Does your ATM machine sing?

My birthday this year was kind of all over the spectrum when it came to emotions. The "safari" was not nice to me on my birthday but seemed to conspire to hit every wrong nerve in my body to the point where all I wanted was for Noel to come home and lock them away for a while. After nap time was over though they seemed to calm down a lot.

I decided that it was my birthday and I was not going to cook for the "safari" and so I ordered pizza for pick up. When I went to pick it up it was never put in to be cooked so I got the "safari's" dinner for free, which was nice. Then on my way home I had to deposit some money into the checking account. I put my debit card in and the ATM machine decided to start singing to me. I was caught off guard and then was really impressed with the bank that we use.

I arrived home and fed the "safari" and Colton dinner. Kerri came to pick the kids up and let me know that they were going to move Colton to a daycare so that he could interact with kids on his level. This was heartbreaking for me. Not that Colton was being moved to see if that would help with his speech and other things, but that he was not going to be in house. He had been in my house since he was 8 weeks old.

Our night ended with the Conroy's coming over and having dinner with us because they thought that I should have something special for my birthday. It was a day of emotions and I am glad that it was over and that I have to wait another year to get older.

Best Burger Joint, Ever!

When mom and I were in Arlington for the Homeschooling Convention we found this old diner restaraunt. The place is called Tom's Burgers and Grill.

We walked in and knew from the smell of the food we were going to enjoy our dinner. After being seated and given a menu the hardest part was picking only one thing to eat. Mom and I decided to try the burgers; mom got an old fashioned cheeseburger and I got the mushroom and swiss burger and an order of onion rings to share. Now the family behind us ordered the Chicken Fried Steak, and when they got their meals it was enough food for at least two people. They do not skimp on portions, and they bread their steak with Ruffle potato chips.

Mom and I got our meal and were impressed from the first look and smell. The hamburgers came in paper and had grease on the wrapping. They cooked the burgers actually to how you liked it. The onion rings were the best that I have ever had. Their batter has beer in it, which brings me to the next cool thing. This restraunt does not have a liquor license and so they cannot sell alcohol but they can give it away. So since they need beer for the batter of their onion rings they offer two complimentary beers to every person or two glasses of wine. If you do not like either then you can bring your own.

If you are in the Arlington area please stop by and enjoy the meal that you will remember for a long time. I know mom and I cannot wait until we are near Arlington again.

Homeschooling Convention

As most of you know, Noel and I have been praying about what we should do with our children's' education. Should we trust them in the public school system or should we homeschool. Each family has to make that decision and I do not want to make it seem that if you decide not to homeschool that you are a horrible parent; that is not the case. Not everyone can or wants to homeschool and it is an individual decision with each family.

Noel and I have been leaning towards homeschooling for several reasons, based on our children's learning to this age, political, religious, and character reasons. Now if you would like me to go into detail then I do not have any problems explaining why we are leaning in that direction. But this blog is not for that.

I talked to Noel and decided to try to go to a homeschool convention to see what is out there and where we want to go. I found a convention in Arlington that seemed to have numerous vendors, and numerous seminars that you could take. I called my mother and she stated that she would go with me. Katherine was suppose to go with us but God decided that she was going to have her baby early, so she was not able to travel with us.

Noel booked us that hotel and we sent in our registration; it was $5 for both days and then there was parking. Mom and I went up on Friday afternoon and spent the entire day on Saturday at the convention. We saw more curriculum then I thought I would ever see. It was information overload, but I think that I found the curriculum that I want to use for Kindergarten and then we will go from there. Also I found that there is a homeschooling channel that is free on the Internet. Also I found some chore charts that will great for our "safari", it is called Accountable Kids.

I am looking forward to going to the convention next year. The good thing is that this convention already has the dates for the next two years. If you are thinking about homeschooling I recommend that you go to a homeschooling convention so that you can learn what you can legally do and what homeschooling means for your family.

Aunt Kim, this one is for you!

For Christmas Noel's aunt sent us a tile that has a poem on it about family and then "The Wilcoxson's" was engraved at the bottom. She sent us a stand to go with it, so that we could display it in our house. I had a better idea; when we decided to make some changes to our first floor I thought that it would be good to tile the fireplace and to incorporate the tile into the fireplace.

We know that Aunt Kim will be so proud that her present is now a permanent fixture in our home. So Aunt Kim you brag all you want and call Michael all you want, but he will tell you that he gets to see us and that all you got was a post in the blog. Do not be mad, we still love you.

The "safari" loved helping with the tiling. In the evenings Noel would work on the fireplace and then the "safari" would pick the spacers out of the fireplace in the morning. It was a family project where all family members were involved. So thank you Aunt Kim for sending us the tile and we are glad that it worked out to be a focal point of our fireplace.

Family Recipes

Do you remember sitting in your grandparent's dining room and eating fantastic food. Well those are the memories that I have with my grandparents. Every time that we visited them in San Antonio there was really good food, and funny house rules that were special to grandma and grandpa. Like you got a very small glass of orange juice for breakfast, you shared soda pop, ice was frozen in milk cartons, you could ride the skateboards to the fence line but not past, and my favorite was that you do not leave the door open because we do not air condition the outside.

Food was a great thing that we all shared when we visited. Like fried tacos, fried chicken, mush, relish and apple butter. Well when I was in college my grandmother mailed me some homemade relish and apple butter. Apparently she only sent it to me; I was honored and excited. You see homemade relish is made with green tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, vinegar, sugar and jalapenos. Every relish sold in the store is made with pickles. I do not like pickles. So I rationed my relish to last me most of college, which meant that I did not share with anyone or tell anyone what it was.

Now my grandparents are with the Lord and all we have is a recipe. My family loves relish and will do almost anything for it. Our aunt Janet made relish and we all got two huge jars, which has lasted almost 2 years. So my mother and I decided to make our own relish. We found tomatoes at Sprouts, and the produce guy helped us find the green tomatoes, which meant that he got a jar of relish. So after collecting all the ingredients we made our relish. Now the secret to perfect relish is to ring out the most moisture out of the ingredients as possible. I did not have any cheesecloth so we used a bed sheet. We put the mixture in the sheet and rung the sheet until the moisture was gone. After finishing the relish we called my brothers and sister to see what it worth to them. Everyone was excited and wanted their share. Now we plan on making relish on a normal basis so that we do not have to ration so much.

The product guy at Sprouts told me the other day that he has almost eaten all the relish and that he can never again eat normal relish again. It is great on hot dogs, hamburgers, and in potato salad.

Here is a picture. If you are at my house and we have hot dogs I might let you try the wonderful family recipe that will stay in our family. You can also ask the Conroy's because between the four of us we almost ate an entire jar.

Boys have P.... Girls have a V.........!

If you saw Kingergarten Cop then you are laughing because you know the line in the movie that is repeated more than once. Well I did not think that I was going to have to have this conversation until the "safari" was a little older.

The "safari" minus Hannah is potty training. They are doing fantastic and each of them have their own style. Elijah likes to do a potty dance, Joshua just wants to pee and be done, Jacob likes to put his butt as close to the water in the toilet as possible. Esther just wants to stand up and pee. The boys are trying to learn to stand and pee and Esther feels that she should be allowed too.

We had the discussion that boys can stand and pee but that girls have to sit and pee. That girls are special and get to use toilet paper every time that they go potty. Well Esther took that information and looked at me and made this comment. "Mommy but I can stand and pee!" Like even though most girls sit and pee, that she could master standing and peeing. So I had to pull the anatomy lesson out a little earlier than I had hoped. I had to stand Jacob and Esther next to each other and show that they were different.

So when Noel came home the boys decided to tell him "daddy, we are boys and we have penises." Poor Noel did not have a clue what he was suppose to say. The good thing is that my explanation with Esther seemed to work. She now does not fight with me about sitting on the toilet when she goes to the potty.

Please leave a comment and tell me what your favorite moment in potty training for you.

Have faith

have faith everyone. I am still here and our "safari" is still as active as ever. Noel and I have been working on our home and we are almost done. Then I will caught everyone up and finally have some time to sit down and let you know what has been going on. Thank you for keeping us in your mind.