Kindergarten Graduation

This last Saturday represented a great day for Emma and Spencer, a day of serious reflection on the past and an opportunity to gaze ahead to the future. It was a day to celebrate the accomplishments made by these two and by Rachel. That's right, it was Kindergarten Graduation. Graduation was held at the Bayless Baptist Church and the ceremony was conducted by Cathy Mullins. The theme was Kids Under Construction from Philippians 1:6 "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in ou will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ". The kids sang "Kids Under Construction" and "The Wise Man Built His House". The kids were presented with certificates of accomplishment and graduation from their parents and Cathy read little bios on the kids written mostly by the kids. Afterwards their was a small refreshment. We had a good time the kids were very well behaved as they sat on the stand in front of all the parents. They didn't even play with their tassels on their mortarboards which is something even I did at medical school commencement. We are very proud of the kids as they have embarked on the journey of learning. They are reading, writing and beginning math. I am very proud of Rachel and the hard work she puts into the education of the kids. She is a wonder we are looking forward to first grade and new subjects of study.(Oh and Sara graduated from Nursing school at Barnes Jewish this weekend, too. Good going Sara.) It was extra special because Gramie and Papa could be with us.

Advances of Modern Medicine

I am continually amazed at what the world of medicine is able to accomplish these days. What seemed impossible only a few short years ago is now the norm. Well, tomorrow morning I go in to have surgery. I have some strange epi-gastric hernia, that means I have a tear in the muscle high up in my abdomen that needs to be stitched up so my guts don't spill out. (One of those fun side effects of pregnancy) So I went to see the surgeon and he told me he could fix me up, he proceeded to walk over to the sink and pull out a paper towel, I thought he was going to wash his hands. Nope, this is what he did with it...

He drew a diagram of where the hernia was and what he needed to do to fix it. I thought well this is really nice of him to take the time for a little patient education so I'll know exactly what he's going to do to me. Then he says. "o.k. I'm going to give this to you to hold onto but make sure you bring it with you on the day of your surgery so I'll know where to cut and what to do." All I could do was stare at him. Keep in mind here that this is one of those brown paper towels you find in nasty gas stations. With all the advances in modern medicine and I'm letting some guy cut me open with a paper towel as his guide. Doesn't really inspire confidence does it? I just hope nothing splashes on it to make the ink run, who knows what I might wake up with.

Cat for Lease

So Rachel, after having to give up our pet dog Chewie has been, like the rest of us, craving animal companionship. Again following information from the homeschool website, found a free cat that the owners were parting with. The deal was that we could have a trial run to see how it would work out. The kids took to the pretty little Siamese(feel free to sing from 'Lady and the Tramp') quite well. Emma read to her the story of Puss in Boots from our fairy tale book. Unfortunately, the cat appeared to be ill and we felt it would be best to take the cat back to her owners to receive proper medical attention. We hope for her the best.

More Llama photos

Llama Shearing Days

So this is our first foray into the wild world of Blogging. We were probably waiting for an event worthy to begin this adventure. We have found that in our activity from yesterday, Llama Shearing Days. Rachel heard about this event from the homeschool support group website. Basically all it said was that there would be llamas and they'd be getting shaved and it gave an address. So we loaded the kids in the van and headed across the river into Illinois to this persons house/farm. There were no signs, but lots of people, none of whom really appeared to be in charge. I ended up walking into this house where a buffet lunch was being served and no one said "hi" or "who are you and what do you want". We wandered around looking in the barn at the alpacas and llamas they had and then to the farm house again where we raided the kitchen. The kids loved it. There was a teeter totter and swing and llamas being sheared. It was neat to see the folks at work and how they spin the wool into yarn without carding(I was shocked too). This guy doing the spinning said how he had made this blanket by mixing in six different ways black and white wool to get six different shades of gray so as not to have to dye the wool. Then it was out to the pasture to feed the llamas. I am always impressed by the kids. They are fearless, especially Emma. She'll go tracking down these animals without the smallest hint of trepidation. The really cool thing is how well the animals respond to her. She has quite a way with all animals. All in all a great time and we're contemplating the June Llama-o-rama as the next adventure into the wild world of Camelids.