Happy Veteran's Day

Fly your flag today.
It is Veteran's Day


Define a Veteran:

Whether active duty, retired, national guard or reserve - is someone who, at one point in their life, wrote a blank check made payable to The United States of America for an amount up to and including their life. That is HONOR, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand it.

~~~Author unknown~~~

Sweet Turned 13!

Yesterday was Sweet's 13th birthday. She enjoyed the day watching her brothers do her chores and eating the good food Dill made for her including waffles, sausage, corn bread and birthday cake! He is a good big brother.

Running low on cash we couldn't afford a big present, so she received a few small presents. Two cost $3.00 the rest cost free up to $1.00 with a final total of $13.00 plus change. Instead of packing them in a gift bag and having it be over instantly, Dill and I made up a scavenger hunt. It was fun to find hiding places and make the rhyming clues.
One of my favorite clues was this one. I didn't think she would get it in a zillion years. Not only did she get it but afterward she corrected me. Of course I didn't catch that on tape!


I love her facial expressions as she reads and figures out where the presents are located.


The scavenger hunt, though fun, was not her favorite gift. Dill not only made her breakfast AND most of supper, he also bought her a new light sabor. Darth Vadar lives and reigns once again in the pickle barrel.





A lot of great memories were created last night.  I hope she remembers it as fondly as I will.

Hippo Birdies my love!

(c) 2008-2011 Wicked Pickles-Homefrontlines

Words to Live By

Saw this on Pinterest and had to share.

As we grow up, we learn that the people that weren't supposed to ever let us down, probably will.  You'll have your heart broken and you'll break others hearts.  You'll blame a new love for things an old love did.  You'll fight with your best friend, you'll cry because time is flying by, and eventually you'll lose someone you love.  So take too many picture, laugh too much, forgive freely, and love like you've never been hurt.  Because every second you spend angry or upset, is a second of happiness you can never get back!

A Quote

A Quote about girls by Chip.

"Life was a lot simpler when girls still had cooties."

Giraffe Test

There are 4 questions. Don't miss any of them!

1. How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?


Stop and think about it and decide on your answer before you scroll down.
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The correct answer is: Open the refrigerator, put in the giraffe, and close the door. This question tests whether you tend to do simple things in an overly complicated way.


2 How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?
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Did you say, Open the refrigerator, put in the elephant, and close the refrigerator? Wrong Answer.


Correct Answer: Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant, and close the door. This tests your ability to think through the repercussions of your previous actions.


3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference. All the animals attend....except one. Which animal does not attend?
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Correct Answer: The Elephant. The elephant is in the refrigerator. You just put him in there. This tests your memory.


Okay, even if you did not answer the first three questions correctly, you still have one more chance to show your true abilities.


4. There is a river you must cross but it is used by crocodiles, and you do not have a boat. How do you manage it?
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Correct Answer: You jump into the river and swim across.


Have you not been listening? All the crocodiles are attending the Animal Meeting! This tests whether you learn quickly from your mistakes.


According to Anderson Consulting Worldwide, around 90% of the professionals they tested got all questions wrong, but many preschoolers got several correct answers. Anderson Consulting says this conclusively proves the theory that most professionals do not have the brains of a four-year-old.

List of Things to Do Today or Where is Me Time?

1. Deliver papers
2. Get Cool up by 5 so he can do some fund transfer for work
3. Return from papers, fix breakfast, pack Cools lunch, kiss him goodbye
4. Sign and address get well cards for my uncle and Miss Crisp's mom
5. Finish laundry by 1
6. Clean kitchen this morning only to mess it up again with lunch and re-clean
7. School da kids (or keep saying go do your school work until I am blue in the face)
8. Meet with supervising teacher at 2
9. Take Chip to gym to talk about possible coaching job 3-3:30
10. Take Sweet to another gym by 4
11. Pick Chip up from 1st gym
12. Go to Target for MIL
13. Eat supper at MIL
14. Pick Sweet up from gym at 6
15. Take Chip to CAP by 6:30
16. Go back to MIL and clean up from supper
17. Pick Chip up at 8:45
18. Head home
19. Mentally run through tomorrows list of things to do
20. Wonder when homeschooling turned into "You are never home-schooling"
21. Fall asleep worrying that I won't wake up by 4 to deliver papers on time.

Puzzles

This year I am trying to incorporate puzzles into our school routine. Puzzles not only give the picklets a little down time, it helps with their spacial skills, cognitive skills, analytical skills, problem solving skills and reasoning skills. And even more than that, puzzles help with imagination, patterning and thinking outside the box. And of course there is that boost of confidence when a puzzle is finished. Depending on the puzzles you get, your kids can appreciate art, learn geography, history, science and the layout of the ocean bed a million years ago. Puzzles rock and are going to be a BIG part of our school year.

For the beginning of our school year I got two puzzles out that the picklets needed to work on. One easy, one harder.

Ocean Critters teaches about life at the bottom of the sea. The picklets both picked it off in less than an hour. This was the easy one.






The other puzzle I picked is called Lost Art Michelangelo. I picked it up at Goodwill. It only cost me 88cents. There was a reason it was so cheap.


The picklets (and their parents) have been working on this for quite some time on and off.


There are about a zillion different possibilities but only one solution.


We are all pulling our hair out trying to figure out that one solution. The picklets even got grandma involved. She enjoys the challenge...go figure.


Since we have all worked hours on it I decided to get the solution from the box. Here is what is said:

Stuck? For the solution, send a stamped self addressed envelope to University Games, Lost Art Solution...

Yep. You have to send away for the answer.

Being as this is the 21st century, I googled University Games and contacted them via phone to see if they could email me the solution. The lady on the phone had never heard of this puzzle. She took my name and number so she could call me back after researching it. Lo and behold, by the end of the day I had a phone call telling me they hadn't carried that puzzle in years and no longer have the solution.

So, I googled the person who "invented" the puzzle and actually found a phone number. So, I called and he, himself answered the phone! I told him what I was looking for and he said he would email me the answer key. I received it later that afternoon.

I have yet to reveal to the picklets that I actually have the solution. I am not sure when or even if I am going to let them know. Who knows, I might just study the solution, sit down next to one of the picklets while they are working on the puzzle and put it together like it's nothing. That would show 'em.

(c) 2008-2011 Wicked Pickles-Homefrontlines