Another Celebrated Dancing Bear

We rowed Another Celebrated Dancing Bear over the last 2 weeks and it was truly a diamond in the rough. I just wasn't expecting it to be a huge hit.

The Books summary:
Set in Czarist Russia, Another Celebrated Dancing Bear is the story of a friendship between elegant Max, a famous dancer with the Moscow Circus, and simple Boris, who works at a local animal hospital. When Max learns of Boris's unhappiness with his job and envy of Max's fame, he resolves to teach his friend to dance. After many weeks of lessons and practice, Boris is able to join the Moscow Circus. Garrison's warm etchings printed in burnt-umber ink and highlighted with watercolor washes capture the setting and period, giving a flavor of antiquity. They help transport children to another place and time to experience some of the caring and sharing in the relationship of two rather special bears.

Some of the things we did...
1. We learned about the Russian culture with Russia ABCs by Ann Berge. The girls enjoyed it. It was easier than most ABC books, with just 3 - 5 sentences about each Russian "thing". For those of you not familiar with ABC books...
A is is for alphabet and tells a bit about their Cyrillic alphabet. B is for Ballet and discusses how the ballet is such a huge deal in their culture....all the way through Z


We talked about folk tales and I read The Firebird, which is probably the most popular Russian Folktale. I chose the one with Ginnady Spirin's illustrations, because he just might be the best there is!!! No one seems to be as elegant and detailed at children book illustrations. And he is a Russian artist, to boot!


We watched The Firebird ballet on youtube.com. It is done in 5 parts, so I thought I would watch it in Parts throughout the day, but the girls were mesmerized by it. They sat there the full 40 minutes...and then asked to watch another one! Great free entertainment! Here is the link to part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWRvhLrP3U8

We watched the Reading Rainbow episode Berlioz the Bear .
Summary:
While en route to play the town ball, Berlioz the bear and his fellow musicians' bandwagon gets stuck in a hole in the road. The surprise that saves the day is the strange buzzing in Berlioz's instrument. Also in this episode, host LeVar Burton takes a musical journey through the streets of NYC, and viewers go behind the scenes of the Boys' Choir of Harlem.

We learned about Matryoshka dolls or Nesting dolls and read The Littlest Matryoshka and the Magic Nesting Doll



We talked about occupations...Kaytlynn wants to be a Vet and Delaney wants to be a Doctor.

We learned about Bears, the circus, the geography of Russia and some of its landmarks. We learned the days of the week, and the months of the year. We learned about tea and etiquette. We "had tea" and learned about Samovars. We read an adorable Out of Print book titled How the Tsar Drinks Tea by Benjamin Elkin and illustrated by Anita Lobel (Arnold Lobel's wife)

We also learned about being a good host and friend. All of this out of one simple picture book! The girls also worked on a "lapbook" of another Celebrated Dancing Bear. When their books are finished I will attatch them for you to enjoy!

I Seriously Need Some Rest!

So, I broke my toes on Saturday. On Tuesday after work, I go to bed really early. Ive been tired and for the first time this week, I feel congested. I chalk it up to allergies and take a Mucinex DM because I DON't NEED TO GET SICK. I wake up and can hardly breathe. I felt like death warmed over. Todd had already made a Dr.s appt.(for more pain killers) for me on Thursday but ended up bumping it up a day because I really felt lousy. Todd drops me off at school (because I can't drive with my foot in a boot) and comes to pick me up. The Dr. is checking my foot out. He decides to listen to my chest...without me complaining, he just hears me hacking. He looks at me and says "YOU SOUND TERRIBLE. You have bronchitis, and probably pneumonia."...Whoops. He gave me two shots...steriod and antibiotic, gives me a Rx for antibiotics, steriod, puffer, cough syrup, and more VICODIN (Yipee). I have another appt. for next week! Can you say weary? I was soooo happy to only have a 3 day work week this week! Its only been 2 days and I feel better all over...but still crappy. Hopefully my next post will not have anything to do with an ER visit or someone's body not working properly. Its been our life lately and I am really ready for that to be done!

Not a great October!

So each year I go on a scrapbook retreat with some girls from my Sunday School class. We have a ball. We stayed at the Red Victorian in Galveston. Two bedrooms were converted into craft rooms, and two bedrooms were full of beds for us to bunk. I took Kelley Green and Kimmie Gonzales with me this trip. Kimmie's mom lives 25 minutes from Galveston, so we went to her mom's house the night before. I got to stay in her bedroom...which was just too cute because it was still full of all of her "stuff", mums from high school, books on the bookshelf from when she was a teenager, pics etc. LOVED it.

We left Kimmie's kids and car at her mom's and headed to the retreat. We arrived, unpacked and got to "scrappin". We stayed up late, so I slept in the next morning. I woke up to the sound of people eating breakfast. I thought...better get down there before you don't get fed. Out of the bed and down the stairs I went. Well, that night I was a little chilly (as always) so I wore socks. The stairs were wood, but were painted ...with slick oil high gloss paint. I slipped and before I could catch myself, my foot went to a point and then bent BACKWARDS. I kept my arm out so I was hitting the chair rail spindles the hole way down. It caused me not to flip...but, can I say Ow! Did I mention that this was an extremely long staircase. I skiied down on my toes and knees and sat at the bottom of the stairway trying to not pass out. I couldn't speak and I was so nautious. It was one of those severe pains that makes you want to vomit. After sitting there for a good 10 minutes, someone asked "Judy, are you alright"? They saw my feet at the bottom of the stairs. I replied "not really", but they thought I said "I'm okay". I waited another 3-5 minutes when a couple of the girls got up to check on me. I'm trying to feel my foot...knowing something is broken...just not knowing what! I finally felt my toes...and BINGO. The owner kept trying to apply ice on it while holding my foot and squeezing. I really and truly thought I was going to knock her to the ground because I would yelp and lay my head on the stairway in pain, she would apologize and then would DO IT AGAIN!!! Can you say idiot!

Kimmie took me to the emergency clinic in hope for drugs :-) I knew they couldn't do anything other than that, since it was my toe. I was worried they wouldn't give me anything good, since clinics don't like to give the good stuff out. They want you to "go see your primary physician". We get there and hobble to the window. The lady at the window asks what I was there for. I answer "narcotics". She looked startled, so Kimmie stepped in to say I had slipped down the stairs and broke my toe. The lady looks at me again and asks for my driver's liscence and insurance card. Hmmm, no insurance card either (wasn't looking to good, was it). I think quickly and call Todd. He fills the info out and we sit there for over an hour waiting to be seen.

They check me out, give me x-rays (evil rough x-ray woman) and said, Its broken. Duh! "Hand the drugs over" is what I wanted to stay. Instead they gave me a shot for the pain, and then a prescription and a foot boot! I was happy. We went back to the "retreat" and I cross stitched the rest of the time. We got back on Sunday night, and I was back at work on Monday.

I was thankful for the vicodin, thankful for the ibuprofen, and thankful to be home. What I was most thankful for, was having friends like Kimmie to drive me to the ER and try to entertain me in my hours of pain and Kelley who drove me home in my car, while I puked a good 10 times...all the while, acting like it didn't bother her.

God is there and provides through the good times and bad. He provided the weekend, the drugs, the friends, and the wonderful family to come home to. Todd and the girls have been really good trying to make sure I am comfortable this week. Love them!

Happy 8th Birthday Kaytlynn

So its 7 in the morning...I went to bed at about 1 last night and I finally gave up sleeping well and got up. The thing that I am thinking of is time. I remember things taking so long when I was a child...it seemed like forever before the next Christmas, Easter, Birthday, school year. As I got older things seemed to move at a much more pleasing pace and then 8 years ago I gave birth to Kaytlynn and now, it seems to me, all I do is wish for time to go backwards or at least stand still so that I can enjoy the things in my life for just a little longer. Its not that I don't like who Kaytlynn is...its the exact opposite. Its that she is absolutely perfect and I don't want that moment to slip away.

Some things about Kaytlynn this year...
1. It was our first year to homeschool...and thank goodness she loves it! She is in love with Five in a Row and math is her favorite subject (although math is not her strongest subject...by far).
2. One of her favorite things to do is spend time with her cousins Jacob, Emily, and Gracie, her Nana and Papa, her Grandma and Grandpa and Buddy and Nancy. She is a people person...and I think she always will be.
3. She absolutely loves the song Saturday Night by the Bay City Rollers...she was evidently born too late, just like her momma.
4. She still loves all of the Barbie movies...Rapunzel, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Mariposa, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, The 3 Musketeers, etc. but she is starting to like other stuff too.
5. She loves dressing her barbies up and having fashion shows...
6. She loves to paint, or do just about any craft.
7. Her favorite snack is a packet of fruit snacks. Each night the girls can choose a small snack if they have had a good day and have eaten well. Their choices can be some halloween/Easter candy, ice cream, Popsicle, cookie, chips, etc. 9 times out of 10...she chooses a nasty gummy fruit snack!
8. Her favorite color is blue. Her color choice used to change from time to time, but blue has been her favorite this whole year. It might be the one she sticks with.
9. She is the bubbliest little girl I know...seriously. She can find ways to be happy pretty much all the time. She didn't get that from me, but I wish she did! She is hopelessly optimistic and I hope it stays that way.
10. She is one of the most spiritual children I have ever met...She is constantly reminding ME to pray when I'm nervous or scared or someone is sick. She loves church...her favorite thing to read is a book of small Bible stories...and not a day goes by that she doesn't speak of how wonderful and mighty God is and ask a question or 2 about Him.
11. One of her favorite things to do is listen to the music on my I-pod and dance around the living room to it with her sister.
12. She loves people...she is always concerned with people and wants them to be happy. A friend recently came over and she offered them a coke. They accepted. She went to go make the coke and when she presented it to Anne, she said..."just let me know when you need more coke, because I'm your coke getting girl". That is soooo her. She is definitely our Miss Congeniality!
13. This has been the year that she has become a big kid. I don't know how to say it other than that. She just doesn't look like a little girl anymore. You can now see glimpses of what she will look like when she gets older...her frame has changed, her face has matured a little...and sadly...her play has changed quite a bit...certain things are for "little kids" now.
14. She is wild about Webkinz, playing on the computer, and she recently received a hula hoop...and she is becoming quite the expert.
15. She loves gymnastics. She is flexible just like me...pulling her legs this way and that way with complete ease and enjoyment! She also doesn't have a lot of fear...which makes me a bit nervous :-)
16. She has gone from hating to read to in not being so bad. She LOVES being read to though. Peter Rabbit is still her favorite story. But Madeline runs a close second. She has also become quite fond of A-Z mysteries by Ron Roy and The Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne. She likes non-fiction books more than fiction. She is a factoid!
17. She is my little crier! Not when she gets hurt though...she completely sucks it up and moves on with injuries...its usually when she is sad at a circumstance for someone else or better yet, she will cry tears of joy for herself or other people. She walked into the living room the other day and she was crying. When I asked her why, she told me she was watching Dumbo and he finally got to see his mom. I comforted her, and later she was crying remembering how they made fun of him. It was a perfect example of how tender her heart can be! If we go visit family, she cries for a good hour in the car after we leave. Its not a boo-hoo cry...and she tries to stop, but her eyes are filled with water and she's very quiet as she thinks of those she loves that she will miss.

I hope that she continues down the path she is taking, because I can't imagine her becoming a better human being that I could be more proud of. She truly is an amazing person to me and it boggles my mind that I have been so blessed to have her. I hope God gives me the chance to live a long life with her to see just who she turns out to be!

Missouri...

We drove a good 6 hours to Nixa, Missouri. We found a nice Super 8 to stay in and pretty much collapsed from exhaustion. The next day we went to Laura and Almanzo's home a few miles away in Mansfield, Missouri. This is the home that she lived in the last 40 years of her life. Almanzo built the house just for her...The kitchen is the first thing that you got to walk in and you see the little bitty countertops made just to suit her 4'11 stature! The day that she died her daughter had the house closed up...and had it ready for tours in just a few months...making sure everything was exactly the way it was the day she died. The calendar still hung on that day...the mail still on her kitchen table where she had read it...it was quite amazing.
1. Some things that were neat that you got to see...Almanzo died several years before she did. She missed him so that she slept in his bed...right next to his medicine bag...still filled with all his ointments...his Vicks, etc. kinda sweet and sad all in one.
2. You see all the things she bought from the Sears catalog and Montgomery Ward catalog...and it was quite a bit of stuff! She still had her Montgomery Ward Catalog in her bedroom...I wanted to see what she had circled or marked inside of it. She loved the luxury of being able to look at and buy all of those things...vs. shopping at the mercantile in Walnut Grove.
3. The house was built bit by bit. The last edition was not built by Almanzo and it was a parlor, tiny music room and tiny library. The parlor had a table built out of a tree trunk that Almanzo had built...it was beautiful. Also, he became interested in needlework in his later years...In the parlor you can see a couple of rugs and pillows he had embroidered. It was kinda funny to see this manly farmer do something so domestically focused. And he did a good job.
4. The land was almost 200 acres. Her daughter Rose was concerned about her parents living in such an old house..no a/c, no water, etc. That she had a house built for them on the land. Its made of stone that was collected from the area and has pecan floors, from trees right off of the land. They never really liked the house but moved into it to make her happy. 7 years later...they packed their stuff up and moved back to the little farm house. The floor plan was bought from...The Sears Catalog, of course.
5. They have a museum right next to the farm house. It was FULL of memorabilia from Laura's house and Rose's. It had tons of pictures, letters, articles of clothing, etc. Most importantly...it had Pa's fiddle...and Laura's favorite porcelain trinket. One day a year, Pa's fiddle is played for people to hear. That would be neat to see one day.

The girls dressed up in their "prairie dresses" that Nana made them. Everyone thought they looked adorable...including me! They bought lots of postcards of the place, since pictures are not allowed to be taken. Kaytlynn got a snow globe, Delaney bought a Christmas ornament and they both bought bonnets for their head. Ma was always getting on to Laura for not wearing her sun bonnet...claiming that they would be as brown as Indians. The girls think that is funny and joke about it all the time! After all the touring...the kids spent a good 30 minutes on the property just running around chasing one another. Kaytlynn found a limb that she used as a walking stick...she played like a little old lady the whole time and was quite the sad girl when she realized she had left it.

We decided to stay in Missouri another day...just to rest. The heat wiped us out and Nixa seemed to be a nice lazy town. We spent our evening at the pool watching the girls swim.

On a side note. The girls were able to see Amish people riding around in their horse and carriages for the first time. They loved it. They would wave at them and sometimes they would wave back. It made you wonder if they got tired of cars driving by looking at them like they were part of a carnival... But who can resist staring, ya know? It makes you kinda wonder what life would be like if you lived so simply. I bet they are happier due to so many fewer distractions in life...and I bet they have a better understanding of what is important.

Kansas

We spent the night in Northern Oklahoma, but ended up only needing to drive 1 hour to our destination in Kansas. The drive in Kansas was very similar to Oklahoma. Its was not as clean and well maintained as Oklahoma, but still cleaner than Texas. It amazes me how you can drive for 45 minutes and not see more than 5 or 6 houses/businesses throughout KA and OK. And this isn't for 2 hours this is for the full 6. It is just full of COUNTRY...and is all just beautiful. There aren't a lot of trees, but the ones that are there, are gorgeous.

The only bad thing that has occured on our trip so far is Delaney has been car sick. She looks absolutely miserable. We have her wearing her wrist bands and holding her pink "throw up bucket" She drinks sprite and eats crackers and tries to sleep. I really do feel sorry for her because I have been there and done that too many times to count. Kaytlynn has done well so far.

We did find the prairie and it was certainly neat. We stayed for about 1.5 hours. Its a pretty small property of land. I realize that the definition of a prarie is a flat piece of land with not a lot of trees. But I think it strange that Texas is MUCH flatter than "the prairie...which is full of slight rolling hills. On the Ingalls property you are able to see a cabin that is similar to the one Laura's family lived in...it was AMAZINGLY tiny. It was maybe a 10 x 12 house. It as quite neat seeing what it looked like log by log with the clay filling in the spaces and seeing the iron nails poking through the ceiling. In the book Little House on the Praire you are able to see Pa build his little cabin...just he and Ma until Ma gets hurt, then Mr. Edwards helps out and even loans him the nails. I can't imagine. Laura and Mary's job was to pick up the nails that fell or that got bent, so that Pa could hammer them straight again so that he could use them...because they could never be wasted...just one more example of how spoiled and wasteful our society is.

We also go to go into the real post office...another extremely tiny building. It was probably a 8 x 6 building...and the customers area was only about about 3 x6....It had all the little mail boxes and little windows to go to for different purposes. It was all very neat. The kids liked playing with the little number locks for the mailboxes.

The last real building we saw was the schoolhouse. It was REALLY neat. It was a school house that was filled with things that you would see from the 1900s. One room, a piano and organ up front, a bell outside, the students desks were the wrought iron and wooden ones ... alot like the ones seen in the little house movies. The desks were really neat because they had little ones for the 5 year olds, small ones for the ones a little bigger...and then 2 larger sized desks....so it showed you just how small and large all the students were that studied in this room.

It had a book case of books, maps, small clothing articles and even some projects of what a student would have been doing in 1900.

In the very back, they had 2 interesting postings....one was of the salary of each teacher that had taught there at that school house from 1900 to about 1945. I think it started at about 20 dollars a month and gradually increased by about 5 dollars a month every year...until 1930...you could see when the depression hit because the salary started decreasing each year until about 1939.

Another posting was of rules for the teacher in 1900. The kids, and I thought it was hilarious that they expected some of these things from the teacher. Some of the ones that linger in my memory are: Teachers are not allowed to wear a dress any shorter than 2 inches from her ankle; Teachers are not allowed to get married during their contract; teachers are not allowed to go to the ice cream shoppes in town. Teachers must be in their home from 8 pm to 6 am unless given special permission by the school board. A teacher must NEVER, under any circumstances, dye her hair. There were many other rules, but this gives you a good idea!

2 other things that were neat on this property...You were able to see Pa's well. They had it boarded up but it was still quite neat to see that it was still there. Also...they had an outhouse for kids to see/sit in. My girls would not go inside it! Its like they thought the outhouse monster was going to get them. They finally stood inside for a pic once Brave Emily sat on the Potty for a picture!

They had a small farm house that had nothing to do with the Wilders and it was the gift shop. It was full of books, audio CDs, postcards, coloring books, bonnets, etc. My girls left with Laura bracelets. It has has charms of things from the book (a log cabin, Charolotte, her rag doll, Jack her bull dog, etc.) The girls loved them!

Off to Oklahoma...

We drove 6 hours the first day on our trip and made it to Northern Oklahoma. I can't remember the town we stayed in. We stayed in a Super 8 Hotel. It had been recently been remodeled so I thought it was very nice. My sister is used to staying in hotels that you enter from the inside and that are much pricier, due to safety concerns. So she was laughing on her way inside because she just couldn't believe that she was about to pay to spend the night in this place. It was quite funny.

I've learned that my sister has become quite the safety concerned person...she used to get tickets for speeding about as often as people wash their hair...now she drives the speed limit, to about 3 miles per hour over it. She stays in nice hotels....and she passed the state sign, because it was too close to the road and was in a weeded area. Too unsafe. And last but certainly not least....She will NOT let me drive. She will talk about being tired...her arms hurting, being sleepy, being tired of driving...each time I will offer to drive...and she politely declines. It has gotten to be a joke between us. If you get sick, can I drive? NO. If you have an allergic reaction, may I drive? NO If you pass out can I drive? Well...you can drive us safely to the side of the road and then call 911 for them to come pick me up. Same answer for if she has a seizure. So...no driving for Judy. She says that she just knows I would end up in Hawaii...Its all quite funny.


Oklahoma is absolutely beautiful. Lots of slight rolling hills...very prairie like, and VERY clean. Everyone has seemed very nice and of course, the girls think it is the coolest thing that they are in their first NEW state! I told them that if we finish the trip as planned, they will have gone to more states than I have in 35 years of life.