Dear Socially Challenged Duplex Mates,

I know your life must seem hard to you, and I know it is hard to believe that other people reside in this world for reasons other than serving you. But I would like to request that you follow some simple rules that your moms forgot to teach you. Honestly I should not have to teach you these, you both are older than I am and I feel most people should have realized the "unwritten" guideline by now but that apparently is not the case.

First if my outside light is not on and it is dark outside don't ring my doorbell, and if it is on and it is past 9pm don't ring my doorbell. I am sorry your wife has run off, she is not over here. I am sorry that is thundering and lightening outside and she has had enough so she has left. Also I am very sorry that your teen has lost her cellphone and you only have one car and your wife is out with the girls. Your emergency is not my emergency and maybe your teen does not value that phone as much as you do and should lose it.

Secondly, please stop collecting cats, although kittens are cute when they start numbering in the double digits they loose the cuteness. I am tired of hearing meowing kittys under my house, we have a cat and love it dearly but we only have ONE. Please close your garage door so not to collect more strays, strays have fleas and we don't like fleas. Don't assume every one else likes your cats and when you finally are forced to get rid of them 3 loads of cats is TOO MANY! It is your sign you have a cat addiction problem, when you open your door and cat urine can be smelled 5 feet away that is not pleasant.

Finally, please learn to not slam you door, honk you horn we have groceries or I am in the car waiting, and for gosh sakes buy your youngest daughter a second pair of pants. You may close your door without slaming I don't need to know your coming and goings. By slamming you make me cringe especially after 9pm when I am scared my peace is going to be distrubed. I am glad you have gone grocery shopping and are home but by honking the horn the whole neighborhood realizes you are home and honestly we don't care and especially if it is 7am and your dd will no come to car get out of the car and get her. An idea, take your dd cellphone the one she has lost and call and they can meet you at the curb therefore distubing NO ONE. I have lived here for 10months and have seen the same pair of pants on your daughter everyday that I have seen her. Please buy her another pair and if she has more than one have an intervention and make her wear something else. WE all know that the brown pair is her favorite but please change it, a nice pair of jeans would be nice.

I hope I have brought to your attention some ideas you might embrace. Remember the world does not revolve around you, other people live in this world and honestly don't give a darn about you. Honestly we don't all care about your daily life, just because I have pulled up and you are out feel free to not to talk and tell me your woes. I have my own problems and family and honestly don't care, go and talk with your wife, you children, or a cat that wonders by.

Signed,
your annoyed again neighbors

Muddy Waters

Absolutely wonderful video, it gave me chills.

Our week in Review- Week 11

Well our week has been a little strange, dh was home sick on Sunday and Monday, the mold count is through the roof and has been effecting both of us for weeks (since Gustav blew through and then Ike). So we are getting a little behind but I have some "catch up weeks" scattered in before Christmas.

Week 3 at co-op unearthed my 14yo test taking skills, she received a 93 on her first Spanish test and has a 120 homework average (yep she is the extra credit master in spanish). In biology she took a test, and it was hard it is Abeka Biology, and got a 74 so we learned she needs to really review hard before she takes her tests. She is currently gathering up extra credit to take in on Friday to be added to her test grade.

This week in History we are studying Ancient China, the boys are writing mini-reports on Chinese inventions, the both chose gunpowder. Isn't that a big suprise considering wants to be a police officer and the other wants to be a parimedic SWAT member (yes the have some of those in Dallas). She is doing a mini biography on Confucius mainly to understand a little bit more about how that religion got started.

The chef to be is loving doing TOPS science Monday he made a circuit out of a clothes pin and enjoys the hands-on feel of TOPS. WE are going to start working on our science fair projects soon. The queen would like to make a model of the heart, and the chef would like to do an electricity project, the wacky prince wants to do something but not sure on what?

Math is coming alone, how else to describe it? The queen is getting ready to start Pre-Algebra in the next two weeks. Math is not her thing but I think she is turning a corner and it is starting to get easier for her. The wacky prince is thriving in Saxon and is doing really well, I think he really needs the spiral method. The chef is doing well and is taking a math class to help with his facts at co-op. The class seems to be helping him and his rate of computation errors is going down.

Tomorrow we go to week 4 of our co-op, we love co-op but it is a little exhausting for mom. I teach three classes and I still have to prep those. I have two chapters to read for my literature class and I need to firm up my plans for my 4th-6th Africa class I have already worked out what we will do in the 1st-3rd grade. Everyone have a good weekend.

Great new movie

Our plans for the week--Week 10 of our school year

Well this week we are studying the Indus Valley in History, we will be reading several books on Indian Mythology. Because co-op has started we have cut down on the expectations in History we will do a notebook page on "the Buddha" and some literature sheets on their mythology books. We are reading these books:


and



The queen to be has a lot of homework for her co-op classes so she will have to keep on top of it to get it all done. This is our first full week back after starting co-op last week because of dh getting a couple of "holiday/personal" days. With co-op starting that means we have to do core subjects on Sunday to be able to get everything in, since we take off Wednesday to be with dad and run errands. Our menu for the week is posted on my recipe blog . Have a great week!

Wordless Wednesday or What Gustav's winds blew in!

Isn't it pretty it is a Amorpha juglandis, aren't you impressed? He stayed all day on Saturday, the winds were very high due to Gustav (we didn't get any rain just high winds) and so he stayed on our wall underneath a shelf on the patio area. We learned that as adults do not eat it is only the larvae that feeds on walnut, hickory, alder, beech, hazelnut and hop-hornbeam (whatever that is) none of these trees do we have in our yard. So happy Wordless-Nature Loving Wednesday!

Week 8 and 9

Well we finished up our first term, and week 9 was our break week. Everything is going smoothly. We start co-op yesterday and that was a little rocky for me, I was so exhausted and also was having major allergy issues thanks to Gustav! So I had an allergy medicine induced haze all day. The kids had a great time and were real excited about all of their classes, my queen to be is in high school classes so she is learning how to schedule all of her homework. Next week dh will actually have two days off in a row so we will have a short week, honestly I still need a little break to get history for the next unit together. So that is a little update!