Sunday, June 10, 2012

American History Books

Before we leave on our trip, I thought I would link to the book list I put together for our American History studies. This past year, we have been using A History of US as a spine and adding in many books from this list.  We didn't read all of the books on this list, so some I can't vouch for, but of the ones we did read, I only put the good ones on the list.

I typed this up quickly the week after school was out before starting to get ready for our trip, so forgive the misspellings and weird capitalization. I hope it is still helpful. It is just a regular excel spreedsheet.  Notice the tabs at the bottom.  Click on them to see each subtopic.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjjcrsmUQAkvdFFIcC1IYVdpQjJGeFphN09RUGZIbUE&pli=1#gid=0

For my other book lists, see the tab at the top.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

Here is what we have been up to the last 5 months.

Grandma Lee and Grandpa Dave come to visit
Eating icing with Grandma

Decorating cookies with Grandpa


Saying good bye to our pet guinea pig, Gigi




Grandma Melody and Grandpa Charlie come to visit
the Byodo-in Temple

Dressing up Grandpa

Hanauma Bay
Kali plays Brigtta in BYUH's Sound of Music


We go surfing
Kali

Arwen


Arwen and I get extra parts on Hawaii 5-0


I play the dowager aunt in Lady Windermere's Fan

Sierra plays Gloin the dwarf in BYUH's The Hobbit


And now we head off in 5 days on our long await family trip to Southeast Asia!!!














Monday, January 2, 2012

Counting Blessings

As I think back on 2011, I realize that it has been an amazingly great year for me and my family. Here are some things that made it great.

1. I lived in Hawaii
Here we are celebrating our 2 year Hawaiiversary
2. Rand had/has a great job that he loves that brings in enough money for us to make ends meet every month and even save some for fun stuff like traveling.
3. We moved to the faculty townhouses where we plan to live for the foreseeable future. (meaning we have no plans to move anytime soon!)
4. We were able to decorate our new house in a way that makes me happy and feels like home.
5. We were able to rent our downstairs bedroom to students which has helped us to save more money for traveling and has taken the pressure off of me feeling like I needed to try to get a job.  I had been stressing about this since I didn't think I could work and homeschool the kids.
6.  We have been healthy.
7.  The girls are improving academically.
8.  The girls are thriving socially.
9.  After 15 years, Rand and I may have figured out this marriage thing and spent this 16th year having fun and loving each other more each day.

10. We were able to travel to the mainland this summer visiting family and taking the girls to Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and NYC.

11. I was able to take a trip to visit my best friend in Las Vegas after not seeing her for 2 years.

12. After 8 years, I have finally figured out this homeschooling thing with curricula and a schedule that works,  making my life much less stressful.
13. I have been able to keep motivated to exercise regularly.
14.  I have made some new good friends this year whose husbands get along with my husband and whose kids get along with my kids and who keep me motivated to exercise (see #13).
15. I was able to be in our university's production of A Winter's Tale.  It was so fun to be in a play after an eight year hiatus.

16. And just a week before the end of 2011, I tried surfing and I like it!

Here's to 2012 being even more awesome!