An actual update:The Texas Trip and ACCS Conference

Brace yourselves, this is bound to be a long one.
I thought it was about time I stopped talking (orwriting, as it were) about updating and actually did some updating.

The Texas Trip
We left town June 23 for our family vacation. We were supposed to visit a friend in Oklahoma City for a few days before heading to Texas in time for the ACCS conference, but that friend went on to Hawaii (lucky him!) and we decided to hit the road anyway and see where it led us.
We started out after lunch and meandered down through Oklahoma, stopping at a tourist information site to see what the Sooner state had to offer.
On a personal aside, (wait, it's all personal, isn't it?) I love traveling. I love getting in a car and driving, or riding. I think I like riding better, because I can look at all the new landscapes and places. The world is so big, isn't it? And every new thing seen creates wonder and amazement, and sometimes, answers.
I like to see the houses and farms slide by outside my window as we pass; I wonder about these places where people I will likely never know, or even see, live and work and drink coffee and weep and raise children and read. Where they sleep, medicate, pray, plead, yell, laugh, love.
I wonder what life is like in these houses whose porches and windows and yards and eaves give little away.
I wonder if those who live in them love where they are living, or how.
There is no way to know.
No way, that is, short of stopping, ringing the bell, and spending time with total strangers, asking about their lives, their places in this world.
But we don't do this.
We just keep going.
And I wonder . . .
I love traveling even better when there is no plan, and we don't know where we'll wind up, what adventure is around the next bend, over the next rise of the road.
That first day, we drove away the afternoon, hot yellow and blue, through orange glow of setting sun and into purple twilight.
Other than stopping at a scenic overlook, we drove through Oklahoma, and spent the first night in Fort Worth.
The kids were wound up from our spontaneous, long trip, and it took them a bit to stop bouncing off walls and beds and settle into sleep.
The next day was my birthday, and I woke up to a beautiful morning, with my beautiful men, in a beautiful new place. What else could I ask for?
We went to the Fort Worth Zoo, which was pretty nice.
Here are some zoo pics:
Cool at the Zoo
Daniel's just happy to be here.
Can you say Miami Vice?
He's a monkey's uncle.
Pumba? Is that you?
(Sorry, guys. I'll stop with the silly comments. It's just so much fun . . . )
(Tell me you got the "Lions, tigers, bears! Oh my! "reference" in this last sequence. See. I can't stop it!)
Then, there's this guy . . .
. . . who was eating this guy's food.

We were pretty hungry after walking around for hours in the Texas heat, so we went to the Macaroni Grill for lunch, which was delish!
After that, we went to my favorite place of the trip.
Log Cabin Village. As the name suggests, it is a village made up of some of the oldest log cabins in America, and it was so peaceful there, and relaxing, and they had people dressed in old-timey clothes who would tell about the history of the structures, who owned them, where they came from, and what life in them would have been like.
There was hardly anyone there, and we went through most of the tour on our own, which was very nice.
Daniel fell asleep, again, so I took some time to sit by the herb garden and listen to the water wheel on the mill lap the water in a Koi filled pond.

We couldn't resist getting some souvenirs, and it helped that the money spent went into maintaining and keeping the sleepy, cozy village open.
We headed on to Austin that evening, which was our destination for the rest of the week.
Since we had eaten a big lunch, the first thing we did when we got to our hotel was hit the pool.
Have I ever mentioned that my children are part fish?
They are.
They love the water.
And I don't mean love like they kinda like the pool and could go swimming. . .or not.
I mean love like if there is a pool they are in it.
Daniel, apparently, thinks he can swim and wanted to jump right in. A couple face fulls of water later and mom took him back to the room.
We got ready and had a late dinner at Bennigan's, only we didn't stay to eat there. Daniel had had a full day and was done with it. We got our food to go and ate back at the room.
The next day we took a ride to the Comanche Trail, and into downtown Austin.
We visited the Texas Museum of Natural History. Very "theory of evolution" in it's presentation, but it was fun to see all the fossils and displays.
It was TGIF's for a late lunch, and then we went to check into the hotel we would be staying at the remainder of the trip.
As soon as we were checked in, the boys and dad . . . you guessed it! Went swimming. I had to register for the conference, and spent the rest of the afternoon awaiting the arrival of ten of my fellow teachers and administrators.
After they arrived and we all registered, we went back to TGIF's with them for some snacks and dessert.
We made an early night of it.
I had to be up at 6:30 a.m. in order to be ready for sessions that would begin at 8 a.m. the next morning and run until 5:20 p.m. Two days of that schedule, and a half day on Saturday.
The next morning I was up bright and early, though I can not say I was bright eyed and bushy tailed.
I left the hotel room before my guys were even awake, and inside I ached because I was not going to get to spend the day with them.
But I was excited too.
I love education. I love teaching and learning and and learning and teaching. I love all the books and pencils and pieces of paper and glue sticks and ideas and questions and discoveries that come with it. So I was looking forward to all learning, and re-learning everything I could in those few short days to better prepare myself to be the teacher I am called to be this coming year.

The ACCS Conference
Without going into too much detail, I will list all of the workshops I took over the course of the conference, so you can get a general idea of the things I was hearing about.
~Larger-Than-Life Literature in the Grammar School
~Christians and the Arts
~Using Discussion-Based Teaching in the Classroom
~Boys and Classical Education
~ Story and Rhetoric
~Lateral Latin:Integrating Latin throughout the Curriculum
~How to Teach Latin in the Grammar School
~Theater Arts in the Small School
~The Art of Poetry: The Why and How of Teaching Poetry Towards Truth, Goodness and Beauty

There were so many good things said, I will not be able to write about them all here, and I cannot choose which ones should get the spotlight, so I will have to write a separate post about that, I think.
While I was sitting in classes and workshops, the boys were doing things with their dad, like visiting the Austin Children's Museum and a dinosaur park and eating at IHOP every chance they got, and, of course, swimming.
One really cool thing we did there was take a ride into Austin Thursday night, at about 8 p.m., and wait for the 1.8 million bats that live under a bridge there to fly out into the darkening sky, over the water and inland to a place they would feed all night before returning to their perches under the bridge the next morning. It was quite a sight, and it was quite a smell too. Bats do not smell nice.
We headed back home on Saturday afternoon (Isaac's 10th birthday), but we didn't leave Texas without visiting a western wear shop and buying cowboy hats . . . all of us! Well, except for Daniel who kept ripping his off his head and throwing it on the ground. We didn't think he would appreciate one.
The boys got some shirts and bandannas to complete their looks. They are such handsome cowboys!!
We got home in the wee morning hours, and crashed!
And crashed and crashed.
It was good to be home; Josiah actually said he was homesick while we were away and Isaac wanted us to push on home instead of staying in Oklahoma City on our last night. But I had a terrible bout of that post-vacation depression. The trip had been so much fun, was so full of those amazing magazine ad moments, that I did not want to return to the remodel, the lesson planning, the real life.
That lasted for about a day.
And then, when I was in the swing of it all, I realized something.
I love my real life.
I may not always like it, but I sure do love it.

An update, of sorts

We have been moving right along at the new house, which is why I have not written this last week.
We are very, very close to moving in (How close? you ask. There are couches and beds inside the house!) and have about a week to a week and a half worth of work before it is completely ready. We are wanting to have everything done, done, done, so we are not looking around in six months, a year, ten years and saying, "we still have to . . . "
The family room will still be incomplete, but we can shut off that part of the house from the main part, and work on it while we are living there.
To say it has been busy would leave you with a muted understanding of what it's really been like around here.
That said, I do need to post updates on a few things, like
~the trip to Texas
~the ACCS conference
~riding lessons last week, during which I got on a horse (yes, me!), we learned some really cool things about wild mares, we acquired two new "members" of the family, and we had dinner at this totally neat pizza place called Portelli's with Rachel and Kevin
~our Fourth of July happenings
~Isaac's surprise birthday party
~blackberry picking
~the status of the house
I am not able to do this now, but let me leave you with this conversation I recently had with my kids (though I am a very minor player here). . .

Isaac: Mom, the British Empire has lost a lot of it's acquisitions.
Mom: What do you mean?
Isaac: Well, Hong Kong, India . . .
Josiah: Are we a part of the British Empire?
Isaac: That's what the Revolutionary War was about, Jo. We fought them and won our independence from them.
Josiah: Oh, good.
Mom: (feeling by now like she better read some good history books in the near future, and completely wowed by her son's vocabulary) Are Ireland and Scotland still a part? I know they fought a lot against British rule.
Josiah: IRELAND AND SCOTLAND?! NO WAY!
Isaac: Let's face it, Josiah, England just isn't the world superpower it used to be.

Ahhhhh, kids these days.

I told you the camera gods were angry

I did not get any good pictures of the family party!
Ten years, and where did the time go?
I feel like I just turned around, and now . . . .
Isaac stated that in four years, when Josiah is the age he is now, he will be 14.
"Don't remind me!" I moaned.
"Don't you want to stay the ages you are forever? Ten, six and one?" I asked.
"Maybe," Isaac said, "but I want to drive too."
Isaac, driving?
Is that even possible?
This person who came from my loins will one day be old enough to operate an automobile?
Yes . . . this is the reality
And if it all happens as quickly as it took him to turn 10, then it is only a blink away.

On another note, I think I am experiencing post-vacation depression disorder.
I totally made that up.
It's true though.
We had such a great time in Texas, and I kind of forgot about all the things that need to be done here.
But now we are back, and scrambling to find time to do all those things.
I have been hitting the lesson planning pretty hard, and preparing for the school year ahead, as well as catching up on vacation laundry and working at our house . . . the list goes on.
Reality, as it were, has slapped me pretty hard.
I need to sit and post pics of vacation, tell stories of our adventures and share thoughts about the conference, things I learned there and what the highlights were (or what they were for me, anyway). And we had such an awesome day at Rachel's yesterday. The boys had horseback riding lessons, and I even got on the horse (whoa, Nelly!). She showed us some really neat things about talking to horses with your body language. Oh, and I'll have to introduce you to the two newest members of the family . . . (I'll just let you guess about that one).
Alas, it must all wait until another day (hopefully tomorrow).
As you can tell, I am still trying yo get my rhythm back here at home.
It's kind of choppy now, but soon, I'll be humming along . . .

Someone I know just turned 10!!

(I regret to announce that the camera gods have conspired against us, so I may have a few pics of Isaac's family party to share and I may not -- but they will not be posted until tomorrow.)
That's right. The big one-O. Double digits.
Isaac turned 10 while we were in Texas.
I would have blogged about this sooner, but we did not have an Internet connection the whole time we were away.
It's unbelievable to me that my first son has been with us for a decade.
It seems like we just had him.
And it seems like he has been with us forever.
He is becoming quite the little man.
He certainly is the best ten year old I know.

The Story of Isaac
I found out that I was pregnant with Isaac December 4th, 1997, a day before his dad's birthday. It was difficult to keep the secret, but I managed to do it for one day, and on Joe's birthday, the last gift he got from me was a handsomely wrapped package containing a plastic stick with two pink lines on it.
We were both pretty thrilled!
That lasted about two days.
By that weekend, I was so sick, I couldn't even think about eating without throwing up. I couldn't smell anything without being sick. Everything I saw made my eyes water and my stomach churn. I was miserable!
I was still thrilled about the baby, but it was so hard to think about the end result when I was constantly face to face with the toilet bowl and my stomach felt like it had waged an all out rebellious mutiny on the rest of my body.
I prayed a lot and cried a lot and threw up a lot.
I lost more than 35 pounds (not a weight loss plan I recommend, however).
Eventually, I was sick less and less, I could eat more and more, and I was feeling better and better.
By late April, I was feeling like a person again, and though I was still nauseated most of the time, I was holding things down and feeling the baby move. There is nothing like that feeling in the world!! It is by far my favorite feeling.
By that time we knew we were having a boy, and had his name picked out. Isaac Nathaniel. His name means: laughter, gift of God. Boy, were we right on that one! He has been such an incredible source of joy and laughter in our home. There were other reasons for his name, too, and he will know them all.
Our due date was August 9, 1998, and by June I was feeling better and loving my pregnancy.
Saturday, June 27th, Joe and I were watching the news, I was painting my nails (something I was not to do again for many years :) and around 10 we decided to go to bed as we had to be at church the next morning.
I stood up, and a rush of water ran down my legs.
"I think my water just broke," I nervously told Joe. We were six and a half weeks away from the due date, and I knew that was dangerous.
I called the hospital, we called Theresa Forbes who immediately came over, and we called my family in New Jersey to let them know what was happening.
We rode to the hospital in the Forbes' van.
The ride was tense and scary, and I cried silently most of the way. And I prayed.
When we got there, they confirmed that my water had indeed broke and informed me that it was no going back now. Once that happens, the baby is on the way.
Isaac had not dropped, and was not ready for this big, cold world.
A simple test of the fluid around him showed that his lungs were not developed, and things looked very somber indeed.
I pushed for nine hours to get him down and in ready position.
I was exhausted and full of emotion.
My epidural had only numbed one side of my body, so I was in some pain.
Finally, after I thought I had nothing left, I gave one final push and Isaac was born.
He was crying and was so pink, at first they gave him a good Apgar score.
He was 6 lbs 9 oz and 19 inches long
But then he began to crash rapidly, and they wrapped him up and whisked him away to the NICU.
I threw up and passed out.
I have no memory of the rest of that night.
The next day it began to be clear just how much danger Isaac was in.
He lungs had not inflated and he was given Surfactin in an attempt to get him to breathe on his own.
I saw him for the first time that day. He was a sight to behold. A tiny being hooked up to wires and tubes, muffs on his ears and cotton over his eyes, IVs in his tiny limbs. He was laying on his stomach on square of lamb's wool. And there was a shock of dark dark hair sticking up all over his head.
He was beautiful!
Everything inside of me wanted to hold him, but it would be a week before I was able to do that.
I leaned my forehead against the warm plastic of the incubator and, crying softly the whole while, began to say his name, and to tell him I loved him, and to pray to God to spare his tiny, precious life.
Seeing him for the first time that day was the best/worst moment of my entire life.
The next two weeks were a series of ups and downs as we traveled back and forth to the hospital.
Every small step was miraculous! I remember holding him for the first time, and the first time I got to feed him.
Finally, on July 13, we brought him home. Mom and dad were there for our last night in the hospital, and left right before we got him home.
The first several weeks, Isaac was on monitors at home and oxygen. He had home health visits three times a week.
About three months after he was born, he was exceeding the expectations that the doctors and medical community had for him.
He truly is our miracle baby (well, okay . . . not such a baby anymore).
And he has been true to his name. He has filled our home with joy and laughter, and is a blessed gift of God.
Isaac is a thinker, a visionary and a tender-hearted warrior. Make no mistake about the warrior part. He expresses himself in a way few adults can. He always has. He is full of life and wonder and curiosity and energy. He soaks up knowledge like a sponge. At ten, he has long range goals for his life, and has asked his dad to help buy him furniture when he moves out to attend college. He's a pretty amazin' young man. I am proud that he is my son.
I love you, Isaac! Happy Birthday my not-so-little-anymore man!

How we celebrated
We were traveling on Isaac's actual birthday.
We stopped at IHOP for brunch and began the trek home from Texas.
We talked about the day he was born, what is was like.
He wanted to know what the weather was like, and I told him I didn't see the outside that whole day, so I'm not really sure about that.
We stopped at a western wear shop before crossing into Oklahoma, and the boys got to pick out genuine certified cowboy hats. They got some shirts and bandannas too. Dad and mom got cowboy (and cowgirl, respectively) hats also.
Hey, it was Texas. We had to.
We got in really late that evening, so the next day Isaac got to open one gift from us. It was a baseball signed by Derek Jeter. He was thrilled. It will compliment his baseball room rather nicely.
Monday night, we went to Pizza Hut with our family, as that was where he wanted to celebrate his decade year.
Patty and Gramp and MeMe and Uncle Pat were there. Miss Amy came too. We had the place all to ourselves! It was so much fun. We joked that we rented out the whole restaurant just for him. I guess no one else wanted pizza that night.
We went back to gramp's for cake and presents.
He had a really good time, and got some things that he was wanting. He is getting older now, so his wish lists are changing quite a bit.
When we got home, Dad and Isaac and Josiah and Uncle Pat stayed up way too late playing the Indiana Jones version of Monopoly(thank you, cousin Patty).
Saturday, we are having a surprise party for him that his schoolmates are invited to. MeMe is doing a Lego Star Wars theme. He doesn't know a thing about it. Mums the word!