**EDIT….. OUR WINNERS!  Molly
was kind enough to pick our five winners.  If you won, email me at
JenIG@TOSMag.com and give me your address and I will send your very
cool DVD right out!  Here is what Molly sent me:

After much serious deliberation and deep contemplative thought, I have


chosen these five winners:



Lindsey, #1, because she was the very
first one to comment, and, well, that

kind of loyalty oughta count for
something.  Plus, she suckered me in with

her little ploy about never having
won something…



kmills2, because she had to wear big dork headgear.  I
had a brother who

had to suffer that same sort of junior high
trauma…



Lynn in Alaska because she's about to have a baby any day now,
plus she's

my good friend and is an incredible cook (and invites us over a
lot) so I

want to keep her on my good side…  That, and the five bucks she
said

she'd give me if I picked her…

JacqueDixonSoulRestES because she
listened to Bon Jovi and Poison, etc, in

college a lot, and so she probably
needs something nice now to make up for

all of that.

And last but not
least, Mrs. Incredible, because I really like that movie,

plus she wet her
pants laughing about 80's jokes, and, well, a woman who

can laugh like that
has earned SOME sort of prize…

🙂

Warmly,

Molly from Choosing Home

THANKS MOLLY!  And thanks to everyone who entered; it was fun getting to know you better!

Original Post ******************************************************

Don’t you hate it when you pour yourself a glass of milk and it smells like a dog?  I feel a little sick right now because I made oatmeal cookies and I ate a ton.  Blehhhhh.  I need some lettuce or something to counter-act all this sugar.

Anyways, yesterday I judged a contest for Molly McButter over at Choosing Home and it has inspired me to have another one over here.  Remember those awesomely excellent DVD’s from TimeLife that five of you won a while back?  I have five more for you to win. It’s called 50 Favorite Kid Concoctions (and it is very cool, we love our copy!).  I’m gonna do the same Random 10 Contest that Molly set up because it was cool.  I’ll go first:

1. I took a Greyhound from Sacramento to New York by myself when I was 18 and stayed there for a month
2. Me and Geo honeymooned in Tahoe
3. I have three chin hairs that I cannot get rid of
4. I
   cut most of the blonde streaks out of my bad hair-do and now I have a
   bunch of little tufts that stick out, which I have to gel down
5. I got a real motorcycle for my tenth birthday
6. My kidneys are medulated (sp?) so I get chronic kidney stones
7. Me
   and Gena skipped school when we were both in high school and went to
   see Ferris Buehler’s Day Off (this was in our 'pre-saved' days)
8. I used to want to be a Solid Gold dancer (I was nine)
9. I am a year older than Geoff the Great
10. I got expelled from school for fist fighting in school

So tell me 10 Random things about yourself and you will be automatically entered to win.

April 27th, 2006 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments

Today I started giving two of my kids guitar lessons (BoBo and Peachy).  Ryann
has also been learning a bit over the years. They are off to a good
start. My dad taught me how to play the guitar when I was about five
and I am really glad to have that ability now that I'm all growed
up-like.  Plus it's fun.  Are you making your kids play music
stuff?  If so, what are they learning?  I'm curious.  I
sort of wish I would have learned to play the piano.  One thing I
never learned was how to read sheet music.

Lastly, today I put in part of our garden.  I started a bunch of
seeds in paper cups (which they have quickly outgrown) and now they
need to go into the ground.  Nobody ever told me that gardening
was hard work.  And hot.  And dirty.  And there are all
manner of bugs involved.  I think I want my money back. 
Maybe I'll feel differently when we are gorging ourselves on fresh
fruits and vegetables galore.  I dislike the word 'galore'. 
It reminds me of Al Gore.
The End.

April 26th, 2006 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments

Yesterday was the best. 
My kids got to play baseball all day with a bunch of other
homeschoolers.  It was so so so fun.  I got sun stroke and
came home and mowed.  I mowed and mowed till I couldn't mow no
mo.  That push mower isn't as fun as it was the first day…
however, it was still loads of fun.  We also met one of our
neighbors (this was before i got sick), he was a pretty neato
guy.  I like TN.  I think we've done more here in TN than
we've ever done our whole lives.  Next week I'm going to take my
girls to a new friends house and learn how to make soap.  Doesn't
that sound like fun? 

And… for those of you who were asking, you can now buy the new HomeschoolBlogger.com shirts!  You can go here
to see a close up and check to see if your name is listed (scroll all
the way to the bottom of the page).  We've already sold a
few!  I know that Amber got hers, and so did Jaybird, I think…

April 25th, 2006 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments

….I almost couldn't see my house anymore.
I was beginning to fear losing a child or two in the jungle that was
taking over our little homestead. Who knew that in the South stuff
grows like mad all over the place?  Nobody ever told me
that.  In Cali, everything just turned yellow and dropped dead. So
this evening, me and Geo the Great
went and got a lawn mower and weed-wacker.  When we got home I
mowed for about 12 hours straight in the dark.  Not Really. 
Actually, I mowed until the gas ran out (but it was dark). 

There is nothing like mowing grass.  It's just plum fun.  It
was fun even though I was sweating like a nervous rhino.  I can't
wait to do it again.  All the kids were begging to 'take over for
me', but I wouldn't let them cut in on the fun.  They can do it
later after I get good and tired of it.  BoBo
came up to me while I was humming along to say: “Mom, you look
beautiful while you garden” (that's quite an accomplishment from the
boy who used to squish my arm blubber and tell me that my big thighs
were 'beauts').  So overall it was a swell day. 

April 23rd, 2006 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments

Howdy doo.  Here's our five winners:

Apr. 21, 2006 – A Shirt!!!

Posted by pajara

I want one! Do you have to win them or can we purchase??? I love
this! My favorite T-shirts are ones that support my favorite things.
How cool are you! Okay, I just stumbled on your blog from TC's and now
I'm going to have to check out your blog as well. But I'm already
impressed…a T-shirt! Color me pink, I'm just so tickled.

Apr. 21, 2006 – Untitled Comment

Posted by Abiga51

If at first you don't succeed try, try, again. Why haven't you blogged yet? This is torture I tell you!

Apr. 21, 2006 – Mystery of History

Posted by iluvmy3chickiesandtheirdaddy2

I read over a couple of the assignments last night when I was loading my new version of Norton Security. Great stuff….

Oh, I want a tshirt

~dawn

Apr. 21, 2006 – Untitled Comment

Posted by TC

I think I should get one just for officially becoming older than dirt this week.

Apr. 21, 2006 – trying again

Posted by quietcajun

I'm obsessing!

TC, you crack me up, hope your birthday was a swell as mine. 
Congrats to the winners, email your address to me at JenIG@TOSMag.com
and I will get these right out.  We'll do another contest soon.
And YES, you will be able to buy these shirts soon, here — anything you buy from the Schoolhouse Store comes with FREE shipping and handling.

Happy Friday!

April 21st, 2006 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments

Ok, as promised, our famous HSB Blogger
Shirts have been printed and are ready for five of you to win. 
Unfortunately, they do not come without a couple mistakes.  First
of all, eyecorn came out 'leyecorn' and Lynan came out 'ynan'.  My suggestion is that both eyecorn and lynan start new blogs with their new names that point to their proper blogs.  If you need help, ask Coie.
She loves doing all sorts of stuff like this on demand. heh heh. 
Anyways, Leyecorn and Ynan will both get a shirt since their name got
messed up.  Email me at JenIG@TOSMag.com with your addy's.

The last five bloggers who leave a comment (before I blog tomorrow)
will win a shirt of the very ery own. They come in either L or XL.

Happy Blogging!

April 20th, 2006 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments

I am really looking forward to going to FPEA this year.  Not only will I get to hang out with one of my very closest friends,
I will also get to meet some of you.  I am trying to get a head
count and see if we can plan some sort of a lunch or brunch for us HSB
bloggers.  Wouldn't that be fun?  We can also try and make
the beautiful Maggie Hogan hang out with us since she'll be at FPEA also. Kris Price
and her honey will also be there.  Anyways, if you're planning on
being at the Florida convention, let me know.  I can't wait to
meet you guys in person!

PS has anybody else gotten their Spring issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine? 
If so what do you think?  Leave your comments about it and we may
use them in the upcoming Summer issue (in the Teacher's Lounge section).

Lastly, last night I pulled a muscle right above my left hip bone while
I was doing sit ups. how lame is that?  good golly it hurts. 
I must be getting old!

Truly last, keep the Suarez's in prayer, they are driving across the country to hang out in Cali for a few weeks.  Luckies.

April 19th, 2006 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments

First off, thanks so much for all of the
very nice birthday greetings.  I am so glad that I am now
34.  Being in your thirties is totally grand.  My nephew
took me, coie and his little sister Julia out to a very splendidish
lovely birthday lunch at Ruby Tuesdays.  I truly was not expecting
him to pay, but he absolutely would not let anybody contribute. 
And I eat a lot, so that kid shelled out some big bucks.  I am the
luckiest auntie ever. That boy is the greatest

Coie made my birthday weekend complete, though.
I have a very very very squeaky doorknob.  It is pretty common to
hear it squeak open in the middle of the night and see one of my little
kids coming in to camp out on my floor.  I was lying in bed (it
was around 3 in the moring…. I have not been able to sleep at all lately)
and I heard the squeaky doorknob start a-squeakin'.  I glanced up
to see who it was (it was a full moon so I could make out images) and
was surprised to see my 17 year old. 
My first thought was that something was really wrong… was someone
breaking in? was the house on fire?? I sat up a bit and said, “What's
up Coie?”

She sort of glanced over at me and said, “Oh, sorry” and then headed
into my closet.  So naturally I asked, “What are you doing?” and
she said, “I'm looking for the plates”.  At this point I started
getting amused.  I said, “For what?”  To which she replied,
“Erin and her friend needs them”.  So I started laughing and told
her to come over and sit on my bed, which she did, but she looked sort
of annoyed.  So I told her that Erin and her friend were not at
our house.  I asked her, 'so what's the deal'.  She sort of
sat there and gave me a weird little smile and said, “oh.  I guess
I'm dreaming” and then she went back to her room.  I just laid
there and laughed forever.  She hasn't done that since she was
really little.  I'm just glad she didn't decide to drive to
Walmart to pick up the plates.

April 17th, 2006 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments

I asked my friend Rebeca if she would be so kind to judge our last contest.  She just sent me the following….

Hi Jen,
This contest was not for the faint of heart. In fact, I plan to
spend
the weekend adding padding to all my children's clothing and
buying
them bicycle helmets. They will be required to wear them whenever
I
let them get off the couch, which will not be very often.
Okay, on to
the winner……..
Drum roll, Please!
It would have been reeeeaaaaally
hard to pick from all those great
sob stories. I mean seriously, every one of
those Moms deserves a
prize. (Think crown in Heaven, ladies!) So, to be
totally arbitrary,
I asked my ever-lovin' husband to pick a number and he
chose 42.
(Which is the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and
everything,
according to the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Huh?)
Anyway,
without further drivel and ado, the 42nd commenter was
Tami.
Congratulations, Tami!
And thanks, Jen for letting me choose the
winner!
Oh, and a very big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you! I hope it's marvelous
and
stupendous and excellent and exceeds all of your
happiest
expectations!
Rebeca

Congrats Tami!  Email me at Jenig@TOSMag.com and give me your addy.
And thanks to everyone who entered.

Lastly, I wanted to have another contest…. who has a Teacher's
Edition for Saxon 76 that they would like to sell me?  I'm broke,
so I hope you have one cheap!  I could also use a Saxon set for
fourth grade…

Happy Saturday! and have a very neat-so Easter.

April 15th, 2006 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments

My poor nephew.  He
fell out of a tree directly onto his shoulder and snapped the top of
his bone off that goes into the shoulder.  Good Golly.  He's
at the hospital right now waiting to get surgery.

In his honor, I am doing a contest.  One of you will win.a computer course called Computer Science Pure and Simple
— this comes with Book 1, Book 2 and a disk.  It retails for
$104.97.  People are going nuts over this program.  As a
matter of fact, we are going to start selling it in our Schoolhouse Store
Neat-so, eh? 

You will also win a very cool book called Learning For Life,
by Teri Ann Berg Olsen.  This is a compilationg of almost 3,000
quotations by more than 1,000 people on teaching, learning and the
pursuit of knowledge.  For instance, I'm gonna just flip the book
open and slap my finger down… and here is what it says: “Extreme
busyness, whether at school or college, kirk or market, is a symptom of
deficient vitality” ~ Robert Louis Stevenson
I don't know what a kirk is, but, there you have it. 

To win — in honor of Levi– tell me that you want to win and tell me about an injury that one of your kids survived.

April 14th, 2006 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments