Looking back...

As this is the last day of May 2007, I look back with fondness at the first part of this year. We had birthdays in January, February, March and April. The girls endured their mandated testing (they both passed, yeah!) in May. We've seen snow, rain, sun, and wind. We've been cold and yesterday we installed a new air conditioner. We've had some marvelous field trips with our homeschool group.

Bryan goes in for surgery on his shoulder tomorrow morning. I'll be about 4 months until he can use it normally again. I get to be in charge of mowing the lawn and whacking the weeds. Should be fun since I enjoy whacking things. :o)

Memorial Day

Officially, Memorial Day is tomorrow. However, this past weekend our family travelled to Eastern Oregon to celebrate with family and friends. Saturday we drove up to Wallowa Lake to drop Bryan off for a weekend of camping with a friend. On Sunday the girls, my mom and I went to Elgin Christian Church and then to the cemeteries in Elgin and Wallowa to decorate the graves of lost loved ones. The girls saw where their great-grandparents are buried and heard stories about them. We spent time wandering around reminiscing about the people no longer with us noticing the American flags among the gravestones.

We decorated the grave of my mom's best friend with a bouquet of lilacs, iris, and peonies in a teapot. It's hard to believe it has been almost 9 years since she's been gone.

22 years...

As the girls were writing the date on their schoolwork yesterday, I thought to myself "Self, you graduated high school 22 years ago today!" WOW!!!

Testing Day

Jessica (grade 5) and Hannah (grade 3) completed their state mandated testing yesterday. I find it interesting that homeschoolers have to take the 3hr CAT5 (California Achievement Test version 5) and public schoolers take a much easier Oregon test with as few as 35 questions.

Mother's Day

I had a wonderful Mother's Day today. The girls and Bryan served me eggs benedict in bed with a bouquet of pink carnations and a "Mom" locket. They made a huge card for me. Bryan and I worked with the K-5th graders at church and then we all had brunch at a friends house. It was a completely terrific day!

Reptiles and Amphibians

Our adventure yesterday consisted of a 2 1/2 hour tour of a local wildlife area. The girls really enjoyed the tour and the catching of tadpoles, caterpillers, bugs and snakes. I think they liked walking in the icky pond water the best.

We found a Ringneck Snake (Diadophis punctatus):
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~titus/herp/punctatus.html
A Common Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis): http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~titus/herp/sirtalis.html
A Pacific Gopher Snake (Pituophis catenife): http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~titus/herp/catenifer.html
A Northwestern Garter Snake (Thamnophis ordinoides): http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~titus/herp/ordinoides.html

The weather held out for us. It was cloudy with the threat of rain; however, the rain didn't show up until after the field trip. Yeah!