For the love of Paris...

My daughter loves Paris. In fact, a visit to Paris has one of the coveted top spots on her Bucket List. And dreaming ahead, she's already planning a Parisian wedding. The source of her affection isn't really because she wants to visit all of France. No, just one amazing structure known globally...the Eiffel Tower. She's spent hours researching it, drawing it and recently painting it.



Here's a peak at the finished project:


So, what's on your Bucket List?

A Sewer Story or What was He Thinking?

Well the temperatures have dipped a bit lower here in Northern Alabama than we had anticipated. Either I had failed to keep as close an eye on the weather forecast as I thought I was or the forecast had changed because I don't remember reading anywhere that we were going to experience below freezing temperatures. To be honest, after spending the past week in Ohio, I was rejoicing to be further south and what had initially felt like a heat wave.

So, imagine my surprise when last night I discovered that our water had frozen! Not one to keep a secret, I couldn't wait until morning to share the news with my husband. As if not being able to flush the toilet was a concern of his at 3:00 A.M.! He simply grunted, rolled over and went back to sleep while I envisioned horrible thoughts of broken pipes flooding our camper and ruining our newly installed floor, finely drifting off about the time my husband was getting up for work and did want to survey the damage.

Luckily, other than not having running water momentarily, there was no damage, and not anything a couple electric heaters couldn't remedy. Within a couple hours the heaters had done their job and we had water once more. But here's where the story gets interesting...

By the time my husband had returned from work and we had eaten dinner, the temperatures had already fallen into the low 20's and our holding tank (sewer) had frozen. My husband decided to have a look while my boys jokingly asked if he'd need the hose spreader- ever watched RV? If you have, you'll understand the comment and the incredibly horrible scene I envision in my mind each time the holding tanks seem to need attention.

Well, this time my imaginings weren't too far off base. In an effort to thaw out the line, my husband grabbed the electric heater and decided to remove the hose from the tank so the hot air could go into the tank and the yucky stuff could be thawed and drained.

Now, let me explain that the tank is still designed with a pull lever that needs to be released to allow the waste to exit the tank. So, it's not likely that we would experience seepage...however...after allowing the heater to heat things up a bit, my husband decided to have a glance at the progress, not expecting much of a change. But, you guessed it, when he pulled the lever...surprise... urine (because we don't do the poo in our loo) gushed (according to me), spewed forth (according to the kids),trickled (according to my husband) from the camper. But since my husband was the only one to actually witness this event, we'll just have to take his word for it that it was indeed a trickle...as exciting as spewed forth may be.

But my story is not yet finished...remember the heater that was heating up this mess so it could be properly dumped? Of course it would happen to remain directly in the line of fire. So my husband simply wiped down the heater, sprayed it with Windex with ammonia and returned it to its normal spot in front of our bedroom door.

Now this story never would have been written if that heater had not been plugged in and turned on, but it was! The intense, overwhelming smell of urine sent us all clamoring for the door and fresh air. Judging from the smell of the heater, that is NEVER permitted inside the camper again, may be it was a bit more than a trickle.

What was he thinking?

The Homeschool Classroom Makes a Move and other surprises...

Several months ago, I found a site that I absolutely love, The Homeschool Classroom. I'm so excited to share with you that today, The Homeschool Classroom moved to a new site and has a brand new look and there's also another surprise, but you'll have to stop by the new site to see exactly what's going on. Let's just say they aren't alone....

To celebrate the move and the other surprise, there is a cool giveaway with some really neat items! Hands off the Pioneer Woman Cookbook, I want that for myself, after all I've been hearing so much about! But anyway, you'll have to go to the site to see all the giveaways for yourself...

So...what are you waiting for?

Travel Games: the Game Folio series

We’re a big game playing family. When the kids were very young, I realized the educational and social benefits of introducing games as a part of our homeschool program, not to mention that games are great when it comes time for family bonding, unless of course you’re playing Risk. But then again, that’s a whole other story that you can read about here, if you’re really interested.

At home we had an armoire full of games. Educational games. Silly games. Classic games. When it came time for us to put our stuff in storage it was so difficult to pack those games! Each one had so many memories associated with it, just like our favorite books.

I was tempted to stash our boxes of games inside the camper, but knew that our space was already limited. Instead, my husband suggested that I purchase some travel size games. Though that is certainly a great suggestion, I’m not a big fan of travel editions. Typically I find that the pieces are too little to be practical, or the games are not quite the quality that I’m looking for. Still, I was reluctant to begin our journey without a couple new games for rainy or cold days.

Amazingly, I found a Connect Four game that I’ve been absolutely thrilled with from the Hasbro Game Folio series. It wasn't long before I added other games from the series. Each game is designed to pack up and play on the go and comes in a zippered case that has built in compartments not only to separate the pieces, but also to serve as storage. When it’s time to play you simply unzip the case and begin. Each case is just under 11’’ X 7’’, and weigh under a pound. Remember, I have teenagers, if you have very young children, you may not appreciate the small pieces, but I’ve found the games to be just the right size for our family.

For weeks we had nightly Connect Four battles that the entire family would get in on, plus, my daughter and I would pack up our game and play while we were washing our laundry each week. When I found Battleship at a thrift store, my boys were thrilled!For weeks Battleship was the game of choice, only recently replaced with our newest Game Folio, Scrabble, which I bought as part of their Christmas present, thinking it was time to add another fun game and because secretly I wanted to work on their spelling and vocabulary skills. See, I don’t always play games just for fun.

I’m not sure that the Connect Four game is still available, though I did find it online at an incredibly inflated $79.99 at Amazon. I’m pretty confident that I didn’t pay that much! Battleship is available at a much more reasonable price. Oh, Hasbro has Scrabble and Yahtzee, which we may add to our little collection next. You may be in luck; I found ours at the local Walmart.

There you have it, my favorite ‘travel size’ games...have you found a brand or game that you really like?

*the pictures for this post are from the Hasbro website and Amazon.com.

Dog on the Loose

Today the unthinkable happened. Our puppy escaped. While we thought he was peacefully resting outside, enjoying the day, he had discovered that his chain was never attached to the post and took the opportunity to further explore our surroundings, mark his territory, roll in all kinds of gross stinkiness and sniff out the local wildlife.

I wonder how long it had taken him to realize that his chain was unsecured. I’d like to think that he had waited outside and tried to get our attention before bolting. That he tried to scratch on the door, perhaps even whined when he missed us and we didn’t answer, but with Beagle blood surging through his veins, it’s possible that he’d realized our error in split seconds and escaped.

Maybe in his own canine way he’d planned for this moment…peacefully biding his time while secretly plotting a way out. But I doubt it. Our dog is a family dog. He loves us way too much to want to be free. And since we rescued him from the pound when he was deathly sick and nursed him back to health, he’s certainly grown to think of us as part of his pack and we all love him. Life just wouldn’t be the same without him.

As rotten as he was today, it’s hard for me to believe that I didn’t miss him sooner but to be honest, I was enjoying a few minutes of peace. I did ask where he was and my son replied that he was outside, but I never thought to check on him. My husband was the first to notice his absence. When he arrived home from work he wasn’t greeted with the customary jumping-licking-mad-dog-running-circles-around-him-routine that takes place daily. If my husband missed it, this tells me that maybe he just pretends to be aggravated by the attention that our hound bestows upon him.

Still, when this ritual didn’t take place, he knew something was amiss. His question of Where’s Vincent? sent us all clamoring out of the camper in search of our beloved pet. After ten minutes of searching and calling his name with no sight of our puppy I began to think the worst. Where could he have gone? There was a Marriot next door; I could see him in my mind jumping on all the guests in the parking lot. Maybe he’d made it onto the nearby army base just in time for firing drills. Or found the interstate. Or someone found him, thought he was cute and claimed him. Or….

No need to go on, thankfully my son had found him. He was as happy to see us as we were to see him.