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.
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Education for all...
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!
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!
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Jobbin'
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. :)
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. :)
Sunday, October 28, 2007
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
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
Monday, May 7, 2007
Settling back in
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.
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.
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