Dharma Family

To have more...

2010-03-24T22:20:00.012-05:00

What if we all quit taking more than we really need?

I saw the movie "The Book of Eli" with Denzel Washington this year. If you haven't seen the movie, I highly recommend it. Without giving spoilers, I will say that the movie is set in a post-apocalyptic future. In one scene, someone asks Denzel Washington, "What was it like before?" His response (not verbatim) is, "Before? Well, people had more than they needed. They threw away things that people would kill for now."

Is that not the perfect description of how we, at least in developed countries, live? We take more than we need and throw away things that others literally die without. So many of us, no matter where we fall on the political spectrum, can see that our behavior is not good for the earth. Whether or not we believe in Global Warming, whether or not we believe Global Warming is man made, we know that our actions at present are unsustainable. We know that at some point in the future our trajectory will lead to certain doom.

Take a look around your house, just what you can see from where you sit. How much do you see that you rarely (if ever) use? Why do you have it? I mean sure, maybe you use x item every Christmas or y item every time there's snow in July. Wouldn't it be more sustainable to just borrow x and y when you need them? I mean, how revolutionary would it be to borrow/rent Holiday decorations rather than buying them, paying for the storage containers to hold them year round, then on top of that, paying for extra square footage in your dwelling to store those?

Look at all the gadgets and dishes in your kitchen. Do you use all of them on a daily (or even weekly or monthly) basis? Why do you have them? Have you ever used them? Could you live without them? Is it possible to keep only what you use regularly and borrow from someone else on the other occasions? Take stock of all of the goods in your house. How much lingers in every room, every closet, every nook and cranny that you don't use?

Now don't misinterpret me. I am not in any way suggesting that any of us live without what we truly need (food, clothes, shelter), nor am I even suggesting that we live without what we want. My family each owns their own laptop. We don't need them, but to get along in today's society, it is extremely handy for us each to have one. What would be wasteful of us is to replace them any more frequently than when they are no longer serviceable. Do you remember the days when people drove cars until they could no longer be driven?

Even in clothing we each have more than we need. I had a small child visiting in my home today. During a conversation about people conquering people since the dawn of man, she asked why people could do that when, "It's so mean!" I said, "Because people tend to feel like they never have enough. They conquer other groups in order to take more." This led us down a path of, "How much does a person really need?" Another child suggested that all we really need is two sets of clothes: one set to wear while we wash the other set.

She made an excellent point. Even my minimalist family has eight sets of clothes each: One for each day of the week and one to wear on wash day. I'm comfortable with the amount of clothes my family presently has and don't see the need to step it down another level. But what else could we reduce?

The biggest question here is, "What would the world look like if, right now, everyone decided to stop taking more than they need?"

On the road again...

2010-03-08T12:36:00.002-06:00

Woohoo! The Dharma family has hit the road...

We left on March 8th and headed for Sarasota, Florida. It took us a couple days to get to Florida and we apparently brought the Texas rain storms with us. Some where around Tallahassee we discovered that one of our vents has a leaky seal, but that's okay, it only leaks in if we're not level. We'll get it replaced soon, but we're parked for now somewhere level, so we're not worried at the moment.

We came pretty directly to Sarasota to visit with an awesome unschooling family who lives in the area. We're waiting to visit Disney World until after Spring Break, so sometime the second week of April or so.

If you're somewhere in the U.S. and would like a visit from us sometime over the next year, drop us a line and let us know! After Florida, we'll be headed to North Carolina, and other points North.

Where in the world is the Dharma Family?!

2010-02-19T23:12:00.003-06:00

So often from people we have known for some time we hear, "Gosh, I thought you guys would have been halfway across the country by now." Well, we have been halfway across the country, several times over the last few years. In 2007, we went to TN, MI, PA, MA, NH, DC, and back home again. In 2008, we expanded a similar trip and visited OK, MN, MI, PA, NH, VT, NY, NC, and back home again. In 2009, we drove the other direction and went to NM, AZ, NV, CA, OR, WY, UT, CO, OK, and back home again (only home was in San Antonio, TX instead of Austin, TX).

Where has 2010 taken us? So far, it's taken us to CA, NV, AZ, NM, and home came with us after CA where we picked up an even better RV than we had in January. So where is home now? Home is in Austin, TX of all places! We know, you'd think with an RV in our possession we'd be halfway across the country by now. Nope. That's okay, we're taking time to spend with loved ones here in TX, so many friends we made over the 5 years we lived in Austin, it's hard to say goodbye.

March will have us moving house (literally, this time) and you can check back here to find out where in the world the Dharma Family has gone...

From dream to reality...

2009-12-20T16:29:00.004-06:00

For those who aren't aware, for as long as I can remember I've wanted to travel the world. I recall a specific conversation with my brother when I was 12 (my brother was 17 and going off to college soon) that went something like this:

B-"So Andrea, where do you think you want to go to college?"

Me-"I'm only 12! I'm too young to think about that."

B-"Actually 12 is the age you should start thinking about it, I wish I had started planning before I got to high school, it would have made it so much easier."

Me-"Well, I don't know, I don't think I want to go straight to college after high school. I don't really like school that much and I'd like some time off so I don't burnout, you see that all the time, you know."

B-"That's silly, what will you do instead, work at McDonald's?"

Me-"No, I'll travel around the world, go see all the places I've never been."

B-"And with what money? Mom's not rich you know. Only rich kids get to do stuff like that."

Me-"Well I won't need much money, I'll just buy an RV and travel around the U.S. and then take it to Europe and travel there and Asia, then to Australia, then fly to Hawaii and see it, then maybe I'll go to college."

B-"You can't take an RV to Europe, you have to fly and it's too expensive to ship cars."

Me-"Well then, I'll sell my RV before I leave the U.S. and buy a new one in Europe. I probably won't need one for Australia, I'll just go to Sydney and look around by car."

B-"You still haven't told me where you're going to get the thousands of dollars it'll take to do all that."

Me-"I'll work while I travel, each place I go, I'll stay for a little while, long enough to really explore the area and then move on."

B-"Hmph, that's not practical, you're just dreaming."

And so I was. And I kept dreaming this dream for a long time, when I got married, I included my husband and then the kids. And for a long time I didn't think it was practical or possible. Then I started hearing about people doing it and I met a family who were just settling down in Austin, TX after having traveled for 5 years. They called themselves the Barenaked Family.

Not only did this family inspire me to live my dream, but they inspired me to cherish my children. Not to say I didn't cherish my children before, but it was an entirely different experience to look at my children and not see them as an inconvenience or people who needed to be controlled, but as individuals with their own dreams, hopes, desires, and fears.

From there, the rest was downhill. I started seeking out information and methods for self-improvement that would be in line with my values. I participated in some courses from Landmark Education that enabled me to truly let go of the past and live in the present.

Through that, I find myself with RV in hand; definite, solid plans for income to make the RV livable and then a rough idea of how to make a go of it. While you may think that "rough idea" means we're not ready, quite the opposite...I like rough ideas. I am ever-changing and adaptable. Fortunately my husband and children trust me enough to know that whatever happens, whatever I choose, their needs and wishes will be respected.

We plan to hit the road in the new year, January, to be precise.

And so life goes on...

2009-11-29T13:45:00.003-06:00

So as is obvious, we've just been so busy with living life, we haven't had time to blog.

Since the last blog in August, Aurora and Karma have turned 16 and 15 respectively. Aurora ended up staying with her boyfriend's family in PA for nearly 2 months (just 5 days shy of) and she had a great time but also discovered she doesn't like being away from her family for so long.

Shane has decided the military is best for him, but not the American one. On December 15, he's flying to France to join the French Foreign Legion. He's been staying with his grandma near Amarillo since September, so the rest of us will be driving up there to visit with him and drive him to Dallas for his flight. Keep him in your thoughts for a successful journey!

Oh yes, we scaled down into our smaller place, which promptly flooded and there was mold growing everywhere and the conditions were generally unsafe, so we moved in with Andrea's mom for the time being. Rather than getting another place, we're working to just get an RV and hit the road together.

Aurora and Karma put in a lot of applications at various establishments in the local mall, only Karma has so far gotten a job, though. She works for a cheese steak place and she loves her job.

Andrea is wrapping up her final semester at the local college and will start at University (online) in January. She has decided that pursuing a Bachelor's degree will increase her chances of finding work for pay after we head to Europe, so that's what she's doing. Also, she just loves to learn. :)

Caed is working on teaching himself programming and plans to buy himself a C++ programming book after Christmas. For those who aren't aware, instead of buying each other potentially useless presents for Christmas, we distribute family money to each individual who is then able to spend it in whichever manner pleases them the most. This keeps our consumerism down and helps to ensure that we're not acquiring unnecessary goods.

That's about it folks, we'll keep you posted!!

You know you're having fun when...

2009-08-19T16:35:00.003-05:00

So we finally finished the post today regarding our vacation. If you notice that the posts got less descriptive, that's because we've been back for a month now, we originally started typing the day we got home. So for those of you near the end of the vacation, no we didn't have less fun with you, it's just been longer. We're not even sure we got some events on the correct days, but oh well, you've got the picture.

So you know we're having fun when we don't finish a post for over a month. We've just been living our lives as it works for us.

Andrea's been continuing college, got C's for the two classes she took while on vacation and A's for the two classes she finished last week. Sam's been keeping up the house in Andrea's extreme absence and distraction. Shane has found a good job, met a nice girl and is moving out tomorrow. Aurora has a "boyfriend" though they're not declared yet, but she is going up to Pennsylvania to see him next month. Karma continues her work, both at her art and in her housecleaning business. Caed is 13 today and is growing like a weed. He sits between Andrea and Aurora in height at the moment, we anticipate that he may someday be the tallest person in the house.

We'll be scaling down to a smaller house soon in preparation for even smaller living quarters. We're having a huge yard sale over Labor Day weekend, so if you live near Converse, Texas, come buy some of our stuff!!

Back from Vacation!

2009-07-12T18:43:00.010-05:00

To the best of our mutual recollections, we will give you a highlights rundown:

Day 1 Wednesday June 17th

As we were packing to leave, we got the call that informed us our beloved kitty of 8 years, Cyrano had passed away. Our departure was delayed by picking him up from where he was being cat sat and taking him to the vet for cremation.

We departed close to noon and arrived to Sam's mom's house around 10pm. We had some dinner, some conversation and went to sleep.

Day 2 Thursday

We slept in until about 10am and then spent most of the day visiting with Grandma. We departed Amarillo at about 6pm and drove to New Mexico. We found a state park in New Mexico and everyone went to swim in the lake.

Day 3 Friday June 19th

We spent most of Friday driving from New Mexico to Arizona. We stopped in Winslow, AZ at a Wal-Mart and went down to the corner to stand and see if we could see any girls in flat-bed Fords slowing down to take a look at us, ala the Eagles.

We arrived to a campground in Flagstaff after dark where we parked for the night to sleep.

Day 4 Saturday June 20th

After waking up in Flagstaff, we drove up to the Grand Canyon as Andrea was the only one who had ever been before. We spent most of the day at the Grand Canyon. In the evening, we drove down to Route 66 and went to a restaurant in Williams, AZ called the Pine Country Restaurant...it was tasty!!

From there, we drove up through the Hoover Dam, arriving well after nightfall. Despite the darkness, we recognized several scenes from the first Transformer movie. We arrived to the Valley of Fire State Park in NV just after 1 am.

Day 5 Sunday June 21st

The sun in the Valley of Fire woke us up at about 6 am. We tried fruitlessly to sleep until 7am when it was so boiling hot in the tent and the van that we just had to escape.

Since it was Father's Day, we decided to surprise Dad by taking him down to Vegas to gamble. Dropped the kids off at the mall with money and then had lunch. Dad revealed he didn't like gambling. Eh. We roamed around the MGM hotel instead.

Day 6 Monday June 22nd

Sun woke us up early again. Kids roamed around the rocks for a few hours and then we went down to Vegas to explore the strip some more. We rode the inclinators in the Pyramid hotel (snuck in!), and wandered about the town until we were exhausted.

Day 7 Tuesday June 23rd

We managed to sleep in until 6:30 am. Today, the kids goofed off for hours, Shane and Aurora made a bid to climb the highest peak in our campground. They didn't quite make it. Eventually, we checked out of the campgrounds and wandered down to Vegas to get the oil changed on the van. We were waiting until after dark to drive through Death Valley. Finally, we went down to Circus Circus so the kids could check out the casino with the amusement park. The girls rode a coaster, we were amused. :)

Day 8 Wednesday June 24th

We arrived at Malibu State Park in L.A. around 6 am. We slept in the van outside the gate until they opened at 8am. When the rangers got in, we checked in and found our campsite. We got set up and ran to the nearest little town to do laundry. When we got home, we found some "hippies" setting up camp next to us. We went over, introduced ourselves and went back to our own camp around 3 am, after the rangers broke up the party. :D

Day 9 Thursday June 25th

We went down to explore Wilshire Blvd, etc. We ended up getting pretty lost and drove Mulholland Freeway. We sang alot of Tom Petty.

Day 10 Friday June 26th

Caed went to his first day of the Forum and the rest of us hung around camp and then went to a Barnes & Noble so Andrea could take a test for her online classes. We picked up Caed and went for a dip in the ocean.

Day 11 Saturday June 27th

On our last night in Malibu, we spent the evening at camp, met some ladies from Venezuela and Karma gave them a tarot reading.

Day 12 Sunday June 28th

Caed finished up his Forum and then we headed up to Sacramento to see the kids' mother, Faith. Due to horrendous L.A. traffic, we didn't get up there until 1am.

Day 13 Monday June 29th

Spent the day hanging out with Faith and her boyfriend, Doug. Went to therapy with Faith, discussed the adoption, got everything settled.

Day 14 Tuesday June 30th

Just hung out with Faith and Doug at their place.

Day 15 Wednesday July 1st

Began a caravan with Doug and Faith and Doug's daughter, Kira to Oregon. We stopped alot and had 9 people to feed, so as a consequence, we didn't arrive to Faith's Dad's place until about 1 am.

Day 16 Thursday July 2nd

Got up and explored Gary's land on Larch Mountain, beautiful area! Shane, Karma, and Caed stayed on the mountain to hang out with family; Sam, Andrea, and Aurora went down to Tualatin to visit with Andrea's cousin, Gabby.

Day 17 Friday July 3rd

Sam, Andrea, and Aurora spent through lunch with Gabby and her family, then headed back up the mountain for the weekend. Went up and spent some time talking with Faith's family, good time camping.

Day 18 Saturday July 4th

Continued camping, Aurora went for an ATV ride with Shane, went to fast and was thrown off, only to get run over by the ATV. Trip to the ER! Fortunately, she was not broken, just deeply bruised, days of crutches ordered by doctor.

Went out to fireworks after ER (Aurora was piggybacking with Andrea for the most part), fireworks show was rather lame, all resolved to not attend again. On the walk back to the car, Andrea found a $20 in the road. :)

Day 19 Sunday July 5th

Doug and Faith needed to head home, so they bid goodbye early in the morning. We remained with her Dad, Gary, visiting. Andrea's Dad and step-mom came over and spent some time with the family. Good times.

Day 20 Monday July 6th

Headed down to Portland to stay with Faith's sister, Heidi and her family. Hung out in the basement and upstairs, visited lots.

Day 21 Tuesday July 7th

Went back to Tualatin to visit with Gabby again and see another of Andrea's cousins, Rachel and her two girls. Played at the park with them for a few hours before heading out to dinner at a Mongolian Grill. It was our first time at one, what an interesting experience! Decent food, too.

Day 22 Wednesday July 8th

Spent the entire day with Heidi and family. Stayed up wayy too late for driving home.

Day 23 Thursday July 9th

Woke up fairly early and hit the road for the long haul home. Decided to drive straight through with passengers napping for a turn at driving.

Day 24 Friday July 10th

The days were really all bleeding together for the last week or so, we just built up sleep deprivation over the course of the vacation. We drove home through eastern Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Texas. We saw a really awesome thunder/lightning storm in Colorado after we passed Denver, it was like surround sound only with an entire storm, it had a huge eye!

Day 25 Saturday July 11th

Arrived to Sam's mom's house at about 6 am and decided to crash for awhile. Adults slept until about 1pm. Spent some time visiting while showering and then hit the road for the final leg home.

Day 26 Sunday July 12th

Arrived home about 3am. We were relieved to be home to sleep in our own beds! We remembered we didn't have a Cyrano to greet us at the door or sleep in bed with us. We still miss him.

Can't wait til we have an RV and can sleep comfortably while visiting! The Nevada sun will probably still wake us up wayy too early, but we bet we could sleep past 7am in an RV. :)

So long, so long...

2009-06-07T12:49:00.003-05:00

It happens. Life happens and the blog doesn't get updated despite many promises that it will. Well, here we are, updating you on our life.

Since our last posting in January, we have mostly lived our lives as stated then. Andrea continues her part-time job with the young boy and his older, disabled brother. She also continues to attend school, she received an A in Macroeconomics and a B in English Comp II. She will be taking the first of two required Government and History courses (each requires two) over the first summer semester. Classes start tomorrow, but she's already completing class orientations and reading textbooks.

Shane's position with the tax company ended on tax day and he has since attempted to be hired by the grocery store, to no avail. He is now pursuing a career in the U.S. Armed Forces. His biggest hurdle at the moment is acquiring the necessary skills for the ASVAB, because he is homeschooling, he needs a higher score than most individuals and he continues to dance out of range on the practice. No worries there, Andrea bought him a practice book and they are working through it to increase his score.

Aurora was briefly employed as a child care giver, but the parents were military and were transferred. She now scrapes a small living in the employ of her parents, taking care of the new dog we got. :)

Karma continues her house cleaning jobs, though she earns less than she was (less work, which works for her) and maintains her relationship with her boyfriend in N.C.

Caed continues to be Caed, he has assumed all of his older brother's household responsibilities and with that he receives his older brother's allowance. It's not much money, but for him it's more than adequate, so he remains satisfied financially.

As a family, we have finally begun the legal process for Andrea to adopt the younger three children (legally, Shane is a separate entity). The ball is in their mother's court right now as she has the paperwork to sign to agree to the adoption.

We're planning another family vacation, leaving around the 17th of June and returning no later than the 12th of July. We'll be visiting the western half of the U.S. this time with planned stops at the Grand Canyon, Vegas, L.A, Sacramento, and with family in Oregon.

We'll work to keep you updated this trip, but with Andrea doing most of the updating and also going to school full-time while on vacation...we'll see what gets done.

Education for all...

2009-01-27T19:43:00.005-06:00

We are now an entirely unschooling family once again. Aurora and Caed, of their own desire, will be working on curriculums to give themselves mode to progress. We do see this as quite helpful for Aurora as she is very specific about going to college and doing so soon, but has seemed unable to progress herself in math and english to a point that will be considered acceptable by a community college.

Andrea is returning to college life, she is registered into two classes for the Spring Flex (short) semester. She will be taking English 1302 (2nd required English) and Principles of Macroeconomics. She is especially excited about the economics class as the class covers the current U.S. economy and discussing this in college sounds like mucho fun to her!

Sam also plans to begin school again, but he is having a paperwork hang-up that may take months to resolve. :(

Shane continues his job working for the tax company and Karma has begun work housecleaning, generally making $100 per week, which suits her spending needs more than adequately. Andrea has begun part-time work tutoring one child and helping with general care for his older, mentally handicapped brother. All in all, everyone is satisfied with the ways in which they are earning money and the amount of money which they are earning.

That's about it for updates!

Jobbin'

2009-01-13T19:36:00.002-06:00

Hey all, just checking in to give you an update. Shane got hired to his first job, waving a sign for a popular tax company while wearing their themed costume. It pays better than minimum wage, which he's happy about. He was also called back by the grocery store he applied at, but he told them he has limited availability as it would now be his second job (he applied to the grocery store before Christmas). His present job is temporary for the tax season and he hopes to find more good work after.

Aurora has chosen not to attend school anymore. She spent most of her day sitting around wondering what to do as the students were given assignments in the first half hour of class, then given the remaining hour to complete them. She feels she will get much more accomplished with a home curriculum.

Both girls have created flyers for their home-based businesses and have or will post them around our neighborhood. Karma's have been posted for about a week and while she hasn't gotten any calls yet, she noticed that several of the little pull tabs have been taken.

Caed remains in public school as it continues to work for him.

This concludes our update. :)

Christmas Letter

2009-01-05T12:11:00.002-06:00

Dear Family and Friends,

As you well know, Christmas cards are late again this year. We've decided to just post our Christmas letter to our blog since we've been unable to get a family picture as we've done in years past, our eldest hates the camera. We'll add some pictures taken this year to the blog. The year has gone by so fast we scarcely realized Christmas was approaching. We finished our shopping on the 22nd of December. Many exciting things have happened this year, sit down for an interesting read.

We began the year well, living our lives with business as usual. In late February, we received a surprise, Sam’s mom called us and asked if we would like to have Sam’s oldest son, Shane, come live with us. We of course gave a resounding, “Yes,” and Shane arrived the first week of March. The same week Shane arrived, Sam, Aurora, and Karma were working as extras on a feature film entitled, “Will” due out 2009. Shortly after Shane’s arrival, he found work as an extra on the same film and met his new best friend, Austin, who lives in Austin, Texas.

Spring was both bumpy and busy for us as we went through a dichotomy shift with a new member in our household. We also continued our participation in home school socials on a weekly basis and attended monthly field trips that included a hike in a nature preserve.

Summer came quicker than we expected and we found two members of our household participating in the Landmark Forum. This was an exciting adventure for both Sam and Andrea and we highly recommend the experience to all of our family and friends.

August found us celebrating three birthdays in our household, starting with Shane, who went to a movie with friends, then enjoyed dinner at Red Lobster afterward. Caedmon celebrated his birthday at Austin’s Park and Pizza, an establishment that offers go carts, laser tag, an arcade and many other fun activities. Andrea enjoyed a reasonably quiet birthday, planning her own birthday party that a friend hosted and just having a quiet afternoon of food and conversation.

In September we headed out for the open road to keep our promise to Sam’s Grammy and see New Hampshire in the fall. Instead of driving directly to New Hampshire, we drove North out of Texas, stopping to visit with another homeschooling family in Norman, Oklahoma. From there, we drove to Minneapolis, Minnesota where we camped for two nights and visited the Mall of America. We believe the mall is so named because it has every retail store offered in America. After the mall, we drove to Michigan and visited with Andrea’s brother’s family for several days. Our last stop in September was to spend 10 days visiting with another homeschooling family outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. While there, we went up to visit with Andrea’s aunts and uncles in Franklin.

On the first of October, we finally headed to New Hampshire to visit with Sam’s family. We had a picnic lunch on the Atlantic seawall, visited a historical festival, had dinner with Sam’s aunt, lunch with his cousins, and visited Grammy several times. We also enjoyed several games of croquet at Grammy’s house. During our visit, we took a drive up into the mountains to see the fall foliage, this practice is called “leaf peeping”. After leaving New Hampshire, we drove to Vermont to see the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream factory before heading down to Raleigh, North Carolina to visit with friends that relocated earlier this year. We spent a week there and helped celebrate their son’s 16th birthday.

Upon returning to Texas, we have settled temporarily in Converse, Texas, which is just outside of San Antonio. We found a four bedroom house at a very reasonable price in a pretty quiet neighborhood. We intend to relocate outside of Texas, though it may not be until 2010. Karma participated in the Landmark Forum in December and found it to be just as exciting as Mom and Dad did. We had a good Thanksgiving with Andrea’s mom and aunt and spent Christmas with them as well.

See you in the new year!!

Back Online!!

2008-12-31T16:14:00.003-06:00

Well, we're back online at home now. It's amazing how lacking internet in one's home can cause one to feel totally disconnected from the world in this age. We can't tell you the number of times we quarreled over facts and then felt totally lost because we couldn't go look it up and resolve our argument. Also, for a family that gets all world news online (and then through the grapevine), we felt totally cut off from the occurrences of life on earth and little able to verify the validity of information we received.

Anyhow, now that we have the ability to communicate regularly (even though we're not at home as we type this), we figured we'd update everyone with how and where we are.

We returned to North Carolina as we had mentioned and took care of our business. After that, we came back to San Antonio and stayed with Andrea's mom for a bit. We decided that we will stay in San Antonio for now, at least until our eldest turns 18 this year, he has no desire to relocate outside of the central Texas area and we don't plan to up an leave when he's not old enough to fend for himself. As a family (other than the one), we have a strong desire to relocate and/or travel. Plans have mostly settled around either buying an RV and travelling the country or relocating to New Hampshire near our family there and then taking frequent trips. Neither will happen until 2010, though.

For now, we found a house in Converse, which is pretty much to say in San Antonio. Aurora and Caed have decided to attend public school and Aurora is attending Andrea's alma mater, Judson High School. We have a four bedroom, 2 bath house, so the boys each got their own room and the girls are sharing a rather large bedroom. One of the things that makes this house unique is that a previous tenant repainted all of the rooms (except the bathrooms) and each in a different and vivid color.

The master bedroom is plain white, the only room in the house that could be considered bland. The living room is a burgundy type color, the kitchen/dining room is olive green (which actually works there), Shane's room is lavender, Caed's room is ocean blue, and the girls' room is hot pink. The boys intend to leave their paint alone (Shane's girlfriend's favorite color is purple) and the girls intend to paint a skull/crossbone pattern all over their walls. We picked out a new color for the living room, a light blue. We'll be priming the room soon and then painting soon after.

Well, that's about all that's terribly new or interesting. Karma and Andrea both got haircuts (from each other) and Karma's hair is really cute. When we get home, we'll have to get a picture up here for you to see.

Oh yeah, we also got Vonage and will have a phone number after we get home and get it set up. If you know us well enough to ask for it, e-mail or leave a comment and we'll get it to you.

Hmm, an update would be nice, wouldn't it?

2008-10-24T14:28:00.004-05:00

Hello, sorry it's been so long. We've been a little sidetracked by life. Here's the rest of the vacation:

We very much enjoyed our week in North Carolina visiting with our good friends there. Everyone was pretty budget tight, so we spent a lot of time hanging out at their house. On Thursday of that week, we were going to their Museum of Natural Science when we had a bit of an emergency. The kids got to go to the museum, but Mom and Dad did not as we were taking care of business.

We are in San Antonio now, staying at Andrea's mom's house, but there is still business in North Carolina to take care of, so we'll be leaving here on the 31st to go back to North Carolina. We don't know everything yet and won't til we get there, so we may find ourselves needing to find housing in North Carolina.

If you're a reader in Austin, we'll be coming up this weekend for the Halloween Dance and some general socialization. We'll be in town Saturday-Monday, taking care of some Austin business on Monday (like checking a flooded PO Box!).

So, that's about it. Sorry it couldn't be a more exciting update. We'll come back after the Halloween Dance and update you again.

Third Update

2008-10-13T12:58:00.002-05:00

So, let's pick up from where we left off. We departed from Hampton on the 9th of October and instead of heading south, we headed northwest, towards Vermont. See, we were sitting in our motel room in Hampton watching the Travel Channel and saw people eating Vermonsters at the Ben & Jerry's factory in Vermont. We thought, "We need to go to Vermont!" So, instead of heading south, we headed northwest to the Ben & Jerry's factory.

On the drive there, we were able to get gorgeous views of the fall foliage, something we had kind of missed on our drive, because we didn't take the Kankamagus Highway. We took tons of pictures on the drive to Vermont, we promise to bore you with them soon!

In Vermont, we opted not to take the factory tour as we would have had to wait more than an hour to do so. We did poke around the gift shop and get another bumper sticker for the car, wait til you see it! We also got some ice cream from their scoop shop and made ourselves sick, because we all ordered a large like a bunch of nutcases. Well, except for Shane, he had a smoothie and then finished all three of the lady's icecream.

From there, we headed southwest into New York state and avoided going through the city, but paid $16 in tolls. We think the tolls were cheaper than the gas sitting in traffic in NYC. We took a nap in the car in Virginia, then drove in to NC in the am on Friday, the 10th. Since we had motelled in NH, we're camping in NC and that's why we don't have internet access.

We've gotten to see Alex and attended his b-day party. We're here now and basically spending every day with him and his family for a week before returning to Texas. We'll see all of you in Tejas soon!

Catching up some more

2008-10-13T12:47:00.003-05:00

So, as we said in the previous post, we drove straight through from Pittsburgh to New Hampshire. We passed through New York City at 11pm and got a great view of NYC from the GW Bridge. Two of the kids were able to see the Statue of Liberty.

We had planned to camp in New Hampshire, but when we arrived, we found all the campgrounds had closed early for the season due to the hurricane that had been threatening their coast. Well, there were campgrounds available up in the forest, but those were several hours away from Sam's family on the coast.

We found a low-priced motel in Hampton and got two rooms for the week, spending about the same amount we had planned to spend in NC. We saw at least one member of Sam's family every day except Monday, when we took our drive up into the mountains to see the fall foliage.

While in NH, we went to the Strawbery Banke Museum's First Annual Fall Festival. We also ate at a local restaurant, 99. Sam's aunt took us to a meat shop and deli where we all got sandwiches and then went down to the seawall to sit and eat. Aurora wore her bathing suit and took a dip in the Atlantic. Boy, did she get cold!!

Sam's aunt also took us apple picking at an apple orchard and we went back to her house and made apple pies and an apple crisp from scratch. That was a first for all of us, everyone pitched in on the prep! We got to see each of Sam's family members, except for his cousin, Chad. On our last evening there, we managed to miss his visit by mere minutes at Grammy's house and then he tried us at the motel, but we were off to the store.

We have some other big exciting news to share about New Hampshire, be sure to ask us next time you see us (or talk to us).

We'll continue in a third post...

So caught up!!

2008-10-13T12:37:00.004-05:00

We've been so caught up in our trip we haven't had time to blog! Also, we went more than a week without any access to the internet, that doesn't help with blogging.

So let's see...we've done so much since we last updated you...We had a great time with Aurora's birthday, she had already received her gifts from Mom and Dad. The family we stayed with in PA gave Aurora some crocheting tools and naked skeins to dye. So for her birthday she dyed skeins, played Guitar Hero, then had a home baked cake and we played 100 Years by Five for Fighting ("I'm 15 for a moment...").

We stayed in Pennsylvania until the 1st of October. We spent most of this time hanging out with our new friends at their house. The kids went in and out, sometimes sleeping in the tent, sometimes not. Karma stayed in their daughter's room for all but the first night and Shane took over and hibernated in their youngest son's room for the bulk of our time there. Caed and Aurora and their two youngest spent a lot of time exploring the woods together, running in and out, and some extensive time on their PS2.

Aurora, Karma, and Shane went with them for their swing dance lesson and learned a bit of swing dance. Andrea and Karma attended church with them as it was a new experience, this lovely family belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Both Andrea and Karma enjoyed the experience and left with an appreciation of another religion (as well as copies of the Book of Mormon to read). Andrea has started reading her copy, though she is still reading First Nephi.

We also helped them organize their basement, where they keep their food storage and aided in clearing out the garage and holding a garage sale. This was all lots of fun. On our last day, we went to the Pittsburgh Zoo and saw lots of nifty animals. We then drove straight through to New Hampshire, arriving at about 6:30 in the morning.

We'll continue in another post.

Freedom to Learn

2008-09-22T17:15:00.003-05:00

We want to share with all of our readers this excellent blog on how children learn. The author is Dr. Peter Gray, a research professor of psychology at Boston College. He has conducted and published research in comparative, evolutionary, developmental, and educational psychology and published articles on innovative teaching methods and alternative approaches to education.

The blog starts at the bottom of the web page with the Introduction and then progresses bottom to top. If you have any questions about the value or worth of how our family is being educated, we highly encourage you to read this blog.

http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn

What a great day!

2008-09-22T11:48:00.001-05:00

Yesterday we went to the Carnegie Science Center because it was free from 10am to 5pm. The place was so big, we didn't have time to see it all. After the science center, we drove up to Franklin to have dinner with my Uncle Bill and his wife Marsha. Marsha also called my Uncle Dave and his wife Sue to come down and visit with us. We had a lot of fun.

My Uncle Dave brought the Mad Magazine board game to me. This game has a fun story...it's an old game that my Uncle Dave owned and I used to go play it every summer, but I would sometimes have trouble getting people to play with me. When I was 12, I asked my Uncle Dave if I could have the game. I then left and forgot to take it with me. I called him and told him and he told me I could take it next time I was there. I didn't go again until I was 25. By that time, the game was lost.

When I visited last year, Dave told me he still couldn't find the game, he thought someone else might have taken it or it may have been thrown out. Yesterday, he surprised me with the game! It's missing most of its pawns and some of the cards, but he managed to tape up the box and the board is still in good condition. Yay! A new game for me. :)

Today is Aurora's birthday and we'll be baking her a chocolate cake. So far, she's celebrating by playing Guitar Hero. The other 6 kids are letting her play as long as she wants.

Andrea

Hello PA!

2008-09-20T14:35:00.003-05:00

Wow, this road trip is really truckin' along (pun half intended)! We spent a fantastic five days at Andrea's brother's house in Detroit, MI. The kids all got wild with their cousins, Shane included. Rachel is their three year old who is notoriously shy. Well, she took a shining to both Shane and Aurora, treating the latter like her extra big sister.

We've now pressed on to stay with a family near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They are a fantastic family. We have found some more kindred spirits. Aurora has a friend in their daughter, Karma has a friend in their eldest son, and Caed has a friend in their youngest son. Shane is catching up on his sleep and Mom and Dad get along famously with their Mom and Dad.

We are considering buying an annual pass to the local zoo as the pass is reciprocal and we can use it in other cities we visit on the way home, plus several in Texas (not Austin's sadly). The Carnegie Science Center has free admission tomorrow from 10am to 3pm. We plan to visit that early tomorrow then head up to Franklin to see some of Andrea's family and have dinner.

We're not sure yet what it is we're doing for Aurora's birthday on Monday, just that we're baking a cake and she wants to hear 100 years by Five for Fighting ("15 there's still time to choose..."). I'm sure we'll plan something she'll love.

Wowee!!

2008-09-14T13:31:00.003-05:00

Wow, this trip has just been a blast and we're not even a week into it. As mentioned previously, our first stop was in Norman, Oklahoma, to stay the night with a family we met on an unschooling list. They were great...seven kids and not a moment without someone to watch or interact with. We visited the omniplex in Oklahoma City with them and had even more fun, plus learned lots.

After we departed Oklahoma, we drove through Kansas and ended up spending the night in Kansas City, mere miles from the Missouri border. On Thursday, we made it all the way to Minnesota where we camped in a state park and hit the Mall of America on Friday.

The Mall of America was very exciting. We think it may be so named because you can find just about every major store in America in the mall, including a Best Buy! We do highly recommend a trip to the mall, it's worth it. Friday night, we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows at our camp site.

We packed up Saturday morning to hit the road and head east for Detroit, but we didn't get very far before our car started dinging at us like there was a door open or something, but it gave us no message. We finally found an open Chevy dealership and took the car in to find that the electronic module on the passenger sliding door was not working properly. We were able to not have it replaced (big $$), but we did have to pay to have it diagnosed and the noise cleared, etc. As a result, we're on a much tighter budget than we began.

This has not dampened our spirits, however. We drove straight through from Minnesota to Michigan to save $$. Everyone has declared that this is a great vacation and so it shall remain.

On the road again

2008-09-10T00:09:00.002-05:00

We started our road trip today!! We left Austin at 11:30am and arrived for our first stop in Norman, Oklahoma to visit an unschooling family we met in an online group. We're staying the night with this wonderful family and then visiting the omniplex with them tomorrow before hitting the road again.

We decided to leave the camp chairs and most of the camping gear at home (save for the tent and the sleeping bags), which gave us more space for things like coats--we're headed to the northeast don't cha know. :)

We'll keep you updated as we progress across the country. If you're reading this and would love us to stop and visit, drop us a line!

Life just works

2008-08-26T22:44:00.002-05:00

Sam and I have been participating in a seminar on Integrity lately, which has brought many fun distinctions to our life. In this seminar, integrity is simply defined as having workability in one's life. It is separate from morality in that something can be moral, but still not have integrity because it doesn't work.

This one has been difficult for me because during the course, I came to realize that I have no integrity whatsoever and my life doesn't work. I tend to avoid making commitments and then tend to not keep the ones I make. After that happens, I usually feel terribly guilty and then go hide under a rock and don't answer the phone or e-mails. This doesn't work for people and has consequently left me in a place where I have almost no friends.

It finally all came together for me yesterday. My best friend was terribly angry with me for leaving her high and dry lately and I had no time to go sit down with her to talk things out. I wrote her a long, teary e-mail about how I was sorry and discussing some finer points of our relationship. I consequently made my kids late to their pool party.

On the way to the pool party, I realized I could ask another mom to keep an eye on my kids and then go see to my best friend. I did just that and then while we were mid-stride in conversation, the other mom called letting me know that it started raining, everyone was leaving the pool, and she needed me to come get my kids. On the way to the pool, I realized I hadn't called my seminar group members to let them know I had scheduled a group meeting for 6pm the same day.

I called another group member (the one who already knew) and asked her if she could call everyone else. Then I called someone else for coaching so that I could get what didn't have integrity (that I didn't think of my group members until 3pm) and get clear on that. I picked up my kids, took them home, then headed back to see my best friend and complete our conversation.

I was so powerful in my communication that by the time I got to the seminar at 7pm (after apologizing to my group), I was absolutely high on how well things could work if I simply honor my word. I was floored by this notion and really got that's all there is to making life work, just give my word and then honor it.

Here's to honoring word and living powerfully!!

Birthday Fun

2008-08-22T21:16:00.003-05:00

We made a commitment at the end of last year to be less materialistic when it came to gift giving within our household. Christmas worked out well, we got five gifts from Santa and then some cash to use as we each saw fit.

For birthdays this year, we had a commitment not to spend more than $50 for each person on gifts. We have been quite successful on this, with both boys having had their birthdays recently and loving their gifts so much that they didn't notice we had spent considerably less than the previous year. Aurora had a specific item in mind that was outside of our dollar limit, however she offered to give up having a party and eating out for her birthday in exchange for the extra amount spent. This worked for us, so we went ahead and bought her the item she requested.

For Caed's birthday, he received Marvel Ultimate Alliance for the Wii (that grandma bought us for all of our birthdays this year) and then we gave him some cash since he didn't have anything else he wanted that would allow us to come in under $50. We also went to Austin's Park and Pizza for his party, which included his two closest friends. We avoided the media room, as usual, and sat in a quieter room so we could have conversation and enjoy one another's company. Surprisingly, we only stayed for 3 hours as Caed became anxious to come home and put together the Lego toy he received from one of his friends.

With the cash he got from us and the Toys R Us giftcard he received from his mother, Caed bought himself a Tomb Raider game for the Wii. He's been spending a lot of time on the Wii lately, but this doesn't bother us as he was spending just as much time reading various books this time last year. He tends to become quite absorbed in whatever interests him, so we know that once his interest changes, so will his activities.

Andrea's birthday was great for her as well. She woke up early for no reason she could tell and promptly showered, gathered a daughter, and went bargain hunting at the Blue Hangar Goodwill (super discounted Goodwill). She found many prizes, including an Unabridged Dictionary published in 1979 (coincidence?), a nice pair of leather sandals (not real leather), and a Holistic Healing Guide. There was much more found and for all she only paid $16.

After Goodwill, she picked up the rest of the family and we went to see a house for lease in the area. It has 6bedrooms and 3bathrooms. It's a lot of space, we fear perhaps too much, but we love the fact that everyone can have their own room during these teenage years and there are many shelves and storage places everywhere. We've been trying to minimize the things we have, but we would still like space to place what we have. The house is available now and we're not sure they'll hold it for us until we return from vacation, but there's only one way to find out, which is to ask.

So, that's been our week. Sam and Andrea start a new workshop tomorrow, which we will be attending from 10am until 10pm. On Sunday, we're planning a birthday party for Andrea, something we haven't done in a long time, so it should be fun!

At least it wasn't a month

2008-08-16T20:45:00.003-05:00

So, it's been two weeks since we last blogged. As the title suggests, it could have been worse.

So let's see, not much has happened since we last blogged. We had Shane's b-day, that went really well. Shane decided the day before that he wanted to go out to a movie with friends, so we e-mailed several and rounded up two: Daniel and Austin. Shane, Daniel, and Austin went to see StepBrothers while the moms (and Dad) buzzed around running errands and hunting down a birthday apple pie for Shane. Shane got a pair of noise canceling headphones and an Itunes giftcard from Mom and Dad, both of which he loves.

After the movie, we all went out to Red Lobster as a party of 9, which was tons of fun. We sat around telling dirty jokes, hoping we wouldn't get kicked out, when our waitress (who was in her sixties) came up and told us a few of her own. A great time was definitely had. Austin ended up staying the night and the girls went home with Daniel and his mom to hang out with Daniel's older sister, who is Karma's best friend. Austin and Shane enjoyed some little brother (read: Caedmon) torture at 3 am that had Mom get up and threaten to make them sleep in the street.

Shane declared it was his best birthday and Mom and Dad patted one another on the back.

We have two birthdays coming up this week, Caed's birthday is on Tuesday and he'll be 12. Andrea turns 29 on Thursday (no, for real) and is not feeling old in any way--unlike when Sam was turning 29 and panicked that he was getting old.

We're still on for our vacation starting September 9th. We're heading to the Mall of America first and then after that, we'll head East and hopefully see some family along the way. If we haven't called you yet, please call us if you can snag a minute, we tend to get voicemail alot!!

This year, we'll be spending a minimum of 1 week in New Hampshire as requested by Sam's family, who we only spent a day with last year. We're also planning an actual stop in NYC of at least 3 days and several days in NC with some friends of ours that moved there earlier this year.

If you're reading this and you live E of the Mississippi and would like us to visit, drop us a comment!!

Wow

2008-08-04T23:16:00.002-05:00

Last time we posted, we committed to posting on a weekly basis. Here now it's been just over 3 weeks without a post. So, what's going on with us?

Well, our lease was up on July 31st, but we're hanging tight until we go on vacation. We moved all of our stuff into storage today, just to have it out of the way and in case we get told that the place has rented and we need to vacate. We've hung on to a few items necessary for survival, like food and a few dishes.

Let's see, what else has happened in the last 3 plus weeks? Sam and Andrea attended another workshop, which was just plain awesome. We'll have to give details about that in person, it just can't be done justice in a blog.

Oh yes, Aurora has a boyfriend now! His name is Dakota and he's a good kid. They're 1 year and one month apart, he being the older one. That's a little more of a thrill ride for Mom and Dad than Karma and her boyfriend, because those two are perfectly shy together. Aurora and hers are a little less so. We'll keep you posted.

More recently, we got Breaking Dawn, the fourth (and final?) book in the Twilight series. So far, Mom has read it and loved it. Karma and Aurora are both reading it, but Aurora was borrowing a copy that went home with our friend, so she's now impatiently interrupted. Karma is a little less than halfway through the book and thoroughly enjoying herself. If you haven't started the series yet, we highly recommend it! Everyone but Shane has read or is reading the series.

Other things that have happened recently...For the release party of Breaking Dawn, Karma and her friend Cameron were going to dye their hair black with temporary dye. They misread the package they bought and applied a not-so-temporary hair dye to their hair while Mom and Dad slept. Needless to say, both girls have black hair and will have for quite some time.

We may not have ever mentioned it, but we received a Wii for our Birthdays this year from Andrea's Mom. We now have five or six games for it and very much enjoy playing. So much so, that we are bringing it on our vacation this year.

Oh yes, for those that we haven't announced to yet, we are taking a vacation on Sept 9th, until no later than November 11th. We will be travelling first to MN to see the Mall of America before continuing on to see Sam's family in NH in late Sept and Karma's boyfriend's family in NC in mid-October. We have no other set or solid plans, but if you would like us to drop in and see you, please let us know! If you are a certain sister-in-law with a brand-new (nearly 1 year old) son that we haven't met yet, we would love to stop and see y'all for a day or two (or more if you're up for it).

So, that's about it! Shane's b-day is this week, so we'll come back and update y'all later in the week.

Hello

2008-07-13T17:54:00.002-05:00

Long time no blog.

Much has happened since last we posted as tends to happen in life. Highlights of the last many months: Shane lives with us; Sam and Drea participated in the Landmark Forum; Caed has lost many teeth and his 12 year molars are growing in; Karma has been commissioned for two art projects, a mural and a sign; Aurora is crocheting like a madwoman; Shane is almost done watching the complete Angel series; Andrea let her hair grow out to past her shoulders and then let Karma cut it (it's cute!); Sam has shaved his head again; Shane shaved his head again; Aurora let Karma cut her hair; Caed is wearing size 8 shoes but is still only 4'8"; Aurora is 1/4" shorter than Andrea; Karma grew 1/8"; we're heading out on a roadtrip on Sept. 9th to see the Mall of America, Andrea's brother and his family, Sam's family, and our friends who moved to NC.

Hmm, that may be about it. Oh yeah, we've got a new vehicle, a Chevy Uplander, which we will be driving on our vacation. Okay, so as lackluster as that was, that's the update! We'll start updating on a weekly basis, we promise.

Our Family Song

2008-06-27T03:39:00.002-05:00

Our family movie is Meet the Robinsons. This song is played at the end of the movie. We love it.

Rob Thomas Lyrics

How we're doing

2008-03-30T15:23:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone. Sorry it's been so long since we last posted. As you can expect, we've been quite busy with all the changes around the house.

Things are going pretty well, there've been some bumps in the road, no surprise, but we're making it along.

That was about the end of the inspiration. Hopefully, we'll say more later.

The Day of Reckoning is Nigh!!

2008-03-02T13:15:00.002-06:00

For all those of you who are tuned in to our latest happenings, our changes are occurring in just a couple of days. We are busily arranging the house (read: cleaning like madmen) and are anxiously awaiting the newness of it all.

We'll keep you updated on the changes as they occur.

Changes

2008-02-26T21:43:00.002-06:00

Well, it seems to be all settled. Our life is definitely changing. We don't have the final details yet, but we're preparing for it. Due to some privacy issues, we can't talk about it here, but if you call us or talk to us in person, we'll let you in on what's going on.

If you can't get to a phone, shoot us an e-mail, we may not have your address and we'll tell you that way (hint, hint sis).

We're very excited and we'll post back when everything is changed.

I can has cheezburger!

2008-02-18T23:32:00.002-06:00

This is a cool site we like. Check out this lolz we made with a pic of our kitty, Axl.

moar funny pictures

If the html for our pic isn't working, click the link below to see it:

http://mine.icanhascheezburger.com/View.aspx?noyoucant128478702789531250.jpg

So What's Going On?

2008-02-18T01:03:00.001-06:00

Shh, it's a secret! Some know kind of what's going on, we're still up in the air and unsure about it.

If you want to know, you have to call us and ask us, or ask us when you see us (if you live in this city).

It's exciting!!

Racking 'em up!!

2008-02-11T20:36:00.000-06:00

So now we have two people in the house that are laid up. Andrea was cleaning the house this morning (more like decluttering) and she went to pick some recycle up off the floor when her back started spasming. This is much like when it happened to her last year in July, only the spasms haven't gotten so bad that she's walking around like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Last year, when Andrea saw the doctor, she was told to take 800mg of ibuprofen three times per day and to do some special back stretches. So, today she's been doing her stretches and taking ibuprofen. She hasn't been in too much pain since starting the ibuprofen, but it still hasn't been pleasant for her.

Also, she had to miss work today. This is only her sixth day on her new job, doesn't that stink? We're hoping that if she rests all day today and does her stretches that she'll be well enough to go in tomorrow.

Another tagging...

2008-02-10T19:35:00.001-06:00

The rules are incredibly easy:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

Okay so the book nearest and easiest to grab (I have a couple books that I haven't started reading yet under a pile of papers) is Hormones, Health, and Happiness by Steven F. Hotze, MD. Thanks a bunch to Stephie for recommending this book, I'm loving it.

p. 123, sentences 5-7:

"As I mentioned in the previous chapter, in women who are of reproductive age, levels of testosterone peak at ovulation, the very time in a woman's menstrual cycle when she is fertile. This surge in testosterone midway through her cycle stimulates a woman's desire for sex. When a woman is estrogen-dominant, though, she experiences numerous ovulatory cycles in which there is no elevation in testosterone at this midpoint."

Hey Christine, we seem to be a little sex focused!! LOL

Actually, the book I'm reading is (as suggested by the title) about hormone health and that particular section is in a chapter talking about testosterone and how it affects a woman's libido.

I don't have anyone to tag. :(

Yet Another Injury!!

2008-02-10T19:28:00.000-06:00

Well, I guess it just runs in the family. On Wednesday last, while enjoying a social at Mandola's in the Triangle, Aurora went to jump onto a ledge and sprained her foot. A doctor happened to be in the crowd and examined her foot, recommending that we go get it x-rayed.

What a wonderful homeschooling community we have!! It was suddenly like having 8 extra "me"s right there to get things done. I was a little overwhelmed at all the offers of help as I'm used to handling emergencies by my lonesome. I was in the bathroom when it happened and by the time I got outside (maybe a minute?), someone already had Aurora's shoe and sock off, was cradling her head, and someone was off for ice. Sam had taken Caed to a doctor's appointment, so someone picked him up after and they joined the rest of us in the Emergency Room.

Aurora's foot was fortunately not broken, but she has to been by an orthopedic surgeon this upcoming week to evaluate her for possible surgery. I'm not sure where the line is between needing it or not, but it's something we will face. She is presently on crutches with an air cast and regular icings.

Excitement abounds.

New One on Us

2008-01-29T12:01:00.001-06:00

You know, we do surveys by e-mail, we do surveys on MySpace...why not post a survey to our blog?

Andrea's Answers to Survey from The Hogue Chronicle.

1. If your doctor told you TODAY that you were pregnant, what would you say?
Miracle of Miracles!! Sam has had a vasectomy, but if divine intervention occurs, we'd be pleased as punch.

2. When was the last time you flew in a plane?
I think I might not have remembered the last time simply because it was sad. I flew to Pittsburgh, PA for my cousin's funeral in 2005. Oddly, I don't remember the flight at all, in either direction. I know that I flew because I remember the guilt over not having enough money to buy my own ticket (thanks, Mom!), but I don't remember being on the plane at all. Too many other things in my head, I suppose. Oddly, that was also the first time I'd ever flown with a parent along.

3. What did the last text message you sent say?
I don’t text message.

4. What features do you find most attractive in the preferred sex?
I look at smiles, then eyes, then upper torso. I find high intelligence most attractive.

5. What is a goal you would like to accomplish in the near future?
Bringing my health and finances under control.

6. Shoe size?
10-11 depending on brand and fit

7. Been to Mexico?
Nopes.

8. When is the last time you had a massage?
Sometime in the last six months, Sam gave me one.

9. What was the last TV show you watched?
Sam and I just finished watching Heroes Ssn 1 on DVD.

10. What are your plans for the weekend?
I'm not sure, I tend not to plan that far in advance.

11. If your significant other asked you to marry them TODAY what would you say?
Where are we going to get the money for a wedding (we're already legally married-9 years as of yesterday)?

12. What is in the back seat of your car right now?
Um, some random junk and the back seat

13. What were you doing at 8 am this morning?
Instead of sleeping this am, I was at church. It was a special occasion.

14. If you could marry any celebrity today who would it be?
So assuming I'm available for marriage and we're interested in one another...Gerard Butler.

15. Have you ever been to a strip club?
Um, I did go into one once because the owner also owned some apartments I was looking to rent one of. I had to go in to meet him. I decided not to rent, because the only apartment available was right above the club.

16. What is the best ice cream flavor?
Ben & Jerry’s Everything But The...

17. What is the last sporting event you watched?
The 2006 Super Bowl

18. Ever go camping?
Yes! But it has been forever. I went to camp (with cabins) when I was 11/12. I haven't been camping in a tent since my parents were together.

19. Last phone call?
A Friend calling to offer me more free stuff.

20. Are you allergic to anything?
Um, sulfa, lactose, and cedar or something of the nature (seasonal).

21. What is one thing you have learned about life recently?
That unschooling can be a truly workable method of leading children in learning, even my kids.

22. What do you do at work?
At the mo, I spend much time keeping and caring for a family.

23. What is your mom’s name?
Linda

24. Ever cried for no reason?
I don't think I can technically say "no reason." Even when I had tears pouring down my face without accompanying emotion back in 1997, I later realized that I had a nervous breakdown (I had been working 18-22 hour days for 2 1/2 months). My body just couldn't handle any more, so I stood at work (both jobs that day), with tears streaming down my cheeks even though I was doing my job. That's a reason, even if it's not necessarily an emotional one.

25. Can you do the Crank Dat dance?
Never heard of it

26. What is your favorite color to wear?
Blue

27. What is the longest plane ride you have ever been on?
The only plane rides I've ever been on have all been pretty much the same, between Portland, OR and San Antonio, TX (with one trip originating in Austin, TX instead). They were all mostly for custody. Then, I'm reminded that I've also flown from San Antonio, TX to Pittsburgh, PA. I'm not sure which is longer, though.

28. What is the longest road trip you have ever taken?
Ooh, last year, we took a 3 week road trip. We drove from Austin, to TN, to MI, to PA, to MA, to NH, to MD, to TX (home).

29. What are your turn-offs?
Not sure right now.

30. What was your last alcoholic beverage?
Um, I think I had a glass of wine with dinner sometime last year.

31. What are you craving right now?
I just ate a honey bbq chicken sandwich I had been craving.

Bloggers: Copy and paste, answer the questions, and send as a link to this post under comments. Have fun!

New Directions

2008-01-22T18:43:00.000-06:00

At some point in everyone's life (many points for most people), one feels their whole life taking on a different direction. Here in the Dharma Family, we feel the change coming. We've made many changes and hope to make many more in 2008.

Let us tell you about some of the things we've changed and some of what's coming...

We mentioned back in November that we now speak to Sam's oldest son fairly regularly. We were on an every other month pattern last year, but we started out this year well by speaking to him both in December and January.
We have, as a family, decided to wholeheartedly embrace unschooling. We've done a lot of research and realized that so long as each of us has a deep internal desire for personal betterment, this will be successful. We've also realized that if we don't have that deep internal desire, that no amount of school or workbooks at home will change that.
We still want to open up our own store. We've had to put the idea on the backburner with the housing slump because lenders all over are more hesitant to give out their money. This leads us to:
We've created a budget. We bought this great book called America's Cheapest Family and we've actually created a workable budget. We've already begun applying some of their money saving principles and plan to start our budget in February. Already though, we've found more money in our pockets just by applying some of their money saving principles.
We're also changing the children's allowance system to a work and get paid system that is a modified version of the one found in America's Cheapest Family. We are all excited about it.
We plan to move this year, because we're not happy with where we live now. We're still very unsure about where we're moving to, we'll update you when the time comes.
Since embracing unschooling, even Sam and Andrea have rekindled their individual desires to learn and so learning is constanly happening around here.
We're embracing our sister-in-law's desire to unclutter her house. We plan to spend 2008 decluttering our living space.
Andrea is finally taking charge of her health and saw a doctor today to discuss her lack of weight loss and constant fatigue, among other things. She goes in for lab tests tomorrow.

Well, that's about all of the changes. The last thing that we'll be changing is that we're going to make more of an effort to keep our online followers updated. We belong to an unschooling listserv where everyone has been posting their days and we plan to do something similar here.

That's all for now folks!

Lots of love,

The Dharma Family

Isaac...wonderful Isaac...

2008-01-08T16:29:00.000-06:00

This is an update about our friend Isaac Lehr who has been mentioned in previous posts. This update was written by our friends the BareNakedFamily.

This morning as we were standing in line for security check in to fly to Santa Rosa we got the call that Isaac has passed away this morning. We are sitting here in the airport waiting to board our flight and surrounded by the love of Isaac. Even in a busy place like this the love that is God and is Isaac is surrounding us right now. We can't help but listen to the music that is playing right now and see his crazy big grin shining down on us. Isaac has left this world knowing his place with God and completly at peace. It is so comforting to know that he has smiled and been courageous all this time.

I know that he loves everyone of ya'll who have been keeping up and sending amazing love, support, and prayers to him and his Family. It's so awesome that we get to take the love of all of ya'll out there with us today.

Today, we honor the man, father, husband, and friend that Isaac Lehr has been and will continue to be. There ain't no one else like him in the world.Isaac, thank you. You are loved. You are missed. You are celebrated. You are wonderful my friend. Thank you for allowing me to smile this morning. We will always remember 'Standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona' together.

barenaked love,
Greg, Jenn, Austin, Kesley, Sunny

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-21T13:01:00.000-06:00

Thanskgiving is on our doorstep yet again.

Last year, we had much to be grateful for. We gained 3 children, brought them all home full-time, bought new furniture, so everyone had a bed and we had a real couch and dining table with chairs. Those were a big deal for us, because we've always had mattresses on the floor and inherited couches/tables or purchased at Goodwill. We were so grateful last year, we couldn't imagine being any more grateful.

Well, this year we've gone and outdone ourselves. We still have 3 beautiful children, whom we get to watch grow into beautiful adults on a daily basis. We've finally found a good child center that is providing our entire family with the therapy we need to move on in our lives. We get to talk to our missing 4th child on occasion and hear directly from him how he's doing in school, how much he misses us and loves us. This year, we got to take a family vacation and travel a significant portion of the Northeast of this country.

It's funny when we talk to people about our roadtrip. We were out for three weeks visiting family and seeing the U.S. When we mention it to other parents and/or people who know our children and the troubles they've had, we get asked, "How did the kids do on the trip, being on the road for so long?" I always respond with a quizzical look and, "They did just fine." Honestly, I didn't expect any different from them. Folks are amazed when the children report that they loved the trip and had no problems sitting in the car for long periods of time.

This was a far cry from our roadtrip from Oregon to Texas with the kids, though. That's what we're thankful for this year. Through our many blessings, our children's loving spirits, and of course, some even handed love from Mom and Dad, our children have already come such a long way, that even if their spiritual/emotional growth stunted today, they would be decent adults.

This year, we find ourselves giving less thanks for material things and more for love and for family. Each member of our family has their health and only one friend doesn't. We've told you about him before, his name is Isaac. Click on his name to refresh your memory about who he is and how you can help him and his family have a truly blessed Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. Even if you can't help monetarily, please pray for them.

So with love to all of our friends and family, Happy Thanksgiving!

Dharma Family

Nearly another month has passed...

2007-11-16T22:03:00.000-06:00

In all fairness, we've been really busy this month. Halloween was a couple of days after we last posted and we went trick-or-treating with our friends, the Surettes.

After Halloween, we began gearing up for Karma's birthday. That was one wild ride! We ended up celebrating her birthday for a week. It started on the 7th when we went to Red Robin for her free birthday burger and sundae. Afterward, we rented a movie and got a beautiful cake (pics to come) and some ice cream. On Friday, we went to Austin's Park and Pizza with the Surettes. That was tons of fun. We went mini-golfing, go-cart riding, bumper boat bumping, laser tagging, and we played for hours in their arcade and enjoyed an all-you-can-eat pizza, pasta, and salad buffet. We also took raspberry cheesecake bars for everyone's enjoyment.

On Saturday, Mom went to work and everyone stayed home and rested from the previous two days. Then Sunday, we rented another couple of movies and finished off the birthday cake. On Monday, Mom went to work while everyone rested again. Then on Tuesday, which was Karma's actual birthday, she opened her presents and we had pizza for lunch. Then Mom went to work and came home early, so we rented another movie and got another birthday cake. On Thursday, we went down to San Antonio and walked around River Center Mall before going to Grandma's new house which has a hot tub and a pool!! Sadly, it was way too cold to take a dip and we didn't have our suits with us. We had pizza with Grandma and Aunt Peggy though and Karma got some books she'd really been wanting for her birthday. All in all, Karma said it was her "Best Birthday Ever!!!"

So, here we are now on Friday and we ran some errands, went to an appointment, had dinner at Chili's on a gift card we won, then came home and played Monopoly. Overall, it's been a hectic but joyous last couple of weeks.

We're very excited about the upcoming week as well. We should be talking to Shane tomorrow and possibly seeing the Surettes. Also, Thanksgiving is coming up, which we'll be going to Grandma's for. We're hoping the weather warms up so we can take a swim while we're down there (not likely, but we can hope, can't we?). On Friday, is a special picnic with the homeschooling soccer folks that we plan to attend. At this picnic, we'll being seeing the BareNakedFamily, who have been in New Mexico for the last several months. We've missed them tons and can't wait to see them again.

Our love to all of our friends and family who read this. We hope you have a great and blessed Thanksgiving.

Wow, where have we been?

2007-10-28T15:19:00.000-05:00

Geeze, another month has passed and you haven't heard hide nor hair from us.

Well, Andrea has been working (as previously mentioned) and since she does most of the typing in the house, that makes for fewer posts. :)

We've done a few things in the last month. Andrea's best friend, Stephanie did indeed move out into her own, spacious 1 bedroom apartment. Her puppy, Koopa now gleefully runs throughout all the space that is hers. Our house seems a little empty with Steph gone, but we're dealing. We plan to put to use the bedroom that she vacated, that'll happen...sometime.

Andrea has been hating her job for the most part, though it got a little better last week when she talked to one of the higher-ups and found out that they hate the place as much as she does and are working to make it better. The only question that remains is, "Can they make it better before it sinks?"

The other thing about the job, even if it becomes the best place to work ever, Andrea will still be away from everyone else for 45 or more hours per week. That part sucks. Is there enough money to ever really make that worth it?

Everyone else is pretty much same, same. It's an adjustment for everyone to have Andrea gone so many hours and everyone's been dealing with that in their own way. Mostly, they've been spending a lot of time together, which is good.

Karma has a "boyfriend" now. I say "boyfriend" because she's 13 and he's 15, not a whole lot of "boyfriendly" stuff going on there. One really good thing about that though is that our family gets along really well with his family. We spent his birthday hanging out together, where he mostly talked to Sam and tried to not ignore Karma. He didn't do so well on the trying part. But that's okay, that's why he's her "boyfriend."

Let's see, over the past month, we've been to a Social Club dance, been to Alex's (Karma's boyfriend) birthday party, been to a tour of the Austin Museum of Art, and been to the first ever Austin Green City Festival. At the latter was where we spent the day with Alex's family.

Caedmon is starting structured homeschooling again. We're not sure he'll ever be able to really unschool. We're going to try to leave him with the ability to explore and find knowledge on his own, but because of his past, he may never be able to "break free of the system."

Aurora has asked for more structure in her unschooling. She's always kind of liked some structure but we also think this is because of what she's been through. Being jerked back and forth in custody is a little unstable and makes it difficult to be a structured person. We have confidence though, that she'll eventually be able to structure herself.

Karma is just as unstructured as ever, but that works for Karma. That is her structure. She actively seeks knowledge wherever she can find it and she's better for it. We're contemplating giving her some structure in some specific areas, or at least giving her some tools to accomplish certain kinds of learning, in Grammar, for example. :)

Sam and Karma have acquired Guild Wars Nightfall which Sam plays constantly (or pretty constantly) because that's what Sam does. On the bright side, Karma's Alex also has the game, so they stay up late online together some nights, playing in game with Sam.

Ah yes, Karma's birthday is coming up. We're working on sorting out what to do for her birthday. Mom has some ideas, but Karma is reading the screen, so we won't post them here. :)

All the kitties are mostly the same. One very positive thing to note is that Axl has started gaining weight and getting bigger, ever since we had him dewormed for tapeworms specifically. When he was treated before, he was too little for tapeworm dewormer, so it was never done. Also, on positive notes, Cyrano seems to be getting sick less. He still really needs to see the vet, but it's kinda like the car, we know the estimate for repair is going to be high, so we hesitate taking him/it in for a check-up.

That's about it for now.

To close, we'd like to give a shout-out to our BareNaked friends, who will be coming home to Austin next week. Hi guys! We miss you lots and are sorry we haven't taken the time to respond on MySpace. We can't wait to see you and think it would be great if we could throw you a coming home party...

Lots of love,

The Dharma Family6

Some changes

2007-09-26T10:58:00.000-05:00

We're going through some changes on the Dharma front. Andrea has started a new job, which has her out of the house 45 hours per week, again. We'll see how that goes.

Andrea's best friend, who has been staying with us since her separation is going to be moving into her own place next week. This will be a relief for all involved as this little house is just not made to hold 3 adults, 3 kids, 6 cats, and 1 dog.

The kids have begun unschooling. We're testing the waters with all three kids. The premise of unschooling is that children have an inherent desire to learn and so will seek out knowledge when left to their own devices. So far, only Karma is really seeking out knowledge, though Aurora spends time reading and doing math as well. It's recommended that kids take a little vacation and are given time to rediscover their inherent desire to learn. That's where we're at right now. Also, Sam and Andrea are hoping to model good learning to the kids through their own pursuit of knowledge, which fortunately happens quite frequently.

We'll keep you posted.

The Sound of Silence

2007-09-18T22:01:00.000-05:00

Yes, so we realize that you haven't heard from us in awhile. For the most part, this is because we are just living life and not much has happened lately.

The kids have been participating in their activities, going to friends' homes, having friends come here, etc.

We were unable to talk to Shane this month, due to circumstances beyond our control. Hopefully we will next month.

We went on a cruise of Town Lake to see the bats, that was fun, we got some gorgeous pictures out of the deal.

That's about it, really.

Happy Birthday Joshua!!

2007-08-26T11:57:00.001-05:00

Yes, we have yet another August birthday. Last post we mentioned that our nephew/cousin, Bryon and Christine's son was due in September. Well, it just goes to show that due dates are truly an estimation.

Bryon and Christine welcomed Joshua Michael into the world at 5:20 EDT this morning. He is the first boy for this happy mom and dad. Reports are that it was an easy delivery and Joshua comes in at a healthy 6lbs. 14 oz. His dad says he has strawberry blonde hair and possibly gray eyes.

Plans had been made for a home delivery with a midwife and one can only assume that things went according to plan since Christine had a smooth delivery.

Congratulations to Bryon, Christine, Mikayla, Rachel, and Joshua!! We hope to come up and visit with the new baby soon.

Happy Birthdays!!

2007-08-24T12:17:00.000-05:00

Wow, August has been a busy month. It always is in our family. Just among the six of us, we have three August birthdays. Shane turned 16 on August 6th, Caedmon turned 11 on August 19th, and Andrea turned 28 on August 21st.

Moving on to other immediate family: Faith (bio-mother of children) turned 33 on August 5th and Mike (Sam's brother) turned 33 on August 18th. In Andrea's family, Aunt Susie and Uncle Dave both celebrated their birthdays (no need to get into ages) and Uncle Tom will celebrate his next Thursday.

In September, we will have Sam's Mom, Grandma Tricia on September 1st, Andrea's Mom, Grandma Linda on September 3rd, then Aurora will turn 14 on September 22nd and Sam's best friend "Uncle Chris" will turn 34 on September 23rd. In addition to those 4, Andrea's brother, Bryon, and his wife, Christine, are expecting a son, Joshua Michael, to be born in September. His estimated due date is September 9th. We will post once he's here and give him a warm welcome.

We shipped Shane's birthday package off very belated, so we can't post what he's receiving because we can't be entirely sure he's received it yet.

For Caedmon's birthday, he received: A Spiderman toy chest, a Bionicle Barrika, and a Superman long sleeve t-shirt from Mom and Dad; a new remote controlled stunt car from Grandpa Gary and Grandma Susie; a three-pack of Transformers from Aurora and Karma; a Megatron Transformer and Action (hums and lights-up) Light Saber from Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Chris, plus a cool card that plays the Darth Vader theme music; $20 from Grandpa Scott (Stephanie's Dad); a Bionicle (I forget, but the newest set) and a Megatron action figure from Adam, Aurora's friend; an Optimus Prime Transformer that Transforms into a Nerf Gun from Aunt Peggy; and a Cybertron Primus Transformer from Grandma Linda, that toy was the only one he requested by specific name, so of course it's his favorite, but he loves all of his toys and we only see him for schoolwork and mealtimes since his birthday.

We had all of the above people (except for Gary, Susie, and Adam) here for Caedmon's party, which involved listening to the Eagles and Oreo ice cream cake served on paper Transformers plates. Caedmon left the room after opening his presents and didn't resurface until cake time, wherein he promptly left again after finishing. Fun was had by all.

Andrea got Law and Order: Criminal Intent Season 1 for her birthday from her Mom and Aunt Peggy, she also got a membership to Curves from Stephanie. Sam and the kids got her clothes for her Build-A-Bear and plan to shop more after we get paid again. Also, Andrea's Mom baked a confetti cake and brought ice cream for Andrea's birthday and even though we ate the ice cream cake at the party, Andrea very much enjoyed the confetti cake over the ensuing week, with a little help from her friends and family, of course. We're still enjoying the ice cream, in the form of sundaes, yummy!!

Oh yeah, not alot to say for an entire blog post, but we did talk to Shane as promised on the 18th of August. He called when he woke up at 10am our time and stayed on the phone until Sam sent him to bed at midnight our time (he had church the next day). Good conversation was had by all and we plan to play games over the phone in the future (we are a game playing family).

Until next time...

Kindness in Rememberance

2007-08-13T08:31:00.000-05:00

Today, August 13, 2007, marks the second anniversary of the death of Andrea's cousin, Jeremy. Jeremy passed less than a month shy of his 32nd birthday. He was riding his sports motorcycle on a road called the Dragon in Kentucky/Tennessee when his tire hit some oil on the road, he lost control, and swerved into oncoming traffic. While a tragic accident, Jeremy passed doing something that he enjoyed, so those of us who loved him take heart in the fact that he had been happy.

Jeremy was one of the kindest people you could meet. As an older brother, he never got angry with his siblings for tagging along for he understood that it was part of their admiration of him. He didn't necessarily feel that he deserved this admiration, but he was accepting of it. As a cousin, he defended Andrea's desire to tag along with himself and her older brother, Bryon. As a son, he showed kindness to both of his parents, never taking sides in their separation, showing nothing but unconditional love for them both. As a father, he showered the same unconditional love on his two young daughters, helping them both grow into beautiful, loving young girls.

In Rememberance of Jeremy's passing, we celebrate his life with acts of kindness. From today, August 13th, until Jeremy's birthday on September 2nd, we will remember Jeremy with acts of kindness towards our fellow human being. We ask you to join us in remembering this beautiful life by helping to make life beautiful for everyone.

It should not take tragedies like the bombing of the World Trade Center or the collapse of the bridge in Minnesota to bring kindness out of individuals. That person ahead of you in line at the grocery store only needs thirty cents to pay for their groceries and go home. The individual on the side of the road trying to change their tire may not have a cell phone to call for help. It is a more dangerous world today, but mostly because we've stopped helping our fellow man.

Take some time over the next few weeks to demonstrate to the world at large that you are a decent human being. Remember, the kindest act in giving is the one for which you receive no credit.

Bashed in the Face!!

2007-08-09T14:56:00.000-05:00

We started going to soccer again on Tuesday of this week. It's good because the kids could use the exercise and it gives Mom a chance to get some fresh air.

Today, the ball popped up and smacked Caed in the right side of his face. It smashed his glasses as well, but we won't know if they're too badly bent until we take them to the optical store and have them looked at, probably tomorrow. He got a pretty bad nosebleed, blood was just everywhere, once he saw the blood, he started shrieking, because he couldn't see out of his right eye and he thought it had been damaged. Andrea sat him down and got his nose pinched to stop the bleeding, then cleaned him up to look at the damage. His face was pretty swollen, so we took him to the ER in the event his nose had been broken. They didn't bother doing x-rays, because the swelling was down by the time we got there, he's just got some brusing around his eye and he was mildly concussed.

Turns out, he's gonna live. :)

Grandparent visit

2007-07-30T14:45:00.000-05:00

We never did come back and post how the grandparent visits went. We'll go chronologically and start with the weekend with Grandma Linda and Aunt Peggy.

Grandma had an extended week off from teaching because of the July 4th holiday, so she planned a surprise for the children. She picked them up on Saturday and they went back to her place in San Antonio, had pizza and watched movies. On Sunday morning, Grandma and Peggy took the kids to the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus. They had a lot of fun with that. After that, they went back to Grandma's to watch more movies. On Monday, Grandma and Peggy took them mini-golfing in San Antonio before bringing them home Monday afternoon exhausted.

Gary and Susie, their maternal grandparents, flew in Tuesday evening along with Gary's parents, Bud and Midge. They called Wednesday morning after breakfast. We went to their motel room and spent several hours getting acquainted and reacquainted. Afterwards, we went to Fuddrucker's for lunch and then parted so Bud and Midge could nap. We went back over to their motel an hour or so later and went swimming with Gary and Susie. After the pool, we went back to their room and socialized for several more hours. On Thursday, we went over at lunch time and we all went out to Ryan's (a buffet place) for lunch. After lunch, we went back to the motel and socialized for awhile before going swimming. We swam until dinner time, then went to Whataburger for dinner. After dinner, we went back to their motel room where we stayed until nearly midnight because they were leaving on Friday.

All in all, it was a great visit. Gary and Susie got to see that the kids were doing well and express how impressed they were that the kids are doing well mentally/emotionally without the aid of medications. They thanked us several times for taking such good care of the kids.

What was most satisfying about this visit was finally hearing from some of the people who have fought us for years over the kids that we are good people, who are more than capable of providing a loving, stable home for children. We got along with them quite well and the children were quite happy to see their grandparents.

Glad you enjoyed your visits grandparents!

Kosher

2007-07-30T14:39:00.001-05:00

We need to give a public apology for the last post. We thought about editing it, but decided that would be dishonest since we expressed in the post that it is supposed to be a forum for us to express ourselves honestly and the link is sent to all those we love to see our honest feelings.

That being said, we did upset some of our loved ones with the post and were asked not to express such intense emotions about them on the web anymore. To the person who asked that, we will not name you with such intensity again.

In the end, All was Well

2007-07-29T15:49:00.000-05:00

Turns out that we accomplished much with our conversation with Shane. We are going to be allowed to keep an open dialogue with him from now until we see him next. We still plan to take our trip west in 2009 after Shane graduates and hope to see him then.

We are very excited about this from a familial perspective, because it means that everyone will be able to begin healing the big rift that was created when the children were separated nearly a decade ago. We definitely have new topics for therapy and we expect to see some great strides in all of us soon.

What a month July has been for us. Here it is coming to a close and we've made great communication strides with so many members of the family. All in all, we're pleased and intend to follow up about the grandparent visit in a further post.

Talking to Shane!!

2007-07-27T14:24:00.000-05:00

So, we know we've been remiss in posting lately. We keep forgetting to come on and tell everyone how we're doing.

Today, as you can tell from the title, something so exciting is happening that we have to come on and tell you all about it right now. Sam's mom called this morning to return his call asking how she was doing. Shane has been staying with her because she is recovering from surgery. While Sam was talking to his mom, he asked if he could talk to Shane. She asked Shane if he'd like to talk to his dad, and of course, he did.

We've been on speaker phone with Shane for over an hour now. Everyone is so very excited to talk to Shane and Shane is very excited to hear from us. We talked to Shane about our planned trip to Oregon and Minnesota (for the Mall of America) and he still wants to come with us! We hatched the idea to go to the Mall of America when Shane was 11 or 12 and we used to plan with him taking the trip. We haven't gotten around to it yet, but he's still excited about it!

Well, long story short, we're excited to be talking to him, so we're going to go back to our conversation with him now, but we'll post again later. Hopefully, we'll be able to keep an open dialogue with him until our trip in '09. It's just great to hear from him again.

Not Moving After All

2007-06-24T18:33:00.000-05:00

Well, a lot has happened since last we posted. Andrea's best friend decided to leave her husband for good. It was a long time coming, but as we know with receiving the gift of the children, even things you want to have happen can come as a shock to you.

We decided that instead of moving, we will help our landlord clean up the neighborhood. We've reported to him the major problem home in the neighborhood and he has promised to contact the owner and see about taking over as the manager to clean the place up. Speaking of that home, we watched a domestic dispute on the lawn (again) yesterday and our lawn care boy was arrested, yet again. It was just as well, he needed money and we had none to give, so he was coming over often.

Karma has now changed the color of her mohawk. It is a pretty purple at the moment. She's saved up some of her allowance and bought some hair glue. We'll be posting a picture of her purple, glued mohawk soon.

The kids' grandparents are visiting and taking them places soon. Andrea's mom and aunt have requested the kids from July 7th-9th and then Faith's father and step-mother are planning a visit on July 11th and 12th. The kids aren't fully aware of their trip with grandma and Aunt Peggy yet, they know something's going on but not when or where.

Most everyone has new glasses now. Sam, Aurora, Karma, and Caedmon had vision exams over the last couple of weeks. Sam and Aurora each got a new pair of glasses. Karma didn't want glasses, so the opthamologist said she could wait until next year's exam, because her prescription would be pretty light. Caedmon explained that he had glasses before, but he purposely busted them because he did not like the headaches and dizziness associated with new glasses. Taking this into account, the doctor wrote him a lighter prescription than what he really needs, in an attempt to minimize his suffering. When he gets his vision exam next year, he will get the appropriate prescription. Caed's glasses should come in this next week. Once everyone gets their new glasses, we'll take pics and put them up here.

So, that's about it for now, you know, more has happened, but there's only so much typing one can do in an individual session.

Moving?

2007-05-26T16:13:00.000-05:00

Well folks, it looks like we may be getting our wish after all. As we've mentioned before, we'd like to move to Pennsylvania, it just seems the place for us. Well, our lease is up July 31st (not August 31st as we previously thought), and it turns out that we have to give moving or renewing notice to our landlord by May 31st, 60 days in advance! We're pretty sure we won't have enough money to move cross-country by July 31st. Since he e-mailed us Thursday of last week, asking us if we'd renew, with a slightly higher rent, we wrote back and told him we didn't really want to move, but that this neighborhood is horrible. Did he by chance have any other properties he could rent to us?

It just so happens that he does. He told us about one place that's not too far from here, just on the other side of I-35 near Braker. We went to look at it and the neighborhood looks a little of a mixed bag. There are some spots that look a little trashy, but others where lawns are well-maintained and people friendly. At the duplex next door, there were some children outside playing, speculating out loud as to why we were there. At least the children had some healthy paranoia and didn't approach us to ask us for money or food (something that frequently happens here).

He also told us that he would look and see what else he has when he comes back from his Memorial Day vacation. So, I guess we'll get more then. The other neighborhood looks more our speed than this one and it's entirely possible we won't find a place in our budget in any better of a neighborhood than that one.

As a final side note, the lost kitten has a name now, Axl. We came to this conclusion because he was initially discovered in the wheel well of someone's truck. He's getting better now, eating and his nose has pink to it fairly permanently now. Sadly, he also has worms pretty bad, but he's not big enough to be dewormed. That's always the problem when tiny kittens get worms. They can't be dewormed until they're a certain size, but they have difficulty growing bigger when all of their nutrients are being sucked up by these parasites. He'll be 8 weeks old next week, so we'll take him back and try demanding that he's dewormed, even if he doesn't weigh enough.

Blue Mohawk, Dance, Stupid blog photos

2007-05-19T21:34:00.000-05:00

So let's start with the dance since we talked about it in the last post. Andrea decided to stay home from the dance because she was so stuffed up, she didn't think she'd have any fun. She took some pics of the kids in their nice clothes, then was silly and didn't hand Sam the camera. Apparently, great memories were had and Andrea didn't get to see it. :(

Today, Sam took Karma out and fixed her mohawk, thinned it up on top and made it look nicer than Andrea was coming up with. Karma came inside, took a shower and then noticed how spiky her hawk was looking. She said, "Wow, it's long enough to dye now!" Andrea then hunted down the blue hair dye and offered Karma a dye job. Now Karma has a blue hawk. You can see the pic of it on the left-hand bar.

That brings us to our last subject. There is also a picture of the kids, ready for the dance, in the left-hand bar. The stupid blog thing-y cuts off the right side of the pics. So, if it looks like Caedmon was cut out of the picture by some bad photography, it just ain't so. The pic was taken centered, appeared centered in the add page, but is not centered when posted. You may notice this with some of our other photos as well. Same problem!!

Dance Plans!!

2007-05-17T14:43:00.000-05:00

We're finally ready to rejoin the social world of homeschooling in Austin and what do we learn? There's a dance! Of course, we just have to go. Aurora and Karma have been jonesing to attend a dance and through one stroke of bad luck or bad memory, have not been able to. They've got beautiful dresses on loan from their Aunt Christine and my goodness, they will look great tonight. The dance starts at 8pm, so we will be getting ready around 6:30pm and heading out about 7:30pm or so. We'll snap some pics so everyone can see.

In other news, Andrea is very sick and may hang out in the car at the dance tonight. Also, we are planning to have a Garage Sale, but Andrea is not well enough to plan one. We've got all the supplies, but we need to finish going through our belongings and pulling out things to sell. Then, we need to sort and mark everything. I guess we'll see what happens.

That's about it for now!

Happy Mother's Day!!

2007-05-13T14:21:00.000-05:00

To all the women we know, Happy Mother's Day! You may be thinking just now, "hey wait, I'm not a mother," but what woman isn't? All women have it programmed into our genetic codes to be a mother and try as we might, we find ourselves mothering everyone we know, spouses, siblings, co-workers, even bosses sometimes. As our parents grow older, we will eventually mother them, too in exchange for the parenting we received as children.

Now, I'd like to paste a speech called the Mother's Day Proclomation. I found this on a blog that I regularly read, Hathor the cow goddess.

Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts,whether our baptism be that of water or of fears!

Say firmly: “We will not have great questions decided byirrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reekingwith carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not betaken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teachthem of charity, mercy and patience.

We women of one country will be too tender of those of anothercountry to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. Fromthe bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own.It says “Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balanceof justice.”

Blood does not wipe our dishonor nor violence indicate possession.As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summonsof war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for agreat and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women,to bewail and commemorate the dead.

Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to themeans whereby the great human family can live in peace, eachbearing after their own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,but of God.

In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that ageneral congress of women without limit of nationality may beappointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and atthe earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote thealliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlementof international questions, the great and general interests ofpeace.

Julia Ward Howe
Boston
1870

Okay, we're off to enjoy a day together.

The Lost Kitten

2007-05-07T17:06:00.000-05:00

Our good friend Steph was visiting us on Friday night, with the expectation that her husband, Greg would be over soon. When Greg arrived, he noticed a tiny black kitten trying to climb into the wheel well of a work truck. The driver of said truck kept kicking the kitten out, afraid that he would forget the kitten was there and drive off, injuring the kitten. A woman walked by and the kitten began following her until he lost interest, at which point he wandered into the road. Moments after wandering into the road, a truck came speeding by, nearly ending the kitten's life.

Greg scooped up the kitten and brought him to the door to safety. Andrea saw the tiny thing and made many exclamations about his cuteness. As she took the kitten from Greg, she noticed that Greg's hands were black with grease and the kitten had streaks of white fur. Andrea decided the kitten desperately needed a bath and had Steph get the cat wash/flea shampoo out. After his bath, the kitten was a little more scared, but still crawling with fleas. After Andrea saw how truly tiny he was, she decided not to use the flea shampoo again as it is not safe for kittens under 8 weeks.

After his second bath, this time with baby shampoo, everyone noticed that the kitten was not black as previously thought, but instead gray and white, pretty equally. The kitten was quite scared by this point, having only been inside for a half hour and having already received not one, but two baths. After drying him off, Andrea found the dry kitten formula mix she had bought for Qsmat and mixed some up for the new kitten. He stuck his nose in, but did not lap, so Steph and Andrea assumed he hadn't been weaned and set out in pursuit of a kitten bottle.

It was nearly 10 o'clock at night by this point, so Petsmart was long closed and Target was closing. Steph and Andrea managed to find some preemie bottles at Target and bought them in the hopes they would work. After getting the bottles home, the kitten decided he didn't like the bottles and would instead like to lap formula from a bowl! Cute kitten.

We managed to get the kitten into the vet on Sunday, but found out he was too small to receive most treatments. He was able to get some roundworm dewormer, but too small for Capstar and other parasite killers. The vet told us that he is anemic, most likely from the number of fleas he had on him. We are to give him a multi-vitamin twice a day until his nose and gums are completely pink and feed him whatever we can get him to eat.

Since we started perking him up with multi-vitamins yesterday, he has been eating KMR and wet food voraciously about every 6 hours. He's still sleeping a little more than average, but he's playing more when he is awake. He doesn't have a name yet, but we're sure he's a boy, he's 4 weeks old, he weighs 1.25 pounds and is as cute as pie!

We'll try to get a picture up in a a bit. If none appear, you can leave a comment asking for one to be e-mailed to you.

Settling back in

2007-05-07T16:40:00.000-05:00

It seems lately that there's always so much to talk about and so little time to say it in.

We are settling back into our family life here in Austin. The kids resumed school work today and are cracking right through it. The awesome part is, they didn't even have to be asked, it was like they were just ready to go at it again.

Caed blew through about six different books while we were gone. He finished what we own of the Warriors' New Prophecy series, then read Eragon and Eldest, Raising Dragons (a gift from Aunt Christine), and read a book from the Ice Age cycle of the MtG card game. He's now in a book from the Time Spiral cylce in the MtG card game.

Aurora has also finally got the reading bug. It took her forever to read Goblet of Fire, but once she had finished it, she was driven to finish what we own of the series. She picked up book 5 as we were departing our family in PA and finished last Friday (the day after we arrived home). She started book 6 that same day and here it is the following Monday and she's already half-way through. She's read a lot over the weekend.

Karma has always had the reading bug, she loves to read. She's enjoying creating her art work as well, so she spends her time divided between the two activities. She finished books 5 and 6 while on vacation and is involved in another book at the moment. She was also commissioned to create some art work for a website her Aunt Christine is working on and she has been pleased so far.

Andrea and Sam are working on getting household things taken care of, Sam finally has his license back. Since the entire family seems deadset on making the move to PA as soon as possible, we are also working on getting things ready for that. It will be another cross-country move, our fourth in our 8 1/2 years of marriage. Of course, it will take several months, possibly a year to coordinate everything, but we're hoping to never move that far again.

Sam's birthday is tomorrow, but since everyone works, we celebrated this last weekend. It was a lot of fun involving two birthday cakes, some board games, a lost kitten, and lots of rousing conversation. Sam got Supernatural Season 1 for his birthday from our good friends Greg and Steph, he also received issues 3 and 4 of Full-Metal Alchemist from Caed and Aurora. Karma got him a Spider-Man montage puzzle which he says he'll put together soon, Andrea's mom and Aunt Peggy bought him the Diablo Battle Chest (again), and Andrea got him a Planar Chaos fat pack and a pre-constructed deck from Future Site. All-in-all, he says he had a great birthday.

The lost kitten story shall follow.

Safe and Sound

2007-05-03T00:36:00.000-05:00

We arrived home at about 11:30 p.m tonight, safe and sound, well maybe not so sound. We saw some lovely thunderstorms while crossing Dallas, several points where we had to drive 20 mph and even one point where we had to pull completely off the road and go hide in a truck stop with about 20 other people. Had it not been for the weather, we'd have been home around 10pm. C'est la vie!

We're of course exhausted, but not quite ready for bed. We sent the kids off to bed, they were passed out in the car anyway. We're just chillin' out on the couch now thinkin' about everything and nothing all at once. We got some crap to do tomorrow, gotta go pick up our mail, clean out the rental, maybe get it returned (has to be done in 12 hours), get Sam's license, and go to the bank.

The cats are very happy to have us home. At first, they looked at us like, "Who the hell are you people, and where is that nice calm couple that's been coming over?" Then, when they recognized us, they got some preliminary pets and proceeded to ignore us for about a half hour in protest of our 3 week absence. Now, only Cyrano is really cuddly, cuddled up to Momma, of course. Everyone else has had a bit more love, though.

The rats are happy to have us home also...Poor Demi, Karma's rat, needs a one-way trip to the vet. She has a mammary tumor that in the 3 weeks we've been gone is now about half of her pre-tumor size. Foxie rang her bell for some attention, got some, then proceeded to ring her bell again because she wanted more. The girls told her she will just need to wait until morning.

Well, there's a lot more to talk about, but that can be another post.

Soon to be off home...

2007-04-29T21:17:00.000-05:00

Wowee, what a trip it has been! When last we left our intrepid heroes, they were staying in Massachusetts, practically in the Atlantic Ocean...

While in Massachusetts, we visited Salem and a couple of the witch museums there. If you are planning a trip, the Witch Dungeon Museum was awesome, the Witch History Museum sucked. We ate at the Lyceum Bar and Grill where Alexander Graham Bell first demonstrated his brand new invention--the telephone. That was a cool bit of history. In Salem, we got a new bumper sticker for our car, you'll just have to see it for yourself.

From Salem, we went to Hampton, New Hampshire to visit Sam's Grammy and the rest of his family. That was pretty cool. Sam's Grammy is 94 and her house is furnished with what she calls "Attic Furniture." Attic Furniture is furniture that is taken from relative's attics that they aren't using anymore. When she and her husband got married, they had no furniture, so they took their relative's cast-offs. It was liking walking into an American History Museum. We all sat in the Sitting Room on Civil War era (or older) furniture and looked around at antiques that belonged on Antique Road Show.

Andrea's dirty little secret is a passion for history and she was just giddy with joy walking through the house looking at all the pieces of Americana, especially the 8 or 9 bookcases filled with books. She found 5 or 6 Readers, which were like textbooks in the olden days. A French Reader had belonged to someone in 1868!!

Sam's family were totally good peoples. They were very happy to see us all as they had never met any of us (other than Sam of course). We were happy to meet them too. We went with them out to an area the family calls "Mummy Rock," which is a rock in the Atlantic that looks like a sarcophagus. We took some ankle deep dips in the Atlantic, but it was pretty freakin' cold for late April. We also got to read some of Sam's family history in their "Civil War Letters," written by Sam's great-great grandfather and his brother while they were in the Civil War.

That visit came to an end all too quickly as we hadn't expected to stay for more than a couple of hours and we had already pushed into the next day. From there, we headed down to see the last set of family, Andrea's Aunt Nancy, who lives in Maryland, next to D.C. It was supposed to be an 8-10 hour drive down here, but it was about 13 hours, due to traffic. Never drive through NYC!!

Here we've been since 1am on Saturday. We got to go down to D.C. today and see the Washington Monument (from a distance) as well as the Capitol Building. We went into the Smithsonian Natural History Museum where we saw the Hope Diamond and browsed the Insect, African History, Elephant, and other exhibits. We are going back down tomorrow to see the last of the Natural History Exhibits, the Washington Monument (up close), and the Lincoln Memorial, plus whatever else strikes our fancy.

We plan to set out home first thing Tuesday morning. We should be home by Wednesday night, depending on how fast we drive and for how long we can drive. It's only a 24 hour physical on-the-road drive from here, so we think we should make it home Wednesday. Karma is excited by that, she wants to try out First Thursday again.

Pennsylvania is the place to be....

2007-04-25T09:48:00.000-05:00

So, we left Detroit Friday of last week. We had an enjoyable visit with Andrea's brother, Bryon, and his family. The kids were sorry to part from their cousins. From Michigan, we drove to see Andrea's Aunt Evie in Cochranton, Pennsylvania. That was a wonderful visit!

Andrea's Aunt Evie and her husband, Dave, are two of the coolest people we've met. They live out in the middle of nowhere, in a wood house that they've built themselves. In fact, they're still working on finishing it, putting cabinet doors on, etc. Evie and Dave made us all feel very welcome with a weinie and marshmallow roast around the campfire. Afterwards, all five of us took a walk around the lake with Dave and told ghost stories along the way. Because it was the middle of nowhere, there was no light, save for the moon and stars. We got plenty of good spooks in and had a grand old time.

The kids took off on their own in the daylight to explore the surrounding woods and found the tree cabin. Inside the tree cabin, they found the black snake that Dave and Evie have christened, "Samantha." With all the open space, there was plenty of room for the children's imaginations to roam and they had soon created an entire kingdom in the woods. Sadly, the fun came to an end all too soon, as we had arrived on Friday evening and everyone had alternate Saturday evening obligations.

On Saturday afternoon, we all drove down to the Franklin area to stay with Andrea's Uncle Bill and his Marsha. We attended a charity event for the Humane Society which Bill and his old bandmate, Tobey, played at. It was a fun evening. We headed back to Bill and Marsha's and had grilled hamburgers and hotdogs for dinner. On Sunday, Andrea and Marsha managed to round up nearly all of Andrea's aunts, uncles, great-aunts, and great-uncles for a little family reunion at Bill and Marsha's place. A great time was had by all. Bill and another of Andrea's uncles, Dave took the kids out into the yard to play a paddleball game, blow bubbles and then play a rousing game of Frisbee golf, which Andrea managed to win.

On Monday, we drove into downtown Franklin, did some laundry and explored Liberty (St, Rd, Ave?). We also drove by the duplex that Andrea's Aunt Peggy used to live in to see where in town it was located. We're discussing the possibility of asking Andrea's Uncle Tom (who manages the place) if we can rent it.

Yes, you read that right, we'd like to rent a place in Franklin, PA. After seeing the beauty of the area as a family, we've decided that we could use the slower pace of life. We would like to be surrounded by Andrea's loving extended family in an area where we can let the children out into the front yard to play without worrying about whether or not they will be the accidental victims of a drive-by shooting. The cost of living is very low in the Venango County area, which means our dimes will go further in supporting us. The average 3/2 duplex rents for around $300/month. That is much better than moving somewhere safer in Austin, where we can expect to pay $1100 or better for the same size place. Plus, with the whole global-warming thing going on, the southern U.S. is supposed to be crop useless and dangerous to live in in approximately 10 years.

Also, today we are in Massachusetts, practically in the Atlantic Ocean and we just left Franklin yesterday morning. Living up here, we can go most anywhere as a day trip. Andrea's sister-in-law tried to convince us to move to Michigan. We didn't like Michigan much, but in western Pennsylvania, we will be a 6-hour drive away from them. All-in-all, we think it's the best decision for our family.

Comments? Questions?

Leaving Michigan

2007-04-20T00:44:00.000-05:00

Well, we've been here for about a week...We arrived at 4 in the morning last Saturday and we'll be leaving at noon "today," which is Friday. It's been a great visit. The kids got to meet their cousins, Mikayla and Rachel. They also got to meet their Uncle Bryon and Aunt Christine for the first time (except Aurora, who had met Bryon before).

We went to our very first ultrasound to see their newest cousin five months before his birth. Christine is pregnant with Joshua Michael, who will be the first boy for Bryon and Christine. It was truly an awesome experience. Sam had attended several before (being the biological father of four), but Andrea had never attended one and neither had the children. Christine wanted a boy so bad that when the nurse announced, "You have a boy," everyone broke out in applause.

We need to tuck in for the night, so even though there's more we wanted to write, we'll have to catch you up later.

A Friend of a Friend with cancer

2007-04-18T18:36:00.000-05:00

We've mentioned before on our blog our very good friends, the BareNakedFamily. We haven't yet had the honor of meeting their friends, the BlackSheepFamily, but we know they are in need right now.

Isaac is a father of four and has just been diagnosed with cancer. He is the breadwinner in the home, Johhna his wife, stays at home and homeschools the kids. Since he has had surgery he will be down for awhile and going to possibly start treatments that will take him out. He will no longer be able to work and the Family is having a hard time with that.

The following non-profit group is raising funds to help this Family through their rough time. Please visit the site below, where you can link to read more about this family and how to donate to help them pay their bills while Isaac is not able to work.

http://www.lovejustis.org/

It's cold in Detroit!!

2007-04-15T12:25:00.000-05:00

So we're on vacation. We got to see Andrea's cousin, Chris in Tennessee, that was an awesome visit. He was doing pretty well and was happy to see us. He sure grew up to be a great person. We hope to keep in touch with him.

Now, we've arrived at Andrea's brother's in Michigan. We'll probably be staying for several days, they have two kids which makes the vacation more fun for the kids and they're cool with us being here for awhile. We finally got some decent sleep last night. Today the kids are all playing together and enjoying themselves. We're going shopping a little later. Of course, Andrea's sister-in-law would like us to move up here. We would love to be closer to more of our family, but it is very cold up here and the cost of living is very high.

After we leave here, we'll head to PA to see more of Andrea's family and then across to NH to see Sam's Grammy and possibly the rest of his family. From there, we'll head down through NYC, D.C. and hopefully stop in MD to have lunch/dinner with one of Andrea's aunts and cousins.

We'll keep everyone updated.

On Vacation!!

2007-04-12T09:35:00.000-05:00

We are updating you from Texarkana which is on the Texas and Arkansas border. We departed Austin yesterday at about 6pm. It took us awhile to depart, we still had many things to do to be ready. We're off to a pretty good start, we think.

We have plans to enjoy a meal with one of Andrea's cousins in Northern Kentucky. Depending on drive time, we'll be enjoying dinner with him tonight or lunch tomorrow.

That's all we have time for now. We'll update again later.

Dharma Karma Art!!

2007-04-06T08:28:00.000-05:00

We went down to First Thursday on Congress Ave yesterday. Karma brought all of her art with her to see if she could sell some before we leave on vacation. We walked around for awhile and found where they were offering booths to rent, but those were $30 and up, too rich for a 12 year old who hasn't sold anything yet. We found a gent sitting in front of what looked like an abandoned store front playing guitar and asked if he wouldn't mind us setting up across the doorway from him. He didn't, so we pulled out our little tray table and a couple of camp chairs. Karma set her art on display in a binder on the table and then set to drawing while Andrea sat next to her holding a little sign that said, "Dharma Karma Art, Look!!"

At first, people just stared at us, but eventually we worked up the courage to say hello to passersby and if someone looked long enough while still walking, Andrea would say, "Real Art by a Real 12 year old, have a look!" This got some attention and people would stop to question if Karma was really 12. The guitar player had earned a good bit of money, so he decided to bring Karma a $2 bill as a tip to encourage her. He didn't want anything in return.

Shortly thereafter a man stopped and queried Karma, "Do you just see all this in your head? How long have you been drawing? You did all this by yourself?" Karma was nervously stuttering answers which seemed to the guy's satisfaction. Finally, Mom stepped in with, "Yeah, we're very proud of her. She asked to come down today to sell her art. She's only asking $5 or best offer." The guy had been holding on to one page as he flipped through the rest of the binder and this was all he needed. He said, "Man, I'm down to my last dollars here, but I really like this one, so I'll give you half my money, here's $5." He collected Karma's piece titled, "Essence of Virtue," which featured an Angel, a dolphin, a bald eagle, a wolf, and a lion.

Karma was of course, thrilled. Not only had she received a $2 tip, but now she had sold an entire work of art for $5. Not long after that, a couple of women stopped, one was visiting from Atlanta. They both introduced themselves and chatted up Karma about drawing, art, etcetera. Mom tried to stay mostly out of it, letting Karma work up the courage to speak for herself. The visiting woman, Angela, came to one of Karma's drawings that involved the Texas flag, a horseshoe, Longhorn, and a star colored burnt orange. Karma had also written Texas on it, with the "s" stylized as a snake from the old flag, "Don't Tread on Me." Angela saw it and said, "I have to have it! I promised myself I would buy one print to frame while I was in Texas and this is perfect! Can I give you $10 for it?" Karma said, "Um, sure."

After the women left, Karma said, "I have to show Dad, oh my goodness, I can't believe I made $17!!" Mom ran to go get Dad and everyone else from the car (that was where they wanted to be). Dad, Aurora, and Caedmon came to see Karma's money and be excited for her. While we were all standing there, our friend Jenn happened by and stopped to say hello. She gave us great information about what else was in the area as we were completely unfamiliar with that part of town. She shared in Karma's excitement and happiness and then had to take-off but promised to be back soon.

Sadly, about 10 minutes after that, an adult artist happened by who was feeling angry that he couldn't sell any of his art. It turned out we were sitting outside what happened to be the tail-end of a store (with an unused storefront), so he went inside the store about a block away and told them that Karma was set-up out there. Of course, the manager/owner came out and asked us to move, because even though he didn't care, he said cops might. After we had packed everything up, Mom feeling quite angry with the bitter man for ruining Karma's prospects, a couple of men showed up who had been observing Karma and let her know that they usually stood there and played music. They told us they knew all the cops that patrolled during First Thursday and that so long as they vouched for Karma as a non-trouble maker, she would be fine. We told them Karma hadn't eaten in 7 hours, so we were going to go ahead and go but asked if it would be alright if we came back and joined them next month. They were fine with this, so we plan to do that.

After we put all the stuff back in the car, we decided to head down to Fran's to get something to eat (Jenn had told us it was a good place to go). Their food turned out to be pretty good for the price. During dinner, Aurora and Caed expressed some boredom and some desire to check out the park that Jenn had told us about, so we headed down there after dinner. Everyone got to running around and playing and we ended up staying until dark was falling. After that, Sam was past ready to head home, so sadly, we never did get to meet up with our friend Jenn and her family. The girls were pretty disappointed as they had wanted to see Jenn's girls and had e-mailed and called to see if they could make it. Next time, we won't head out so early (we got down there about 2 or 3 pm), because it seems nothing really starts going until about 5pm.

We're getting ready to head to DPS here in a bit to see if Sam's license is available to receive. If it is, we'll take off today. If not, we may not go for another 2 weeks or more.

Vacation Soon?

2007-04-04T23:58:00.000-05:00

Well, Sam got ahold of the MAB today. Apparently, they had not yet gotten his paperwork to the actual boardmembers for review yet. He spoke with a boardmember today who told him that they meet tomorrow and will review his case if his paperwork arrived sometime later today or early tomorrow. If it does, they'll review it tomorrow (Thursday) and call him as well to let him know their verdict. If it does not, they don't meet for another 2 weeks. We guess we'll find out tomorrow.

Our departure date hinges on their meeting. Sam doesn't want to leave without his license. Andrea is mixed because of her desire to go to the Vallejo concert. One thing she's sure of, if they don't give him his license back within 2 weeks, she'll just do all the driving herself. We've been digging into our vacation money with all the lackadaisical spending we've been doing on eating out, etcetera. If we don't go soon, we won't be going at all because we won't have enough money.

Needless to say, everyone's antsy about the whole thing. We cleaned the house today in the event we do get to leave on time, we want it clean before we go. Also, we invited a friend to stay while we're gone and we don't want to leave her with a pigsty if she decides to stay.

That's about it tonight.

April Fool's Day...

2007-04-01T22:44:00.000-05:00

Well, we forgot it was April Fool's Day today, much like we forgot about St. Paddy's day. We celebrated Easter a week early though. We took the family vote in regards to the trip and decided that if Sam gets his license back on time, we'll leave on time. Only two people wanted to delay the trip anyway, in honor of our friends and their concert. Everyone else is feeling desperate to take our first ever family vacation.

We got a desperate and anxious e-mail from the "invisible" member of our family, the biological mother of the children. It took some time, but we finally came up with reassuring words that relaxed her for now. We're waiting to hear back from a friend who can give us a hook-up for legal advice. We're looking forward to that, though it looks like we won't be able to do anything until we return from our vacation. Fortunately, we did some of our own legal research last week and found some laws that will help us get what we want in this situation.

We're sort of adrift as a family at the moment, not really socially involved at all. We've been sort of floating into a nocturnal lifestyle (it's natural for 4/5 of us), going to bed around 4 or 5 in the morning. We had some problems waking up early because of sunlight flooding into our rooms (or not sleeping well enough), so we put thick coverings over our windows. It's working for now. On the bright side, this much quality time is good for us, especially the kids in sibling bonding.

Karma's mohawk is getting long enough to be shaped out. Everyone else will be growing their hair out until after we return from vacation. We could be going to court late Spring/early Summer, so we're kind of holding off for that.

Not much else is going on as we haven't really done anything else, but just wanted to let you know we're still here.

Thinkin' of Delayin'

2007-03-26T19:50:00.000-05:00

We forgot to mention our woohoo last week...our exchange student is finally gone! He begged his exchange program and his parents and left five days early, last Friday. Our entire family is relieved to have him gone, to finally have just us and be able to focus on us as a family. Friday night, we went out to see Bridge to Terabithia, which was a fantastic movie, definitely a tearjerker.

Then, as previously mentioned, we went to the Families Rock! concert on Saturday and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. On Sunday, Aurora and Karma decided that we need a family newspaper which will keep our family updated on what is going with ourselves. We're going to try to include some of their content here on our site, to tell it from the children's perspectives. They published their first paper today and we will try to get it scanned in and posted on here as a picture. If it doesn't come through, we'll just type out some of the content.

As for the title of this post, this has to do with our vacation. We still haven't gotten Sam's license back yet and we'd really like to have two drivers before we hit the road. Also, our good friends at Families Rock! are producing a concert with the legendary Vallejo on April 14th and we would really like to attend. The subject has been broached to 4/5 of the family (Caed is always the last to know) and we will be taking a group vote sometime this week or weekend. So far though, we all feel torn in two because we love our friends, would love to be there to support them in their most awesome venture yet, plus catch a kick-butt concert, but on the flip-side, we're really feeling the need for the road trip. We think we're coming to the conclusion that putting off the road trip a week and a half won't really hurt and we'll also be able to make sure we get Sam's license.

Well, in the infamous words of Porky Pig, "That's all Folks!"

Rockin' Concert!!

2007-03-24T23:47:00.000-05:00

We attended a rockin' concert today! Put on by our very good friends at Families Rock (www.familiesrock.com), it featured Farmer Jason and Matt the Electrician. We showed up a bit early because we had made some decorations for the show. Farmer Jason was on first and the guy was cool. His music was awesome, child appropriate, but fun for adults. Someone accidentally pulled the fire alarm during his portion of the show, so we all poured out of Antone's onto the sidewalk and partly into the street. He was such a good sport and a talented musician, he kept the show going right out there on the sidewalk! We got his autograph and bought his new CD. He thanked us for helping keep the energy going outside.

Matt the Electrician rocked. His music rocked a little harder than Jason's, and was more for the older set. It was definitely very dance-able. Families Rock decided to have a family dance contest, so of course the Dharma Family had to participate. We didn't want to win, just wanted to dance. It was a little hard for Andrea because of her foot, but she hobbled through some country type dancin'. All-in-all, four-fifths of the Dharma Family had a great time (Sam couldn't make it to the show) and we left just feeling the energy!

It just keeps getting better!

2007-03-18T21:53:00.000-05:00

That was our sarcastic voice. In our last post, we mentioned the recent murder in our neighborhood and the fact that it makes us want to move (including all the hassles therein). Well, last night, Sam was up reading Cell by Stephen King when he heard several shots being fired and footsteps running past our house. Then, a car door slamming and the car peeling away. He went outside to see if our car had been damaged and saw folks from our extorting neighbor's house filing outside to check their vehicles as well. No report on whether or not anything (or one) was shot.

So...our lease is up in August and it just can't come soon enough. Fortunately, we will be gone for 3 weeks in April for vacation, before which we plan to get renter's insurance so should something untoward happen in our absence, we'll be covered. This is just crazy. Of course, last night's occurence has not been mentioned to the children, they already hate our house and are scared enough in our neighborhood. What kind of life is that, to be terrified to be in your own home?

To make it worse, we're homebodies. We prefer to be at home. Don't get me wrong, we love to go places, see friends, rock out at concerts, etc, but at the end of the day, we're happy to be back in our home where we can enjoy each other in what should be peace and quiet. We don't have that. We can't feel peaceful to be home. That's just wrong.

Need to Move!!!!

2007-03-15T12:16:00.000-05:00

This is the reason we were out of the world. We have been debating for the year we've lived here about whether or not we would stay in this place after the end of our lease. We have a 3/2/1 for $725/month. That is hard to find and about as much as we want to spend. We've had a problem with a neighbor who has been extorting us for money (in exchange he's done some lawn care), but the one time we had no money, our rental car got its window smashed. It looks like there are a lot of drug deals going on over there and last year, our lawnmowing neighbor was arrested and we didn't see him for three months. All of this has been enough to make us want to live elsewhere, but we still didn't want to move. About two weeks ago, there was an incident that made up our minds.

We went to soccer and then enjoyed a friend's birthday after. When we came home, there were four police cars on our block (one in front of our house) and a forensics van across the street. When we went to leave a couple hours later, the forensics van was gone, there was an extra police officer and the medical examiner had arrived. We asked the folks who lived on the other side of the duplex where all the officers were and they said that it seemed someone had been killed. They didn't know the details, just that it had happened. While we're not naive, we know that murder can (and does) happen anywhere, we just don't feel safe in our home and that's no way to live. Our lease is up in August and we're going to move then. We just don't know where or how much it will cost.

Out of this World...

2007-03-15T12:02:00.000-05:00

It seems like we've been out of the world lately. Fortunately, it turns out Andrea is not broken, just sprained, but in pain nonetheless. Our exchange student is on Spring Break this week, so we've been getting to sleep in, which has been just plain nice. We got up early this morning to go to soccer, so we're all a little sleepy today.

Sam and Andrea saw 300 last night, we loved it!! Andrea thought there was some senseless nudity (not like she minded seeing that much of Gerard Butler, she just wished there was a reason) and was a little put off by the CGI blood spatters, but enjoyed the story and acting. Sam loved the story and the soundtrack, he wants to get ahold of the soundtrack for home listening. He also enthusiastically states, "We need to own it!"

Our vacation is definitely a go, unfortunately though, due to circumstances beyond our control, we've had time limits imposed, so we'll only be able to take 3 weeks. We might try to drag it by a day or two, but don't think we can get away with much. With those kinds of time constraints, we're going to be limiting our number of stops, just so we have enough time to enjoy the ones we will have. We've decided to take care of family obligations first so that we can take all of our leisurely time after.

We're trying to get Sam's license business taken care of so that he can share the driving on the trip. We've got an appointment for him on the 21st to be checked out by a doctor, given the okay to drive, etc. After that, we just have to wait for the MAB to approve his license and then we can pay the $124 to get it reinstated. We're leaving on 4/6, so we're just hoping that the license business can be taken care of in the 2 weeks between the appt. and our departure.

Broken!

2007-03-04T18:21:00.000-06:00

We're not all broken, just Andrea. After scolding Caed and Brian (the exchange student) yesterday morning, she caught her foot on the corner wall outside their room and broke her toe. Actually, we're not 100% sure it's broken, because Andrea always thinks her toes have been broken, but this time, she swears the pain is much worse than usual and now more than 24 hours later, the swelling is worse, not better. She is using a boot given to her at the hospital last year when she did sprain her foot (it wasn't broken). She plans to go have it x-rayed tomorrow if it hasn't improved (definitely if it's still worse).

This last week has been pretty good for the family, though. We got to spend some good times at soccer and then at lunch afterwards with our friends: Jenn, Austin, Sunny, and Kesley. We also had new friends: Angela, Astra (sp?), May (sp?), Milo, Eric, and Eric's mom that joined us at lunch.

At work, Andrea received a new Friday student, a 4 year old boy who is a hard worker and joy to talk to. Also, Andrea requested to not work on Mondays and Wednesdays anymore and she looks forward to having more time with the family.

Sadly, we were not able to attend First Thursday this month, Karma was quite disappointed, but everyone was quite sleep deprived and we just couldn't stay up/out that late. Also, we missed the kite festival this morning, due to Andrea catching up on some much needed sleep.

Sam's back/neck are feeling better, he anticipates being able to function normally again beginning tomorrow.

Karma has come up with a kick-butt work of art that she is able to reproduce. It's a version of the UT symbol, so we're looking into copyrights/licenses to see if she can market her art on bumper stickers, etc.

The whole family is having further discussions on Andrea's business venture idea. Andrea got some good information from Jenn on Thursday, which sadly she can't remember all of, but she'll ask again when she gets the chance and we'll look more into it as a family.

We've also talked to some relatives over the weekend, letting them know we're planning our trip north in April, folks seem fairly jazzed, so we're getting (more) excited.

Well, I think you have the full dharma update now.

What a week!

2007-02-28T13:49:00.000-06:00

We got a couple Families Rock! t-shirts from our Families Rock! friend Jenn. Sam got smashed on the head by several boxes and is currently laying in bed drugged. Karma feels ignored and so swore at us in her daily essay. Aurora and Caed are sleep-deprived (who isn't in this house these days?) and are having trouble conducting themselves. Of course, Drea is so sleep-deprived, she swears and yells every time someone looks at her funny. We're counting down the days (only 29 left!) to the departure of our exchange student, which will allow us to focus on our family again.

We're still hoping to depart on family vacation on April 7th, if we can manage to keep it together long enough to put it together. Of course, we're not all too sure we are still together. :(

I just got grunted at by a cat for my typing. :)

Here we are...

2007-02-26T00:03:00.000-06:00

We have just decided that we need to share our love and passion for life with the world, so here we are, in all of ourselves, sharing with everyone, hoping to spread a little love. We will add a pic later when we have a computer with a re-sizer available. We also need to get some more recent pics of all of us to post. Hopefully, you'll be seeing a lot more of us.