Sorry that I have been MIA for a week or so and haven't posted. We have been busy and I haven't had much time to get on the computer. I guess I should not make excuses since Brenna has been at summer camp for five days a week, six hours a day, for the past two weeks. LOL I have been taking advantage of the mommy-time to get things done around the house and run errands without having a 7 year old accompanying me. Surprisingly, I have not had much computer time or made that much computer time for myself. The time just seems to fly by when you are in cyber-world and before you know it three hours has gone past and you have not accomplished much. LOL I am making time now though to post. It is about 11:30pm and Brenna is fast asleep in our bed. I should be in bed with her but conveniently I got my second wind about an hour ago and am just not that tired. She crashed out pretty quick since it was so late. I have our thick curtains pulled down so hopefully she'll sleep in abit. That girl is like a darn rooster! :)

Brendon is out of town on business - wish we could have gone with him but he drove up with a couple people from work and it just would not have been feasible. So it's just us girls for the weekend. It's fun when it's just us and we have our "girl time". Tonight Brenna stayed up until almost 11pm and we jammed out on Guitar Hero. It was so much fun! She went in her dress-up box and picked out some accessories for us to wear (pictures below!!) and I think we must have played about 15 songs. She's actually quite good on the bass guitar - she still plays on beginner and she loves it. It's such a great family thing to do together. We have the World Tour for Nintendo Wii so we have two guitars and a drum set so we can all play together. Family bonding I guess you could call it. LOL Brenna is getting quite a taste for music and has been introduced to many, many artists. I guess you could call it our "music curriculum". I just don't like that 'C' word much. Blah. :) LOL
Brenna has been having a pretty good time with her summer camp thing. We took a field trip last Friday and went on the dolphin watch at the island. Neither of us had ever been on that before and it was pretty cool - we saw lots of dolphins and porpoises. I totally could have done without the "No! Get back over here!", "You can't go up there!", "Stay here with me, now!", "Sit down!", "Stop doing that!", blah, blah, blah.... from all the teachers. Geez, I'm so glad my kid doesn't go to school and just get bossed around all day by superiors. It's unbelievable. Really. At one point Brenna and I were up on the top deck of the boat (which was really cool!) and we heard a kid say, "I want to go up there too!" and a teacher promptly responded, "No, you're not allowed. She's up there because she's with her Mom." There were like only 20 kids (and about 4 adults) - now why can't you just take them up there in small groups - like 5 at a time? It really was very cool! How could you not let a kid do something that they think is just fabulous? How sad. It really wouldn't have been that hard. I'm so thankful that I was there with Brenna so that she wasn't told that she couldn't do something that she wanted to. All in all it was fun though. Brenna got to ride on a school bus for the first time and she was pretty impressed with that. Why, I'm not sure. I think school buses are horrible. But I guess for a kid they are pretty exciting -not having to wear a seat belt; being on the biggest thing you've ever ridden in, ect... I got pretty ticked on the bus too. Surprised? Didn't think so. Brenna was sitting by her friend on the bus on the way to the island - the friend that she has been talking nonstop about since she started summer camp; the friend that makes her little art things that she brings home everyday (and visa-versa I'm sure); the friend that she lets play her Nintendo DS during quiet time. Apparently they are pretty "tight". :) So about half way to the island her friend stands up on the the bus for like two seconds so that she can switch places with Brenna so that Brenna can sit by the window. Very sweet. Apparently she got busted for standing up (never mind that other kids were standing every so often) so on the way back home she had to sit up by the teacher and Brenna had no one to sit with - the kids were told to sit in their exact seats that they had come in on. I just thought that was a little harsh. I ended up sitting by Brenna on the way back cuz she told me that she was lonely. And some people want me to send my kid to school so that she can socialize. HA.

Anyways... on to another subject. Health. I have been taking advantage of all the alone-time that I have had and have started getting back into shape. I've been jogging 2 miles a day all week and have lost 5 pounds already. I feel sooooo great and I'm sure I will feel nothing but better as the time goes by. I have a good 25 pounds to lose (20 now) and I have never been so determined before to get healthy. I've been eating so good (lots of veggies and salads - actually contemplating on becoming a vegetarian - we'll see - still researching that) and surprisingly my appetite has drastically plunged. I used to eat like there was nothing else in the world to do. I LOVE FOOD. Now I find that I am not so hungry anymore and it is so wonderful! Right now I am at 159 and my goal is about 140. Yes, I am making my weight public (*gasp!*) because now maybe I'll have a little more incentive to "report" to all of you who read my blog. LOL So I am hoping that by next Friday I will be at 154. We'll see. I honestly have never been so pumped up in my life to exercise. I didn't get to jog this morning because Brenna said she didn't want to go to summer camp and I was so bummed out! Not that she didn't go but that I couldn't go jogging. That is so not like me! If you would have said a month ago that I would be jogging two miles a day and LIKE IT and actually look forward to it I would have called you crazy. Brenna did go to camp today at about 12:30 though but that was way too late to take a two mile treck (it got to 99 today) so I walked to my Mom's house, which is about a half mile away and immediately got on her exercise bike she has and did that for almost 30 minutes. So that did make me feel better. My Dad is a huge health buff so I told him that I would like to spend a little time picking his brain and have him tell me what I need to do. I'm sure he's full of very useful information. He's not one to push stuff on you but if you ask he has lots to say and so much information that he has aquired. Kinda like me with homeschooling I guess.

Ok, this post is quite long enough! Time for bed. I'll post again soon..... Here's some pictures from the last couple weeks.

(Brenna at the dolphin watch on the bow of the boat)




















(Brenna is the 3rd kid in the orange visor)















(Rock Stars!! LOL)

(A tad embarrassed about this picture, but what can you do....)