Our Homeschool yearbook picture 2009-2010

 As you can tell this homeschooling mom also has the photography and digital scrapbooking fever, I have given up my glue and scissors for my mouse and Photo-shop Elements 7. I can't just post a plain picture without adding some color and elements to it. Our home school association puts together a yearbook for all the families in the area that are interested, the top digi scrap is a recap of our year. We celebrated the birth of a driver as Mr K turned 16, we saw Miss S loose both of her 2 front teeth and Miss L get more and more sassy as usual. We also mourned the loss of our "Papaw Tom" (my daddy) as he lost his long battle with cancer. Being a homeschooling family made it all the more easy to spend his last days at his bedside and let the kids say their goodbyes and "I love you's". Our family has only grown and came closer together since we started homeschooling, I don't think that we would ever be able to do it any other way.

~~~Leslie~~

Beautiful day for memories

April 9th we traveled to South Carolina to the Medical School of USC for the annual memorial service for those families that chose to donate their loved ones body to science. This was my father's choice to help others and let his legacy live on thru the hands of a doctor that might just be the one to help find a cure for cancer or just treat patients that have cancer with extra care. The "gift of body" program at the USC medical school was such a blessing to our family, they took care of everything the night my father passed on to his next destination, at the foot of Jesus. My mother did not have any expense to worry about, they even sent all the family a thank you card for our "gift".
Here are a few pictures of the Memorial garden that is on the campus of USC in Columbia S.C. and a few of the kiddos.

 

Below is the long hallway that the students travel going to class's, we walked these hall's from the memorial service in the chapel to the garden's where they had a reception for the families and we were able to go see the memorial garden. The wall in the garden contains the remains that have been cremated after they are done with all medical studies. Each medical school class is represented on this wall, and a book is there with the listing of your family member and the year in it. You will notice "Thomas G Conway Sr" is listed for the year 2009.

 

The young man in the picture below was actually one of my dad's first "Awana" kids at church, he is now a medical student at USC and part of the "gross anatomy" class that might have worked with my dad's body.

My mom (on the left) and our family friend Ms Rachel had a wonderful talk with him at the reception.

 

A happy note at the end of the day :) 

Thank you for letting me share, it was a tough day for all of us, my family all came and it was even my middle brother's birthday ;( My dad would have been proud.

Smile!! you are on camera....again :)

A handsome smile!
A missing my front tooth smile!
Puppy dog birthday smile!
All different, but so much the same grinning kiddos

And one "getting her groove on St patty's day grandma smile!
Love it!

~~Growing up, oh so fast....

As I remember the day that my oldest child was born, some 16 years ago, I shed tears now thinking of how small, sweet and wonderful he was. The sweet smell of little baby boy was almost intoxicating and I was instantly in love with a 5 pound 15oz bundle of joy, even though he screamed constantly, wanted to eat every hour on the hour and spit up on me for the entire first year of his life. We move forward way to fast and before I knew it he was taller than me, now driving and going to his first big event with a young lady. I embrace the teen years now with reluctance, my emotions are changing daily and I want my baby back.....now!
Below are some recent pictures of K driving ( after mommy got off the hood of the car) and he and his beautiful date to the Newton-Conover High School Military ball (Miss T is a Jr-ROTC cadet), they look so good all dressed up.

B

~~ Leslie (sappy mom of the year) :)

~~ Barn owl watching~~

Our new obsession is watching this pair of barn Owls named "Molly and Mcgee" in their "owl box". The kids and I have been learning all about barn owls and incorporating this into our lessons each day. I am working on some lapbooking and notebooking projects they can use also. Hope to share these here soon. Stay tuned~~

Leslie aka "mommy owl-o-holic

Snowfun January 2010

A little digi scrap of our fun day outside

Spoiled rotten piggies, the bottom step was hidden beneath the snow

Got to feed to birdies and the squirrels some food

Goofy goober did not want her picture taken

This pink diva was throwing snowballs at me :)

On January 29, 2010 it began to snow, by morning we had a thick blanket of white stuff

all over our yard, totally 11 inches in some spots. What a mess, I am so ready for spring, but these girls have had a blast outside everyday playing in the snow.

The weatherman is even calling for more ice and rain tonight, yuck. This busy mom has to work the next 2 days and drive in it. More pictures to come soon.

Snowed in~~~~ Leslie

~~Hope Eternal~~

A poem written several years go by my father was found recently on his computer.Such a powerful message about cancer and the power of hope that is eternally foundin our Savior. We celebrated the life of my daddy "Mr Tom" today in a beautiful memorial service that spoke of his life and how special he was to many people.
Now he is celebrating in heaven with many loved ones that have already gone on.The link below takes you to his Legacy.com webpage so you can see how special he was to us.

Legacy memorial site here

~~Leslie~~

Mommy can we play sand??

One evening L and S begged me to play with a bucket of sand that we keep in our classroom, so I gave in and let them. Little did I know ,as they ran back and forth to the kitchen filling up cups of water, that a huge mess was in progress. But they had fun and actually played together without arguing, so I just cleaned up the mess. One of them at one point had her feet in that bucket and says "look mommy I'm at the beach".
~~Leslie~~

What are heros??

Hero's= Parents

Thru thick and thin, better or worse my parents have stuck it out for the long haul of over 45 years. I love them for the fact that they are my parents, nothing sugar coated, just ordinary people with extra ordinary love for each other and us.

Glue= Jesus Christ

Without the glue..............nothing can stick together!!

My father is dying with liver cancer that has metastasized to other places in his body now, but knowing that he will sit at the feet of Jesus is the glue that is holding me together now. My grandmother will meet him at the gate and hug his neck so tight, she would be so proud of him now. Once an alcoholic, cancer brought him to the cross after many years of prayer and planting of seeds that grew into years of service to the kindom of God.

~~~Leslie~~~

Child of God

Daughter of grace

Up Up and Away

For the second year in a row at Vacation Bible School we have done a "balloon" sendoff for whatever grade we have been teaching. This year was the 3rd graders turn. We picked red balloons this year so they were easily seen in the sky as they flew away. Attached to each and every balloon was a card with our church's name, phone number and website http://woodlawnbaptist.org plus the ABC's of how to become a Christian. Our hope is that someone would find the card and come to know Jesus as their personal savior. Last year the 2nd graders sent off the balloons and a lady in Georgia actually found one of the cards in her yard and called back to tell us.

After a short prayer, all the kids and teachers let their balloons go and we all watched from the church courtyard as they went "up up and away".

~~~Leslie~~

Where the heck have I been??

I am not really sure myself! Since April our household here has been pretty hectic, and I wonder why my hair is grey (only when I can't find some new hair in a box). We have weathered storms of illness's - first my father ,who can't seem to behave himself, has been in and out of the hospital with cancer/chemo related complications. We found out that his cancer has spread , but with prayer and faith we praise God for everyday.

Then it was my turn to not behave (yes me) because I take after my daddy:). I have been told that I am the most stubborn nurse and my yucky gallbladder full of gallstones finally caught up with me (while we were out of town at a beach wedding). I had been running away from this little problem for about 2 years. Gallbladder problems and fried seafood do not mix I found out the hard way, but ohhhhh was it gooooood!! I ended up with all sorts of problems and surgery in May. Have I mentioned how much I hate being a patient myself??

June seems to be the month for Mr B to take a turn with being very sick, we are just getting over a bowel obstruction. Thank you to his late night "almond" cravings he had to endure 2 ambulance trips, an ER visit and a little vacation in the UNC hospital system. I am amazed by the power of prayer, he was so sick and I was getting worried about the way things were looking, then he turned around for the better. God at work in our lives again!!
In addition to being sick and taking care of my hubby, I have had to endure a major water leak that poured into our basement( 2 days after I was home from surgery)and the install of our new heating and air system. I am so ready to go back to work and get a break. That is where the heck I have been!
~~~Leslie~~
aka: stubborn and stressed in NC

Our Yearbook Picture

Each year our local homeschool support group (ACE) does a yearbook, (yes we are socialized enough to have a yearbook) and each family does a page to show some of our pictures or activities for the year. This is our page for the school year 2008-2009. Just wanted to share. I used Photoshop 7 with some digi-scrap templates and elements to put it together. The flip-flop picture was taken on our recent trip to Topsail island, the other pictures were taken by my wonderful photographer friend Sheri Allison www.sheriallison.com .
~~~Leslie~~~

Mr Nasty...go away!!!

Do you ever wonder where "flu bugs" or

"Mr Nasty comes from?? I want to know

so I can kick his butt like he has kicked our

butt the last week. First was me, I got up last Wednesday

and all of a sudden I was headed to the bathroom. I hate

to puke!! Despise it! I ended up calling in sick to work,

one thing I hardly ever do. I crawled back in the bed

with my trusty bottle of Phenergan and went into a coma.

Got up later that night feeling better. Mr B came down

with it late Thursday after the "cheetah girl's" birthday

party, I put him to bed and prayed he did not mess up

his back surgery site with all the vomiting. I thought we

had it beat until early Saturday morning, I awoke to the

lovely sound of the "lil diva"yelling "MOOOMMY" and

a loud SPLASH of yucky stuff all over her floor.

OH NO "Mr Nasty was back and had taken the littlest

chip off the Block hostage.

In a mad rush to get to a Self Defense Class that morning,

I cleaned her up and got her tucked in my bed with her

"bear-bear"and with Mr B looking at me like "you are

gonna leave me" ?

Yep buddy, she is all yours" :) He does not do well with

vomit. Luckily they slept while I was gone.

She continued to make my day with more sickness and

fun, then her sister says" I don't feel good, my tummy

feels funny".Ahhhhhhhh, Go away Mr Nasty bug!!!

Clorox in hand I cleaned the bathroom to get ready for

more fun. Why am I a nurse at home!! The cheetah

was slowed in her tracks and crawled into bed to

hibernate in her cheetah lair under the loft bed,

for 2 days of Gatorade and Motrin/Tylenol.

She brought me the thermometer at one point and says

"is 103.7 a bad number" "I am a hot potato mommy"

"Is my brain gonna fry"? "Am I gonna get a shot?"

"I think I need to go to the Er now (what am I??

chopped liver ??does she even know how long I have

been an ER nurse?) I laughed and just told her, "no

mommy is gonna take good care of you right here

at home, in our own little hospital." Even though this

mommy wanted to pull all of her hair out by this time.

(funny what kids think about illness)

We made it to Monday and off mommy went to work

in the real "nuthouse" called the ER. I think Mr Nasty

followed me out the door to work and I passed off to

some other poor sucker......Yahoo and good riddens to ya!

~~~~~~~~Leslie ~~~~~~~

aka : Chief Butt wiper and Imodium AD distributor :)

"what ever you do, don't say you are sick and then bend over

mommy will get you"

Happy St Patty's day!!

What a crazy week!!

What a crazy week here at the ol' Blockhouse!! Even though I have been off work a few days, the craziness seems more that a really busy shift in the ER. We had a birthday girl turn 9 on Tuesday, whoo hoo for the "cheetah -girl" who is sassier that ever. My daddy got to come home from the hospital a little earlier that my mom thought, not sure if that is good or not. His liver cancer is growing now and probably outside his liver, which they are calling "in the nodules". He needs to get stronger before more chemo, but the mention of going to a "rehab facility" or " assisted living" facility seemed to get his attention...."Oh no I'm not". Maybe that will get his butt in gear for healing at home.

And to top the cake my hubby finally got to have his back surgery today, 3 months after his fall at work on an icy December morning. He is recouping well tonight and will hopefully get to go back to work in 6-8 wks or less. My brain is about fried tonight and I am still up, so I am blogging away.

Algebra I has also contributed to the short circuiting of my brain tissue this week. My teenager has some struggles with his math and thought Mom was gonna know how to do those equations. Well after some heavy thinking and figuring we actually got it. A light bulb went off and he and I actually understood all those multi- step equations. Go momma go...... Go K- Dogg go.... now what is next??

To top off the entire week, we had a wonderful winter storm with about 6 inches of snow, IN MARCH!!
Cheetah- girl says that it snowed for her birthday :)

Chow for now!!
~~~~Leslie~~~~
brain fried crispy original recipe :)