Momentous Occasions

Graduation is only a concept. In real life every day you graduate. Graduation is a process that goes on until the last day of your life. If you can grasp that, you'll make a difference.
~Arie Pencovici~

My oldest daughter recently "graduated" 8th grade. I put graduated in quotes because she didn't really graduate from anything. Our homeschool co-op holds a graduation ceremony at the end of the year for 8th grade and high school graduates. Carley was technically an 8th grader this year, so she technically graduated. Since we consider ourselves eclectic learners, or life learners or unschoolers or whatever you want to call us, we didn't really have anything to graduate from. She didn't finish a curriculum, we don't do curriculum. We don't consider learning to ever stop and start, we learn all the time. Try to go an entire day and not learn something. We all learn something everyday whether we acknowledge it or not. Can't watch the news or read a newspaper without learning something. So that's how we live and learn everyday.

So with that in mind, Carley participated in a graduation ceremony at our co-op. There was only one other girl graduating 8th grade, so it was short and sweet. It was part of other closing ceremony activities, but the graduation came last. After Carley was introduced, her parents (John and I), had the chance to say some things about her. I talked about her accomplishments, how we have always tried to support her in all of her endeavors, about how we unschooled and Carley was able to lead her own learning. I also mentioned how it seemed just like yesterday that she graduated from her Montessori Kindergarten. And yes, I almost cried. I also mentioned that she had decided to send herself to high school next year, and how much I will miss having her home. Her father talked about how she has tenacity and determination and usually follows through on things she sets her mind out to do. It was all quite lovely actually. I wasn't sure I wanted to participate at first, I am not one for ceremony for the sake of ceremony. Carley wasn't even sure she wanted to participate, but in the end I am glad we did. I think it will be a nice memory for her to have.

Here are some pictures for your perusal:

This is before we left the house:


Here is the table we set up with a short history of Carley's life (pictures and accomplishments):


Here she is on stage waiting for her turn to"'graduate" (a little blurry, youngest dd was in charge of the camera):

Here she is with her cake (we had a small reception afterwards):

And one with Sam, the other graduate (and a good friend):


All in all, a happy night and judging by the smiling faces, one that everyone will remember.

What we are is God's gift to us. What we become is our gift to God.
~Eleanor Powell~

Awww, isn't she cute?

Here's one of my four cats, being goofier than normal. Jersey, a muted calico (which is her color) Selkirk Rex, (which is her breed) decided today that hanging out in my DH's bathroom sink would be a good idea.

My eldest decided to take a bunch of pictures of her, like we don't have enough cat pictures!

She went the artsy route (black & white) with this one:

And below, looking very regal:

As I said on Thankfulness Thursday, "I just love kitties!"

Here are some cat quotes for your enjoyment:

"There is, incidentally, no way of talking about cats that enables one to come off as a sane person." ~Dan Greenberg~

"It's really the cat's house - we just pay the mortgage." ~Author Unknown~

"Some people have cats and go on to lead normal lives." ~Author Unknown~

"If there were to be a universal sound depicting peace, I would surely vote for the purr." ~Barbara L. Diamond

Squirrels

I feed the squirrels. And the birds and any stray cats that wander by. But this is about squirrels.

I have been feeding one squirrel in particular since last spring. We call her Mama. She was obviously nursing when we first started seeing her, thus the name. She also has a slit in one of her ears, which is why we always know it is her.

Another interesting thing about Mama is that she is a grey squirrel who had black babies. Her babies are so funny and pretty cute. She had three of them, and although they are bigger now and certainly don't look like baby squirrels anymore, they still play and fight with each other and are just downright silly. At first I thought Mama mated inter-racially, as I had occasionally seen some other black squirrels in my town, but not near me. I decided to do a little research, here is what I learned:

"Black squirrels are not a separate species at all, but a melanistic morpheme, casually known to scientists as a “color morph,” a fairly rare genetic variation. In the Midwest, as far as has been determined, all of the black squirrels are actually morphs of the gray squirrel, Sciurus carolinensis."

How cool, my Mama produced 3 rare genetic mutations and they are living in my yard!

So we have grey squirrels and now the mutated black, and we also have what looks like brown, but is really the American Red. But we don't have any white squirrels. That would be cool. I'd like a white squirrel.

Back to Mama. She is no longer afraid of us or our cats. Our back storm door screen is loose on the bottom, so she often will come right into our house if I have left the main door open. She knows I keep the peanuts in a bin by the back door, so she will help herself if I haven't fed her yet. The cats go crazy when they see her in the house, but she just grabs her peanuts and heads back out. Not caring one bit about the cats, who seem like that they would like to kill her, but when they get close just sniff her tail. She knows they are all meow and no bite.

Today, I was sitting out in my back yard enjoying the day and my eldest had just gotten out of the shower. Upon entering her room, she screamed. Loud enough for me to hear outside. I came running into the house only to hear her say "There's a squirrel in my room!" It was Mama. I was laughing, eldest daughter was not amused. The scream sent Mama into a tizzy and she started running around the house. Finally my youngest daughter and I got her cornered in the kitchen, so her only choice was to head back the way she came, out through the back door. I think she wanted to be our pet. She seemed kind of relaxed and happy in the house. Of course with the current pet load, I don't think my hubby would be pleased with that.

We currently have 4 cats inside that I claim as mine. One cat outside that I feed and while technically I suppose you could say it is mine, I have never claimed it. We also have the two undead mice. They are almost 7 years old. Wild mice, we caught their mom in our house in 2001, put her in a cage (because she was cute) she had babies shortly thereafter and they are still here! There were three at first, but one was not quite as hearty as the two that will not die.

If I were to add anymore pets to the current mix, I think my hubby would leave me. I like my hubby, so no more pets. At least not in the house.

“Fairies are not always in a people-like form. Fairies are sometimes birds, sometimes squirrels. They have welcomed the children into Enchanted Woods.”
~Elizabeth Nosek~

Daughters

Ah, to be the mother of daughters.

My youngest took her first official step toward womanhood Thursday. And she is not happy about it. Suffice it to say, life has not been real pleasant in our house the last few days, LOL.

By some weird coincidence, actually my two daughters and I all ended up in the same predicament as of this past Thursday. Estrogen is flowing rapidly around here. I don't think I would want to be the only woman in a house containing 3 men full of Testosterone, so I can only imagine how my hubby feels living the reverse.

I was sitting around with my daughters late Thursday night and we were talking hormones and all those fun things women go through. I was explaining to my youngest how Estrogen is the female hormone. So my oldest chimes in with an oldie but a goodie: "If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests? Testicles!" LOL

Youngest daughter didn't get the joke, so I had to explain to her what testicles were. So of course then we started talking about boy anatomy. At this point dear husband comes up from the basement to go to bed (my daughters and I have the best conversations late at night before bed). Before he comes through the room, he says "Stop talking, I don't want to hear you, just let me go through and go to bed!". This made the girls laugh. Dad wanted nothing to with our conversation. So I yelled at him as he went past, "But we are talking about boy parts, your parts, you should join us!" I don't think so.

So, my babies are no longer babies. No matter how much we may resist, life moves forward. Youngest dear daughter has been resisting growing up since her body started changing. She is completely overwhelmed at the latest, biggest change. I only hope that time will bring her peace and acceptance with what her body can do. Women's bodies really are amazing. I would go through all the pain and aggravation of being a women 100 times over again, knowing it enabled me to give birth to the two beautiful daughters I have. 26 years of periods helped to bring two wonderful lives into the world. And hopefully someday it will enable my daughters to bring some wonderful lives into the world.

Of course, since my birthing days are over, I wouldn't really mind completely passing the torch to the younger generation and moving past this stage in my life. 26 years is long enough for me, thank you : )

Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. But unfortunately, although it is true, it is difficult for us to accept it. Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer.

~Shunryu Suzuki~

Stoner Cats

I'm not sure if the following shows how smart my cat is, or what a goof ball he is. Judge for yourself.

My youngest daughter is growing catnip in containers this summer. Puffy, a stray we took in 2 years ago, has claimed it as his own. Here is the evidence:

His new favorite past time is to sit in the container, eat some nip and then fall asleep.

I do think we will still have plenty to harvest for the winter. That will make him and his fellow kitty family members quite happy.

Vampires

If you have a teenage daughter, then you know that the latest Twilight series book came out Friday at midnight. Breaking Dawn is the fourth book in the series. I haven't read them, I just get to hear about them, ALL THE TIME.

My daughter Carley just had to be there at midnight to get the new book. Our local Border's was throwing a party before the midnight release. So I started my day Friday morning by stopping by our local Border's to pick up a wrist band for Carley. The wrist band determined the order in which one got to purchase their book. Her wrist band was #19. I got there at 9:05 and there were people there before me. Border's opens at 9:00 am.

My lovely daughter was supposed to get up Friday morning and come with me to get her wrist band. She promised me Thursday night she would get up. I had my doubts. So when I went to wake her Friday morning at 8:45, our conversation went something like this:

Me: "It's 8:45, get up, let's go get your wrist band."
Carley: (moan, moan moan) "Ugh".
Me: Are you going to get up?"
Carley: (whine) "Will you go?"
Me: "I knew you wouldn't get up! Yes, since I am already showered and ready to go, I will go....alone! You owe me one!"

I just knew I would end up going alone. She is not a morning person. I gave myself mom kudos for that.

My hubby originally agreed to take Carley to the event Friday night. He took her to the Harry Potter event last summer. I guess that was just too much for him, so he asked me if we could split the duty this time. So I took my daughter at 9:30 and my hubby said he would relieve me at 10:30.

It was quite interesting actually. As I expected, it was mostly tween/teenage girls. Some were dressed up, most weren't. But a lot of them had homemade Twilight themed t-shirts on. That was creative. The first event at 9:45 was a trivia contest. A large circle of girls, squealing girls, surrounded the poor Border's employees running the contest. A woman who looked to be in her 50's was asking the questions. She had to keep telling the girls to back up. They were swarming her. Basically, if you knew the answer to the question, you were supposed to just yell it out. First to yell gets a prize. Carley ended up with a button just for participating.

At this point I decided I would spend my next 45 mins in the cafe. I grabbed a People magazine off the rack and found a table. Looking around I realized the rest of the people in the cafe looked mostly like other parents waiting for the night to end. Every once in a while a girl or a gaggle of girls would come to a table and squeal to their parent(s). They were all screaming or squealing. It was quite loud for a bookstore. Carley came over at one point to ask for money. Seems they were serving a "blood" drink in honor of the Cullen clan (they are the vampire's). It was a strawberry/cherry smoothie type thing. Pretty red, not quite as thick as a smoothie. Could've passed for cold thick blood. I guess that was the point.

Around 10:15 I noticed some older teen boys enter the bookstore. I could tell immediately that they were dressed as vampires. Not regular vampires of course, Edward type vampires. There had been some other random boys walking around, but this was the first group that looked like they came for the party. They were cute boys. I wondered if they came because they knew this is where all the girls in town were.

Finally 10:30 arrived and hubby took over. I went home but waited up until Carley and her dad got home. That was at 12:10 am. We only live 5 mins from the bookstore, and since she was in the first group to buy the book, she was out of the store 5 mins after they went on sale. My daughter was quite hyper when she got home and then she regaled me with the events from the rest of the night. One of the things she told me was how she went up and asked a boy and his friend dressed as vampires if she could hug them. I guess Carley and some girls were talking about how they wanted to hug a vampire. They spied two vampire boys and Carley said she'd ask them if she could hug them. She asked, they said yes, she hugged them. Then the gaggle of girls went and hugged them too. I guess the guys thought it was funny that these young teen girls wanted to hug them. They were older teens, probably junior or seniors in high school. The girls were all Jr. high age. That was funny to me. My daughter can be quite bold when she wants to be, but asking a boy if she could hug him seems almost out of character. Must have been the fake blood she was drinking.

Here's a picture of the boys she hugged, and yes she hugged both of them. My daughter is the first girl on the left, you can just barely see her face. Sorry for the blurry picture, seems giddy girls don't know how to focus : )

So all in all, a pretty successful evening. Carley was very happy and it seemed she has some good memories. So I went to bed. Hubby didn't get to bed until 1:30am, and I guess Carley was still up reading. She told me this morning she wasn't sure exactly what time she fell asleep. Well, seeing as I didn't wake her until almost noon, I guess she told me this afternoon she didn't how late she stayed up. She has since spent most of the day reading her book. I do believe she will finish it today.

The Pink Belt of Shame

If you read yesterdays post, you would know that my daughter forgot her belt for her martial arts (Kyuki-Do) class last night. I ran it out to her so she wouldn't get in trouble, or at least end up doing push ups.

Well, she found out that the teacher keeps a pink belt in his bag for those students who forget their belts. Out of 30 or so students, only 4-5 are girls. So I suppose the belt is pink because the guys would not want to wear a pink belt. My daughter said the students called it "The Pink Belt of Shame" LOL.

She thanked me for bringing her belt to her, so she wouldn't have to wear the pink belt of shame. She has a black uniform and I always liked the look of pink and black together. She might've been stylin : ) I'm still glad I brought her the belt.