Me & My Boy

Jamie and I have a few T-shirts that match, so today I thought I would dress us alike for fun. This is what Jamie says to me:

"Hey mom! We have on the same shirt...AND the same pants (we were wearing jeans).....But you're wearing blue socks, and I have on white...AND our hair doesn't match, but our faces do!"

He's so goofy, I wasn't sure if he thinks we look a like or if he just meant that our skin is the same color?

And again, his birthday will be Monday and someone asked him how old he was going to be. He replied, "Five! A whole handful!". Yeah, I think he's been that for most of his life...;) But I thought it was cute, and HE thought of it.

I hope your Thanksgiving is going well, I'll try to post some pictures later.

So guess what Jamie can do? Drumroll please....................
He can add! We started basic addition this week and he is picking up on it quite well. I know 1+1=2 is not rocket science, but I was excited to take that next step with him.:)
We are continuing our unit on Thanksgiving and I'm planning on wrapping that up tomorrow. I promised him an art project, so we'll see what I can find on Google.
On a different note, I'm debating whether or not to go hit the Black Friday sales or not. I might head out just to Walmart and pick up a few things, its hard to resist such good deals! Even though the crowds drive me crazy....:\
I'll be baking pie tomorrow for Thanksgiving, finish cleaning the house, and getting the table set early. I sort of dread holidays with my family (I know that's horrible) so I'm hoping that everything goes smoothly these next few days.

Thanksgiving is on its way! In homeschooling news, I am using a teacher's resource book called "Land I Love", that teaches kid-friendly history. I've been teaching Jamie about Thanksgiving this month, and its been a lot of fun. He's looked at maps and globes to chart the Pilgrims journey, he's colored papers of Pilgrims, he's made a construction paper recreation of the Mayflower (picture to come), and I *think* he understands the concept of why the Pilgrims came to America. Even though, when watching a commercial for the movie "Madagascar", it mentioned that the island was off the coast of Africa, and Jamie turns to me and says, "Mom, that's where the Pilgrims came from!" Hmmm, not quite son, but thanks for trying!:) This week we'll tackle the reason they had Thanksgiving and the help the Indians gave the settlers. I'm a little irritated that in this resource book they show a picture of "savages" (mean looking ugly creatures) for the kids to color, when I will be teaching Jamie, that although some Indians attacked the settlers, that they did so to protect their own people, and that the Indians were around first. And also, that the settlers brought diseases that killed a good number of Indians. I know that in most public and even private schools that children are being taught that the Indians were savage and scalped the Pilgrims and were basically "enemies" from day 1. but I don't want Jamie to go into learning about this without thinking from both sides of the situation. The joy of homeschooling, is that I can teach him the views that I think are correct.
In other news my Ebay journey has proved very fruitful and I am excited to have some extra spending money for the holidays! I also found an item for Jamie at Target yesterday that has not been at ANY store, and has been sold out online. It was selling for upwards to $25 + shipping on Ebay and I got it for $14.99. I was thrilled with the find.:)
I hope that whoever is reading this has a wonderful Thanksgiving week, full of family, friends, great food, and some relaxation!

Today was a normal day for us. Did some school with Jamie this morning, did some "me" school on the computer after lunch. I took Jamie for a walk this afternoon (in the lovely 50ish fall weather) and we were met by the scrawniest (but adorable!) little kitten. He/she saw us coming and ran right up to Jamie and rubbed on him, purring, and being so darn cute! We stopped to pet him and he acted so happy to see us. He had half a tail, it made him even cuter. If anyone who reads this knows me at all, then you will know that I am a sucker for animals, especially for scrawny sorry looking ones.;) But alas, this kitten had a collar and I believe it belonged to the folks in the house we were standing in front of. There was also a grey kitten with a collar pouncing around the front yard, but it wasn't as friendly as our little guy. Jamie wanted to bring him home, but of course I said we couldn't and pointed out the collar (BTW-if it didn't have one, we SO would have taken it home). Jamie understood and we continued on our walk. Tomorrow is cleaning/laundry day, oh the thrill! I'm going to look through my closet and try to put some stuff up on eBay to get some Christmas money coming in. I have about 4-5 formal dresses (between weddings and high school dances) that I'm going to try to sell. I hope they do. And we might have a garage sale next weekend. So I can maybe make some money off of that.:) Jamie's 5th birthday is only 16 days away!

So if you read my post from the other day, you know about Jamie's cavity. Well, I got some numbers from some pediatric and family dentists in some Big Towns about an hour away. I called the first one and they said AGAIN, "No, we're taking any new patient's with that insurance right now." Ask politely, "When do you think you WILL be taking them?" The snooty girl replied "Probably never."

I was so frustrated. I looked at the next number and said, "Lord, you know I need a dentist for Jamie, please provide me one." I pick up the phone and dial. Again, I ask if they take ______ insurance, totally expecting a letdown, but instead the receptionist says, "Actually we're not, but an associate of ours is. What is your son's name?" And just like that, we have an appointment for next Tuesday!!!!!!!! I am so thrilled. I told the receptionist that I had called 14 other dentists and this was the only one that accepts this insurance. She said she didn't doubt it. I said "thank you Lord!" and called up my Nana to see if she would go with me, and she will.:) And the sort of nice/sad part is, is that Jamie is so excited too, lol. His tooth has been REALLY bothering him lately, so he just wants to get it taken care of.

I just wanted to share that with ya'll. It's the little miracles (at least this felt like one to me) that helps my faith be restored and refreshed.:)

I was looking up worksheets for Jamie today to help to reinforce his "silent e" skils and long vowel sounds and found these 2 really helpful sites:

1. PhonicsWorld.com.

2. Free Phonics Worksheets.

I forgot to post pictures from Halloween. Jamie was "The Thing" for Boo at the Zoo, and he was "Batman" on Halloween night. He LOVES to dress up! The shoes he has on for "The Thing" we borrowed from my little brother. They make rock crushing sounds as he walked. So cool.;)

Hello! What a week! My normal, slow-paced, boring life sped up to 100 mph, and I'm finally catching myself back up. I fell behind in my online college coursework when Katie was here, so I've been scrambling to finish it before midnight tonight. I just got done. Yay!
Jamie is under the weather a bit. I played phone tag with the doctor's office on Thursday, and finally had the nurse say that she would call in an antibiotic to the drug store. I called the drug store and they never recieved a call from the nurse. Hmmm. I called the nurse back and left a message. She never called me back or called in the prescription. Doctor's office and pharmancy closed at 5 pm. Friday morning I call the doctor's office again and left 4 messages with 2 different nurses. NO ONE calls me back. I repeatedly call the pharmacy to see if they had gotten a call yet. They hadn't. At 4 pm, I had a revelation, and on a hunch, I called the OTHER pharmacy in town, the one I DON'T use. They've had the prescription since Thursday morning, wondering who Jamie was, because he wasn't in their system and had no phone number to call me. So I go to that pharmacy and wait 30 minutes for them to enter in his insurance information and fill the prescription. And so finally, Friday night, Jamie got started on some antibiotics, and he is feeling much better.:)
Also, Jamie has a cavity. It is uncomfortable for him. But I have called EVERY dentist in a 20 mile radius and NO ONE will take his insurance. Sigh. So I will have to start calling dentist's in Big Town and see if they'll take him. I hope they will. He wakes up every morning and asks me if he gets to go to the dentist today. Can you tell that he's never been before? LOL:)
My mom had the game Scrabble Jr., and me and Jamie played it today. He caught on pretty well, and I think it really does help his vocabulary. And we tied our scores so he was happy (have I mentioned he's a sore loser?).
So off I go to relax and enjoy my stay at home Sunday afternoon...

Oh, and the picture is of him eating a Warhead. I TOLD him they were very sour and that he probably wouldn't like it, but he wanted to try it anyway...