Where Have We Been?

Long time, no write! I probably should've just left my Christmas background up. Sadly, that's probably when the next post will be! If you're wondering what we've been up to, let me break it down for you.

Wally left for his mission in February. He went to the MTC until March. Currently he is in Pesaro, Italy. Wow! He's doing an amazing job. He just recently lost his companion to a transfer and is looking forward to meeting his new companion. 

Pokemon King just finished his first year of public high school. He did a great job! Mostly A's to round out the year. He's made some new friends and is getting ready to train for soccer. He missed soccer last year because we weren't yet in the district and they wouldn't let him play or attend the school until we were in the district. 

Dinodude had a pretty good season for soccer. He was on the select team for the year. Sadly, there have been some changes with the soccer association and he is no longer able to have the same coach. Some of his teammates are remaining the same, so that is good. He met his new coach and seems to like him. I hope all goes well.

Rocket participated in the soccer academy. It was kind of like the select team, but they concentrated more on the skills. He didn't have very many wins, but his competency level has drastically increased! He is going to be on the select team this year as well. 

Chaos did recreational soccer and was such a super star. He tried to let his teammates score, but some of them just weren't that interested, so it seemed like it was all up to him! I should say that modesty is definitely not one of his traits. After scoring many goals, his coach said, "Wow! You're a great soccer player!" (Or something to that effect) and he replies, "I know." We are looking forward to another great season. 

Pokemon King and Dinodude will be attending scout camp next month, so that will be fun for them. Other than that, we don't have much going on for the summer. Hoping to get some trips in to the zoo and COSI. That is if I remember to renew my memberships! 

Christmastime is here....

We are all decked out for Christmas! As many of you know, we recently moved....again. I guess we just love change! We have a cute, little house. Sadly, most of our decorations are going to stay in their boxes, due to the fact that we have no room to put them all out this year. That's okay. It's less to clean up after Christmas!!

I realized the pictures of our boys were pretty old, so I've updated them, with the exception of Wally. With him being away for the year, we don't have a recent one. No worries...he hasn't really changed much! Probably after Christmas I can update his.

I'm hoping to keep the blog more active. We will see how that goes! LOL! I keep trying, but failing. I should probably go back to the journaling things I was doing before. That way at least something gets written! Again...we will see what happens!

It has been super crazy here in the Bond household. As much as there has been going on, I haven't really felt like blogging. Mostly because I feel like I say the same old thing all the time. I talk about school with the boys, soccer with the boys, etc. I'm sure everyone gets tired of hearing about all of that! So, I will just give a quick update on what's going on and we shall see how it goes!

Wally (19): Has been home from college for a while now. To earn money for his upcoming missions, he is working at McDonald's and delivering newspapers. He will be leaving in January to serve in Milan, Italy! We are super excited at this wonderful opportunity! Temporarily he has been in the community theatre, but this is his last weekend, so hopefully he will start catching up on some sleep!

Pokemon King (14): Just started public high school a few weeks ago. Sadly, he got a late start due to a move, but he is fitting right in. He's thinking of joining the German club. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to do soccer this season. He couldn't try out for the school team, because we weren't in the district yet and the local soccer group didn't have enough interest for the select team and the recreational team plays on Sundays. So, he's pretty sad about that. We are hoping to get him in indoor somewhere soon.

Dinodude (11): Soccer, soccer, soccer! That pretty much sums up Dinodude's life. He joined the select team so he has 2 practices a week and games on the weekends. This weekend is the final tournament until Spring. Other than that he is currently in 6th grade homeschool and doing pretty well. He's a big help with his brothers as well.

Rocket (7): He, too, plays soccer. His soccer is like the select team only they call it the academy. Rocket's practice is the same day as Dinodude's and the same place, so that works out extremely well! His soccer skills have improved so much since he started. We are very proud at how far he has come and grateful we decided to do the academy instead of the recreational.

Chaos (4): Is still very chaotic. He just started playing soccer this season. He is a mini-Dinodude. Soccer is definitely his sport. He knows what to do and how to do it. It's like he's been playing for years. Well, I guess he has!

Bond and I have just been cruising along. Working, schooling, transportation, etc. Kids just keep us busy, but at least we stay out of trouble!

I can't believe it's April and I haven't blogged since January! Apparently the Bond family is super busy these days. So, here's the latest happenings.

Wally comes home from BYU in 5 days! Yes....5 days!!! We are so excited to have him home. We've missed him so much. Sadly, four days after he comes home, he will undergo surgery to fix an ACL tear. Poor guy....he tore his ACL doing a heel kick. Guess he'll think twice before he does that again! But, he wants to get it done before his mission. I don't blame him. All that walking and biking.....he's going to need that ACL in one piece!

Soccer season has crept its way into our lives again. Pokemon King, Dinodude, and Rocket are all playing this year. Pokemon King and Dinodude do some traveling, too, so that makes it even more interesting! We dread the day they all have games at the same time in three different places! Chaos will get to play in the fall. Until then, he's practicing up a storm!

So, for now we are just trucking along. As far as homeschooling, we are slowly getting things accomplished. I think we've hit the homeschooling blah season. But, we already took off a few weeks in February and March. I think we are just having trouble getting back into our routine. Hopefully, we will get into the swing of things here soon. After all, if we keep taking time off, we'll have to school through the summer and I know the boys don't want to do that!

Happy New Year

Another year has quickly come and gone. Wally is now back at college. Even though he was here for almost 3 weeks, he was so busy. I feel like I completely missed him. It was still nice to have him back. Poor guy, though. Shortly before he came home he did something to his knee. After a trip to the doctor, he found out he tore his ACL! How, you might ask? By doing a heel kick. Only Wally! It appears that he will need to have surgery. He is going to finish out his college year, then do it shortly after he comes home.

In addition to Wally's injury, Dinodude has broken, yet, another bone! This time his right thumb. How, you might ask, did this happen? For Christmas, the boys got an Xbox Connect. While playing one of the games, he fell and landed right on his thumb. Three breaks in roughly a four month period. That's got to be some kind of record, right?

Other than that, we had a pretty nice Christmas. Here are a few snapshots. After we downloaded the pictures and videos, we realized we had mor videos than pictures, so there aren't a whole lot of actual photos. Maybe next year!

It's All Relative Friday

Since it's Relative Friday, I'm going to jump and shout that....


WALLY IS HOME FOR CHRISTMAS!!!

We picked him up from the airport on Wednesday evening. It was so awesome as we pulled up and there he was...sitting on his suitcase! I almost couldn't believe my eyes! It seemed like years, but also hours that we saw him last. He had some excitement trying to get here. First, he missed the first bus, so he had to get on a later bus. His directions seemed foreign to the bus driver, so the bus driver told him he should get on a train. So, he gets on the train, but shortly after realizes he left his ipod on the bus! He calls the bus company and they tell him he has to wait 24 hours. Wonderful! Not too much longer he gets a call from the guy who found his ipod! Yeah!! Only in Utah, right? So, he's going to send it to him. Then, he gets on his final bus to take him to the airport. On one of his rides, some lady starts talking to him like she's known him for years! Smile and nod....smile and nod! He gets to the airport with 4 minutes to spare! As he's approaching the terminal, the airport people are yelling at him. "Wally!! Hurry up!!! We've been waiting for you!!!" I guess they knew he was the last passenger and were cheering him on! So, he made it safely home!

As soon as we pull up in the driveway, 2 people approach us and it happens to be 2 of his friends from high school! Wally is extremely surprised! They came in and stayed for a while to catch up. I'm not sure how long they stayed, though!

Yesterday, he hung out at the high school visiting his friends and teachers. Then, later for the chorale concert and the tradition of Steak 'n' Shake afterwards. It's so nice to have him home...hopefully he can make some time for us, too!!

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday's Ten

Ten Things I Love About Christmas...

1. Although Christ wasn't actually born on Christmas, I love being able to celebrate his wonderful birth!
2. Wally comes home from BYU!
3. Giving gifts.
4. Baking and decorating cookies.
5. Giving away alot of the cookies we baked and decorated.
6. Eating the rest of the cookies we baked and decorated.
7. The smell of Christmas. Not sure what that means, but sometimes there's an apple/cinnamon smell, a pine smell, or mulberry smell that reminds me of Christmas.
8. Watching my boys open their presents.
9. Watching Christmas movies.
10. Spending time with family.

Tuesday's Ten

Top Ten Reasons to Homeschool....

I know there are tons more reasons to homeschool, but here are a few that I'd like to share:

1. We can take breaks whenever we need them. Doesn't matter if it's a few minutes or a few days. If we need it, we can take it!
2. We don't have to sit up straight at a desk for long periods of time. Who in there right mind can even do that?! Even adults need to get up and move around.
3. Along with #2, we are not confined to one room. We can do our school in the schoolroom, on the couch, on our bed, in the hallway, in the basement, in the bathroom (Pokemon King, LOL!) or anywhere else that we can think of. I have a picture of one of the boys sitting in a storage box reading. The possibilities are endless!
4. We can read scriptures, say prayers, and say the Pledge of Allegiance in its entirety and not worry about offending anyone!
5. Two words: Sleeping In!
6. If something is interesting we can learn more about it during school and not have to wait to do it on our time.
7. We can finish our math problems in class and not have to take them home for homework! This goes for anything. If we are in the middle of something interesting, we don't have to stop it just because the bell rang. We can keep going until WE are finished or ready to move on.
8. We don't have to wait for the rest of the class to finish before moving on. Since we don't have to do this, we won't constantly get into trouble because we can't sit still at a chair doing absolutely nothing. (This happened to Wally when he was in elementary school. He completed his test or assignment and kept making noises and shuffling his feet because he had a hard time sitting still. The teacher would not let him get up or even get a book out to read. He had to sit there and wait for the rest of the class. Seriously???? That is just plain ridiculous! What child, especially a boy, can just sit in a chair and do nothing?!)
9. We can move at a faster or slower pace.
10. One word: PAJAMAS!!!

Wordless Wednesday (with a caption, just so you know what it is!)

This year we are using Apologia's Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology. We had just completed the chapter on digestion. One of the activities was to make a theme park of what we learned. Here is what Dinodude came up with:

From left to right, you have Saliva Out, Lung Drop and Urine Urout!

Black Friday

I know you are all wondering how I spend my Black Friday! Or not!

Well....I don't do the shopping thing. Yes, I know I can save tons of money. But, sometimes, it's just not worth it. Now, I might do the online thing. I will not go out and wait in line with a bunch of crazy people and fight over a good deal. That is just not me. If I want to fight, I will just call my sister up! Just kidding!

Black Friday is our day to put up our Christmas decorations. Sadly, Bond has to work this year, so we will have to wait until he gets home to start. Which isn't all that bad anyway. He leaves early in the morning so he can be hom by 4:30. That's still plenty of time to decorate. So, today, I am taking down the Thanksgiving/Fall decorations and getting the house cleaned and ready to go!

It's almost lunchtime, too. I am debating on whether to eat leftover Thanksgiving goodies or my Ruby Tuesday leftover from Wednesday. It is a really hard decision and I know it shouldn't be. Hmmmm....maybe I'll just eat both. It is the holiday season, right? That's the time to eat whatever you want and worry about how it affects you later, right? OK...problem solved!!! I'm eating them both! LOL!

Wordless Wednesday-Fun with the DS

Tuesday's Ten

In honor of Thanksgiving this week, my Tuesday's Ten is a list of things I am thankful for, in no particular order!

1. My Heavenly Father-he knows me so well and what's in my heart. He has given me such wonderful blessings in my life.
2. My Savior, Jesus Christ-he gave up his life so that we might live.
3. The Holy Spirit-I try to keep him with me at all times. He lets me know what's true and right.
4. My husband, Bond-A truly amazing man who I am thankful for every minute of my life. He puts up with all my weirdness and is always there for me.
5. My wonderful children-They all have their own personalities. They also love to try my patience, but in reality, I would be lost without them.
6. My parents-They did a fantastic job raising me, because I am just awesome! They are always there if I need them, especially for those pesky 'you have a house, so you're going to have something wrong' kind of problems!
7. My Mother and Father-in law-They are always there for me as well. Always checking in on us to see how we're doing, or at least how the guinea pig is doing! LOL!
8. My sister-We are four years apart, which when we were younger wasn't such a good thing! But, now that we are older and more mature (at least, I am!) we get along much better!
9. My husband's brothers/wives-We don't see too much of each other because we are all so busy, but they are all wonderful and we would love to get together with them more often.
10. My nieces/nephews-I have 3 nieces & 7 nephews. They all have their own personalities, too. Each one is special and I love to see their smiling faces.

Monday's About Me

My favorite outfit is _______________ because...

I absolutely love wearing pajama pants! They are super comfortable. I have even been known to wear them out in public. Surprisingly, it doesn't seem to bother my kids. I've never been big into fashion, but for the longest time whenever I went out in public I had to wear normal, matching clothes. These days, I almost don't care anymore. Guess that means I'm finally growing up? Or it could be that styles these days are all over the place. I remember making fun of my mom when she went out wearing something.....weird. I will say that I will never be one of those Walmartians!

Thankful Thursday

Today (well, really, everyday!) I am thankful for my wonderful, amazing husband, Bond! He is such a great father and husband. Every day he wakes up at 6am so he can go to work and be home by 4:30. There is nothing he would rather do than to be home with us. Everything he does is for us. He is the greatest thing that has happened to me and I am grateful to be his wife.

I LOVE YOU BOND!!

Wordless Wednesday (with captions)

Chaos trying on Dinodude's Halloween costume.

I walked into the room and saw this Halloween candy dispenser/decoration. Chaos apparently thought he deserved to eat some Halloween candy, too!

Tuesday's Ten

Ten things that I carry with me at all times....

(no particular order)

1. Cell phone-I would be totally lost without it!
2. Money-Just like Mom always said, "Make sure you have a quarter in case you need to make a phone call!" Of course, that was eons before they had cell phones! But, you never know when you look at that gas gauge and find that it's on E and you don't have enough gas to get home!
3. Wipes-Travelling with children, someone is bound to get something sticky, dirty, muddy, yucky, etc., all over!
4. Band-aids-Yes...they do fix that owie!
5. Diapers-Hoping I won't have to travel with these too much longer. But, in a way, I don't mind because that still means I have a baby!
6. Snacks-Really, these are just for the kids. :)
7. Gum-It's very important to have fresh breath at all times!
8. Chapstick-Not just for the winter, either. I like to have one that has sunblock in it.
9. Hand Sanitizer (or as Chaos calles it...HANDITIZER...which I think is more appropriate anyway!)-After pumping that well needed gas, changing a diaper, and cleaning up those snack messes....well...that's a given!
10. Purse/Bag-Where else is everything going to go?

Monday's About Me

One of my scariest dreams was...

...when I was younger. I'm not quite sure how old I was, but I had a recurring dream for a few years of my life. I was being chased by a tree with an ax! It happened in my backyard and he continued to chase me to my friend's house across the street. This tree was very scary! I always woke up before he caught up to me, so I never really found out how it ended.

It took me years to figure out why I would dream a silly dream like that. As I was growing up, I must've watched 'The Wizard of Oz' a bazillion times! It dawned on me that I was dreaming about those talking trees and the Tinman's axe! I was never afraid of that part in the movie, but I guess my mind continued to dwell on them.

It's All Relative Friday

When I am sad, I find comfort in knowing that...

...My Heavenly Father loves me and one I day I will be able to return to him. The beautiful gift of life is very short. I try to cherish it as much as I can. There are days when I am just exhausted with my daily duties of being mother, wife, daughter, teacher, cook, housekeeper, chauffeur, nurse, etc...but I know that I am where I am supposed to be. I'm doing what my Heavenly Father wants to be doing. Although it is hard sometimes, I like knowing that my family and I can one day live with Heavenly Father again.

Thankful Thursday

Obviously there are many things that I am thankful for. I could spend the entire day listing them.

As I sit here in the early morning of peace and quiet, something that is usually not present in our home, I am thinking how wonderful it is that I have the opportunity to homeschool my children. Granted, we don't always have good days. There are also those days where I seem to doubt I am doing the right thing or using the right curriculum and so on. After reading and hearing many of the things that go on in some of the schools these days, I realize my kids don't need to be around that. Too much wasted time. Too many bullies. Too much homework. Too much sitting at a desk. Too much boredom. Too much language they don't need to hear. I could go on!

Lately our school days seem to take up the entire day! I was hoping it wouldn't come to that, but the fact is that Chaos CANNOT and SHOULD NOT be left alone! At this age, Dinodude would just play with his toys or watch dinosaur shows with his 'goldfish and juice.' Rocket would just play or sit on my lap. Chaos....well, he still likes to get into things...draw on walls, play in the bathroom, climb on the counters. So in order to get anything done, the boys need to be assigned to watch and play with him. So, it adds more time to our day. I just remind myself that it'll all work out. Eventually there will be a time where we can all be in the same room working on school. Or, am I just kidding myself?

Regardless, I love being a homeschooling mom. And on the days I question that...I just remember what I saw on the news or what I read. Then, I remember how much I love my children and that I would do anything for them and to protect them.