LenaLoo Has Moved...

... to a new home at http://lenaloos.com/... I will be posting there from now on! Please come by and follow me on GFC!
Also come check out my posts at Goore's Insider.

LenaLooBlog

Monday, September 8, 2008

How Lucky We Are by Meiko

One day we'll get outta this [old] apartment
One day is all it takes for things to turn around now
All I know is I got you and you got me, babe

And when that morning comes
I'll make coffee and you'll read the paper
We'll talk about our plans
And I'll keep saying how lucky we are

One day we'll get in the car and drive anywhere we wanna go
And then we'll stay in a five star, mini-bar, luxury hotel room
Cuz all I know is I got you and you got me, babe

And when that morning comes
I'll make coffee and you'll read the paper
We'll talk about our plans
And I'll keep saying how lucky we are

How lucky we are, oh oh oh
How lucky we are, oh oh oh
How lucky we are, oh oh oh
How lucky we are, are, are...

One day we'll turn on the tv and we won't see nothing 'bout war
And when that morning comes
I'll make coffee and you'll read the paper
We'll talk about our plans
And I'll keep saying how lucky we are

How lucky, how lucky we are
Oh how lucky, how lucky, how lucky we are
Oh how lucky, how lucky, how lucky we are
Oh how lucky, how lucky, how lucky we are

Sadness...

Well, our dreams of owning a house have been put on hold for now, like 4 years on hold. Toby's grandparents and parents hated the house, even after it got a great insperction review and after our friend Steve told them it was a good first buy for us, so they backed out. I understand some of their reasons, but I do not understand the barbaric way in which they went about it. I will have trouble trusting them in the future, but I guess it is a lesson learned.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Wordy Posts... An Apology...

If anyone out there reads this blog and thinks, "Man, that girl talks too much!" I beg of you to please remember that I began this blog thinking no one in particular would read it... I keep writing in it mainly to help remember some of the things that have happened or just some of my random, fleeting, ADD thoughts... If you read it, thanks a bunch, I like hearing from people :) But if you don't, well, that's okay too :)...

The House...

...of my dreams? Well, it is not quite there, but it is a house, a big, affordable house, in the neighborhood we want to live in, and it is almost ours... Dreamy enough for me :)... We saw it last Saturday, put our bid on it on Labor Day (last Monday) and the bid was submitted and accepted by the next day. After the seller (bank) made their addendum and we signed it, the bank accepted our bid!!! We had the inspection today to make sure the pest and roof damage was not over the amount we stated in our Conditions and it was all good! So all we are waiting on now is for the lender to approve an FHA loan on the house (our credit is pre-approved for about 20k more than our bid was for but I guess the house has to be too) and we will be good to go! Our close date is set for October 1st if all goes to plan! I am really excited! It is 4 bed 2 bath on a corner lot (one side of the back yard on kind of a busy street but the front of the house is on the side street) it is 1,378 sq ft of fixer upper, but it could be ours in less than a month. Toby and Josh already have big plans for building a cinderblock wall along the main street side as a DIY project (I must admit the thought scares me a bit). My main goal is to get the kitchen and bathrooms up to par and then put in flooring, pergo or carpet, I'm not sure... Since we are only putting 3% down (when we were expecting to have to put 10% down and therefore have that much ready) we ar going to use the rest of the money to fix it up and pick up some (nice) second hand appliances. There are many people who are selling their barely used stuff (like the newer models that we like) for less than half of what they bought them for less than a year ago. We have already had someone offer us a never used energy star oven and microwave for $200, but since they are the wall mounted kind I would have to redo the kitchen when I want to put them in (the cabnits are falling down, so if we have the money, that will be the first room to get fixed anyways). The roof is in much better shape than we thought, it only needs 1 spot patched and then we have to get a certification to get the FHA loan. Also the front bathroom needs a new sink and the back need a new shower drop in liner. We will probably not got crazy on these two things, just the basics so they are useable. Since our married friends Josh and Kelly will be renting from us for about a year, we will probably set aside some of that money to redo all the siding on the outside of the house so it doesn't look any more patched up than it already does (dry rot, everybody's got it), but that will be a project for next year. For now all we need to do is seal up the windows with caulk so that moisture does not get inside. I'm really excited (in case you didn't notice)! We are putting this in God's hands (even though our imaginations already have us living in this house)... Wehouses fall through before our loan was pre-approved, so we know what it is to get a little disappointed, however this is the furthest we have gone in the process, so we are praying everything else goes well... Soon enough we could all be neighbors!

Homeschooling?

I have been told that I have the gift of teaching, but I have also been told that my ADD may be too great to actually be a conventional teacher. Mind you, I have been an education major for almost 4 years now (I am nowhere near getting my BA or credentials though). I f I am to ADD to teach in a public classroom, would I be able, with the help of other homeschooling parents, to home school my own children? I plan on completing my degree, not sure if I will go through the credentialing process, but I will have the general knowledge needed to teach elementary aged students. I can't really think of a career in which I could use a general education degree, but I know that I want to obtain my BA that I have been working towards for over 6 years now. I have all these ideas about how I would teach unconventionally and still have my students meet grade level standards (although the CA state "standards" are not even at grade level these days, the high school exit exam for example is based on something like 7th grade level knowledge). One example of unconventional learning would be to set up a classroom government when teaching 5th grade history (of course you would need a good sized class), I attempted to student lead this in my 5th grade classroom (surprisingly my teacher allowed me to), but because of my disorganization (come on I was only a 5th grader) and lack of time (we only had an hour per day in this class) it did not get the point across successfully. Another would be to use the game Civilization as a teaching tool for teaching World Civ (I am actually working on a lesson plan for implementing this on the college level for my World Civ instructor this semester). I really like the idea of using the World Wide Web as a virtual assistant in the "classroom" - kids spend 44 hours a week doing "media multi-tasking" (surfing the web, watching tv, playing video games, and listening to music) so they are on it anyway, might as well give them something fun and purposeful to do with it. My generation was one of the first to grow up with home computers (our first was an old Mac, back when they were still reffered to as "Apples," that the school disctric let their teachers (like my mom) take home for the summer so they could learn how to use them. I think I was in 1st or 2nd grade. I remember the only thing it had on it was Print Shop Delux :). My neighbor, who had a PC, made DOS based catsle RPGs. The first computer games I played were Oregon Trail and SimAnt. Both were educational at heart. In Jr. High, the World Wide Web came into our home (after much pleading with my parents). I was very into IMing. While it was a bit of a distraction, I think my generation has benifited from having such an instant link to people and information, but it has also harmed us. Cyber crime is prevolent, which was not really something that our parents worried about when they first heard the delightful sounds of "You got mail" chiming from our computers every few minutes, at the time their biggest concern was that we were tying up the only phone line. However, many groups have been devoted to keeping children safe on the web today and keeping it for what it is intended for, gaining knowledge and staying in touch. Besides, as an adult who grew up as the Internet did, I know what dangers lie lurking in cyberspace and I am better equipped to keep my kids away from them then my parents were when I was learning how to use the computer at a much faster rate then they were (as kids often do). As I get older and technology advances, I know I will soon be in the place my parents were with new wonders and dangers out there waiting for my kids. Hopefully I will be able to keep up with everything. Wow, I really got off on a tangent there. I guess the main point I was trying to get across is that I am not sure where my future will take me, but I really feel like teaching is in it somewhere, no matter if it is conventional or not. I'd like to hear from you homeschooling parents out there. How much of a role does the net play or will it eventually play in your homeschool program?

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