had just fed everyone and you'll see Bamboo do a bit of scavenging. Enjoy....

I finally finished this pair of socks about a week ago. They took about 5 weeks to knit. A lot of work, but just beautiful. I love all the single cables. I'll be starting on another pair, similar to these probably this weekend. I can't wait! This next pair will be purple!

Check back later for pics of the Valentine Parties at school and the Chinese New Year Celebration that we're attending tonight...

Its time for an update I guess.....

So where to start? We've had an interesting experience trying to help Kaitlyn achieve her desire to join the Navy and it has quite literally reached the state level in getting answers. So let me start at the beginning and try to make sense of all this for you.

If you've followed this blog you'll know that a couple of weeks ago Kaitlyn went in to take the pre-ASVAB test to determine if she would be qualified to take the original test. She did very well and all we were waiting on was the Naval Education Officer to contact the high school for her transcript. We received a call the following Monday, I believe, that absolutely stunned us. According to the Navy, Kaitlyn was not eligible to join at this time due to her attending an on-line school.

Now let me step back at this point and do a little filling in. Academy On-line has been in business for 8 years. It is free to any student who wishes to attend BUT if you decide that this is not for you and drop out or transfer back to a regular school, you owe the district $200 per course that you are enrolled in. (Kaitlyn is taking 5 courses for graduation requirements.)

The On-line school was brought into existence due to a request by the Dept. of Defense. BUT! The 4 branches of the military view "on-line" schools as "Tier 2" schools which fall into the group with Home Schooling, GED, etc. Traditional schools are considered "Tier 1". The military does use "Tier 2" schools without the 15 hours of college credit, only when there are not enough people joining from "Tier 1" schools. AND neither the Navy or the Air Force, Kaitlyn's two choices, know when they will receive word to start pulling from the "Tier 2" schools. It could change tomorrow or next year.

Also the Navy and Air Force save jobs/schooling in two groups. The first group, which are the more desirable jobs/schools, are saved for "Tier 1" students. The rest of the jobs are for the "Tier 2" students. So by waiting Kaitlyn is taking a chance that the Linguistic school could be full and not taking new students.

Now our dilemma became if she continues on in the On-line school then she will have to attend college for one semester (15 hours worth of classes) and then she will be able to join any branch of the military as long as she tests well on the ASVAB. But remember she's taking the chance that she may not get the job/school that she wants.

If we pull her from the on-line academy to put her back into the traditional school then we owe the district $1000.

Now because of all this mess the District has released us from the $1000 bill if we choose to re-enroll Kaitlyn back into traditional school because this is a situation that is out of our control and was unknown to the District. So now we have District 20 re-evaluating and contacting State level individuals about this situation. I'll be interested to see how it all shakes out, but for the moment it doesn't help Kaitlyn get into the Navy or Air Force. So....

The decision we made was to keep Kaitlyn in the on-line school and let her complete 15 hours of college at Pikes Peak next fall. So the soonest she could join the military would be January 2011.