Wow, where have we been?

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

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

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!!

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!!

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

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!!

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. :)