THE COOL SKOOL

A Tale of Big Bear.

2009-02-24T20:40:00.000-08:00

We were all packed up in our mini van and ready to go. One last thing is all he went back for. He got in the drivers seat and tried to start the van. It wouldn't turn over. Bummer. Everyone got out but me, I moved over to the drivers seat. They pushed the van out of the driveway and and then he moved the truck next to it to jump it with the jumper cables. Off we go. Don't turn the car off til we get there!!

We arrived at the cabin at about 3pm. There was snow. Ryan showed up around 6pm. We, just Fred and I went out to a romantic dinner at Thelma's. The food was not very good. But it's all about atmosphere right? And the company your with. After dinner and Ryan finally making it there we settled in to watch a movie. Castaway with Tom Hanks, a cozy fire and family, what could be nicer? A few minutes before the movie ended Ryan says, "I can't feel my finger tips!" What could that mean? "It means I am getting a migraine, last time I had to go the emergency room and couldn't walk or talk and the pain was sooooo bad." Okay, what do we do here? Fred is half asleep on the chair, kids in bed. "Let's Go!!" I throw him in his car, it has started snowing at this point and it is about 9pm. He has a prescription for migraine medicine at home. I tell him to call mom and get the RX #, no answer there....Call Sam and George, they have a bottle of the medicine at their house too. By this time we find out there is no 24 hr. pharmacy on Big Bear Mountain. Bummer! The lady at Rite Aid said to try to get the ER to fill it for us. No luck there. He has to get checked in. Off we go home with all the over the counter migraine medicine we can purchase. Just before arriving back at the cabin he says, " I feel like I am going to puke" as he is hiding his head from any light. GREAT!!

Meanwhile...back at the cabin Fred discovers that a pipe has burst at the back of the cabin.

We finally arrive back at the cabin. I give him 2 nyquil and 4 advil migraine and put a cool patch on his head. Turn the lights out and put him to bed on the couch. Meanwhile, I wake Fred from his long winters nap by the fire. "It is starting to snow, we have to put the chains on Ryan's car or we will not be able to go anywhere, and if he gets any sicker we might have to take him to the emergency room." Grumbling he says, " huh?"

Next scene, Fred and Charif at 11:30pm in the pitch black, freezing cold, snowing now coming down pretty good night, putting chains on Ryan's car. I will spare the sad details. But it wasn't very pretty. However we managed to get them on.

On to the next problem, getting a hold of the cabin owner at close to midnight with no cell reception and no phone in the cabin. It turns out he doesn't keep his cell phone in the house at night. He leaves it in the car.

Turn the water off to the house we will wait until morning to deal with this problem.

Next morning we wake, It has snowed all night. We are really happy we put chains on Ryan's car, but feeling like maybe we should have put them on our van as well, but oh well it probably won't start anyway!! Ryan is up, feels great, pops 4 more advil migraine (btw the package says 2/24 hr. period) and a Rock Star and hits the slopes for snowboarding in his well chained vehicle.

We spend a majority of the day taking care of both the kids who are sicker than they have been in a long time. Still snowing. At some point we ventured outside to stand in the blizzard like conditions. The kids came out too. Bad idea! The snow was coming down fast and sideways due to the wind. That kind of hurts the eyes. Ryan showed back up at the cabin around lunch time. He didn't bother to go back that afternoon, white out!.Must get a hold of owner, still no water!! Fred takes Ryan's car and uses the payphone at the corner market. Call a plumber or just turn the water on and off as needed. We call the plumber, but he won't be able to make it until tomorrow, maybe...depends on if will ever stop snowing.

Still snowing.

Tuesday, wake up still no water. Text message the plumber, never mind, we will survive 1 more day. Too much snow anyway to get to the broken pipe. Ryan leaves for snow boarding. We hang out again. Snow stops coming down around 3pm. We decide to try to shovel out our car a little that way maybe we can put chains on it and get home. Of course it starts right up. It took a while to dig out the tires, but we finally got it dug out. No we need to put on the chains, in the muddy icy parking spot.

We pulled out the chains that were purchases spur of the moment 3 weeks prior on the way up to Big Bear on the side of the road. As we are laying the out to untangle them (we are pro's now at putting on chains, especially in extreme conditions) we find out that one of the chains is broken. Hmm, I wonder if this will still work? $100 down the drain.

Fred decides to take Ryan's car with chains to find a mechanic to see if they can fix them or if we can buy new ones. We will need them to get home. The very nice mechanic quickly fixes the chain at no charge. Yeah!!

Back to the chains again. This time is seems to be going easier, we know what we are doing this time and we can see. Chains on, car moves out of the snow, we are all happy. Ryan can leave us now and we will be ok.

Ryan leaves. Chains on, it is no longer snowing but the roads are really snowy.

We all had cabin fever by this time. Every one put on your clothes and shoes, the car is running, let's take advantage of it and go into town.

We head to "The Village" for an early dinner and window shopping. We ate dinner at The Teddy Bear Restaurant. Cute. Good enough. We proceed to notice Daniel is still not all well. We ignore it and continue with our plans. 10 minutes after walking around we are freezing and now concerned about poor Daniel. As we are heading back to the cabin, driving down Big Bear Blvd. (the main drag through town) we hear a click, click. It kind of sounds like chains breaking. So I stick my head out the window and say, too late, "yeah the chain is falling off." Too late because as I was saying it we were rolling over it, breaking it. Unable to go any further, due to bad, snowy roads and 1 broken chain. We put on our hazards as we are barely pulled over on the side of a major highway through town. Fred is on the side of the road trying to jimmy-rig the chain with the 2 tools we had in the van. Daniel is complaining in the back about being sick and wants to walk back. I keep worrying we are going to get hit. Finally Fred fixes the chain. We drive on, slowly. Listening for any sound that sounds like chains breaking or coming off. We make it back.

Back home to the cabin. Still no water.

Wednesday, day to to pack up and go home. We started packing and cleaning about 11am. We were planning on leaving about 2:30pm. We really needed to get a hold of the owner of the cabin to see how he wanted us to leave the cabin (water,gas,electricity,etc.) Fred leaves and calls him. He just wants the water heater turned to low. Well that is a problem. The water heater is outside the cabin and the door is blocked by about 4 feet of snow. Fred will have to shovel it,see picture below.

All is packed, everyone has gone potty, water turned on to flush, then off again. Load up....the car won't start!!! Everyone back in the house.

Fred had to walk down the street and find someone to jump the van. Ten minutes later we are loading up again. Don't shut the van off!!!

The road we took up to the mountain is still closed due to the many feet of snow (more snow than Big Bear has seen in 5 years). We had to go back through town to down the back way. It is now 4:30pm and we are just finally starting down the mountain. Holding our breath the entire way, because of the chain. We finally got to a place that we felt like we could take the chains off. YEAH!!! Our butts were going numb from the vibrations.

We finally made it home at 8pm. Too long!! I hate going the back way. Safe and sound. It was all in all a good time and I didn't mind any of the drama, because at least I was with my wonderful hubby and we were doing it together.

Coolskool this Fall

2008-11-23T20:56:00.003-08:00

Here is what we have been up to lately at the coolskool homeschool.

Writing with quills and berry ink. We were studying the Declaration on Independence and John Hancock.

This is where we were trying to teach our homeschoolers what it meant to "line up".

Making Hasty Pudding

Nature Study, sketching White Birch

TriCorn Hat-studying George Washington

Sunday Best

2008-11-23T20:49:00.000-08:00

This year Daniel is in the kids Choir at church. For their Christmas program they are doing a choral program. They are instructed to wear their Sunday Best.

"Sunday Best" ?? What is that? have you been to our church?
Anyway, Grandma Becky took care of that. Here is our boy looking handsome in his Sunday Best and singing in the childrens choir in church last Sunday

Because I am a Super Saver Shopper

2008-11-11T09:40:00.001-08:00

My Super Shopping Savings this week!!!

This was a great week for savings. Not everything I purchased was on the list, but most.
Here is what I got!

Here is the link to the savings I get. The Grocery Game.

A GIRL LIKE HER

2008-10-15T15:57:00.000-07:00

It is so fun to have a girl like her. She is so energetic and fun. She lights up the room when she walks in.

She has decided to try her foot at acting which of course she is a natural. She auditioned last week for the part of Amy in Little Women. Today we got the call. She got the part of Aunt March in the youth cast. This is a small but good role for her. She gets to really act. Aunt March is an old prissy lady.

We are very proud. The show will be late in November, early December. We will keep everyone posted.

1st day of School

2008-09-08T14:07:00.000-07:00

Today is the 1st of school. I was up early and made blueberry muffins from scratch. Yum!!! This is a tradition. We always have blueberry muffins on the 1st day of school. This has been the tradition since Penny's 1st day of Kindergarten.

In this 1st picture you can see the kids are looking a little tired. They were up earlier than they have been all summer.

This year is a big year for us. I am teaching to both grades. In the past I taught to Penny's level and Daniel just had to get what he could from it. Except for Math and Language arts that is.... Anyway this is what we are learning about this year.

Daniel- 2nd grade
Bible-learning about how wonderful Jesus is
History- introduce U.S. history study key figures such as Columbus, Washington, Ben Franklin, Lincoln and many others.
Learn about patriotic symbols such as the U.S. flag, the Pledge of Allegiance, the Statue of Liberty and the Liberty Bell.
Intro to U.S. geography with a brief trip through all 50 states
Science-we will be exploring the fascinating world of science-stars, weather, plants, animal, atoms, energy, gravity, friction, sound, computers, and much more.
Art
Music-Patriotic Music and Tchaikovsky
French
Spelling
Reading
Primary Language Lessons
Math
Poetry

Penny-8th grade
Bible
History- survey of The Civil War and WWII
Science
French
Latin
Pre Algebra
Art
Typing
Grammar
Writing

Penny doing a bible lesson

Daniel doing a French lesson

Last Summer Fling

2008-08-27T18:18:00.001-07:00

Camping at Carpinteria State Beach
Back in February my friends Freya, Leslie and Wendi called me on the night before Feb. 1 and said, " Do you want to go camping in August?" So we got on the computer at 8am and booked our camping for the following summer. Here are some of the pictures.

camping cousins

On Saturday Mom, Walter, Ryan and Amber came up for the day, here we are hanging out on the beach. Beautiful weather.

smiling Trey is 2 months old

Beach Bums!

Campfire Fun!

It turns out Wendi couldn't go and Leslie had to leave early due to kids school starting etc., Sam, George, CC and Trey came along with us instead. We were there for 6 days, we left 1 day early. We decided that 5 days would be a good amount of camping time, 6 days was 1 day too many!!! I was ready to pack up and leave at 1 in the morning when Penny puked in the tent!! 1 week before school starts, 1 week to do laundry, clean the house, organize the school stuff,rest, buy the rest of the school stuff we need.

45 Years of Faith Baptist

2008-08-03T20:00:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was the first Alumni Gala, 45 Years worth of Faith Baptist Alumni. Fred and I went. It has been 16 years since I graduated high school.

Me and my BFF from High School, Margie.

Some good friends from school

All of us from the class of 1992 that showed up. Were missing a few.

It was lots of fun seeing everyone from High School.

Hume Lake July 2008

2008-08-01T21:46:00.000-07:00

Our Family was given an amazing gift of a week at Hume Lake in a beautiful chateau. Here are some of the pictures of what we did for a week.

Our last night there we had talent night, no one was exempt....

Jonathan tight rope walked...of course!!!

Penny danced

A family song signed by the Alaskan Martins

a cute little dance by Sophia

A guitar solo by Mr. Freddy Martin

A trip to Sequoia National Park

Becky and Charif holding up a tree...

The next 3 pictures of at Moro Rock. A huge mountain of a rock that we climbed to the top of....see picture 3.

The Martin Family

At the foot of a giant.

Down the rabbit hole, I mean hollow giant Sequoia Tree.

Emily

My Sisters

One Big Happy Family

Me and baby Garrett

Me and my honey

Dan and Jon Playing

Ike and Freddy Playing

Fred mastered the Rubiks Cube

Penny holding a butterfly
Katie and me in the Suzuki

Down by the Lake
Sandy Cove

Back at the Cabin
Family Dinner

The boys eating breakfast

Garrett, Penny, Emily Sophia, Daniel and Jonathan

Welcome Baby Trey

2008-06-29T08:07:00.000-07:00

I am the proud Auntie of another Nephew. Introducing Trey William Thompson. Born on June 24 at 6:14 pm, weighing 6lbs 12oz. measuring 19in. in length. Born to Samantha and George Thompson.

A conversation with a 7 year old boy

2008-06-06T20:00:00.000-07:00

Boy sitting in bath after washing his hair (rinsing it by diving under the water for 30 sec.)
Boy: Mom, what do people with glasses do when they go under water?
Mom: They take off they're glasses.
Boy: What if they need to see under the water?
Mom: Well I guess they just close their eyes and don't see.
Boy: Well, what if they are jumping in and swimming with sharks? They NEED to see to do that, like at Catalina, those cliffs...
Mom: I don't know then...

School's out for Summer!!!

2008-06-06T18:37:00.000-07:00

13 YEARS

2008-05-21T22:39:00.000-07:00

13 years of smiles
13 years of love
13 years of beauty
13 years of laughter
13 years of girl
13 years of PENNY

My first baby turned 13 this past Sunday. We had a big party for her. Karaoke and Friends.

Mommy and Daddy sing a song

Singing with friends.

Little Bro rocks out!

Daddy and Penny sing a duet!!

A Little Bit of Paradise

2008-04-26T14:33:00.001-07:00

Buried in this canyon, just off the main road, behind the freeway is a little bit of paradise. We and our friends, The Jones' discovered this little bit of paradise a few weeks ago. We originally set out to do a nature "walk". We came across this pleasant patch of paradise and headed right out to Target for some rubber boots. These are pictures of our 2nd time there.

EASTER 2008

2008-03-23T17:39:00.000-07:00

Easter Saturday we spent with my family at my mom's house. We had a lovely brunch with eggs, waffles, potatoes,etc. The kids had an egg hunt, dyed eggs and swam all day. The weather was wonderful, about 75. Here are some pictures from Saturday.
The Martin Family
Cousins: Penny, Daniel and Sydny

The Thompsons

Sunday Morning 4:15 AM, we left our house for the Hollywood Bowl for the Easter Sunrise Service.

Back to the house to shower and get ready for church at 9am at Rocky Peak.

After Church with Fred and Becky, we stopped by Grammy and Grandpy's house to say Happy Easter and to see the Tehachapi Wallace's.
We had a 12 noon reservation at the Sportsman's Lodge for a Sunday Champagne Brunch. This was a lovely day and perfect weather.

Yes....we're all wearing the same outfit both days, I did the laundry on Saturday night!!!

A few you might not have seen yet

2008-03-22T17:29:00.001-07:00

The New Daddy Club

2 Knights getting ready to fight for a maiden

Our Little Mermaid

Grandma's Girls

A Sea Treasure

Frozen Banana's Dad's treat!!

Beautiful Smile!

What a view!

Uncle Freddy

Auntie Reefy

A few white flowers

Weenie Roast at Dusk

HZAH FOR THE RED KNIGHT!!!

2008-03-08T19:51:00.000-08:00

As we commence our study of Medieval Times we take a trip to "Medieval Times" The Jones's and 2 of the Kirk kids joined us for the adventure of the day!!

A Long Weekend

2008-02-20T08:55:00.001-08:00

We spend the better part of the long weekend (Presidents Day weekend) painting Daniel's room and finishing the living room. Daniel's room used to be Penny's room and it had a lime green wall and hot pink doors. The living room was 1/2 painted about 5 years ago and never finished. Here is the finished product on both.

Daniel's room is a old world nautical theme. The living room is what Fred calls "American Attic". We love it!!!

BIG BEAR WEEKEND GETAWAY

2008-02-10T21:43:00.001-08:00

The Martins, Samantha and Sydny Thompson and Ninette Arnold
Feb. 7-10,2008
Charif, Penny, Daniel, Sam, Sydny and Mom arrived to the cabin on Thursday night at about 9 PM, there was a giant mountain of snow to climb to get to the cabin door. There was lots of snow everywhere, about 2.5 ft. on snow. It turns out that the toilet froze between us and the last occupants, therefore it was cracked and not useable. We had to go that night and all day the next day with out a toilet.

Fred arrived on Friday night at about 10:30 PM with a toilet and installed it right away. OUR HERO!!!!

Friday we spent the day at "Snow Play" an inner tube rental place. This was great fun!!I will post those pictures when I get them from Sam. Mom spent the day on the slopes, snow boarding. I can't believe at 56 she still snow boards. What a woman!!!

Saturday morning we hit the slopes first thing. It was a beautiful day about 65 degrees and sunny. All 3 kids took lessons, Syd skiing and Pen and Dan, snow board.

About 2PM we got back to the cabin from the slopes. Fred, Charif and Sam went Antiquing and thrift store shopping. We didn't get much, but it was fun. The kids stayed back at the cabin with grandma and played games and drank hot chocolate.

After dinner the much awaited roasting of marshmallows with daddy and Uncle Freddy.

It was a wonderful trip and so much fun. We are so grateful to our friends the James's for lending us use of the cabin.

A few things learned this weekend:

* Penny likes to play with fire
* We really are grateful for indoor plumbing
* You can get your van stuck in a little bit of snow
* snowboarding leaves bruises everywhere
* the back way up the mountain does take longer but is more fun
* kids look really cute in snow clothes, adults don't
* 65 degrees and sunny while waiting for your kids to finish their lessons is really hot.

13 AMAZING YEARS!!

2007-12-17T09:18:00.001-08:00

Today is our 13th Wedding Anniversary. I have been blessed with the most amazing husband for 13 years. I have loved every single minute of the last 13 years. None...would I do over again. I love him more now than I ever did and my love grows more and more every day.

Last weekend we celebrated our anniversary on a little cruise to Mexico. We had a wonderful time away.

I am so blessed and I thank God everyday for my wonderful life.

Happy Anniversary Honey, I love you. Thanks for giving me a wonderful life.

Just about 7

2007-12-17T09:03:00.001-08:00

I can't believe he is just about 7. With Daniel's birthday falling 4 days after Christmas, we asked him if he wanted to have a little party early or later than Christmas this year and of course....EARLY!!!!
So, we planned a little party, Just 7 all together. They watched Star Wars, ate Happy Meals and then the grandparents came and we all ate yummy cake and opened presents.
As you can see in the last picture, Daddy got him a sword. The sword is from the movie, "The Alamo" It was a hit with all the boys at the party.

Thankful for.....

2007-11-26T18:54:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving Day

I am thankful for so much this year, as with every year. I have family, friends, faith, health, and love. What more could I ask for.

San Diego Trip on the Train

2007-11-16T16:28:00.000-08:00

We started the day off at 6am, well some of us earlier (sam and cc at 4.15am) I needed to be up at 5.30am to leave at 6.00 am, but my alarm did not go off and i woke up at 6.00 am, so with a mad dash we left the house at 6.20 am, which is when we were supposed to be at the subway station to ride to the train station in LA. Instead we hopped in Sam's car and drove in traffic to the train station in L.A. and ran through the station to get on our 7.20am train at 7.15. Whew! we made it.

We had a nice time at the Dead Sea Scrolls and then we wandered around the Natural History Muesem til it was time to take the train back home.

When in Rome......

2007-11-16T16:01:00.000-08:00

Do as the Romans do. We are in the middle of studying about Rome. This week we had a very busy week, on Tuesday we went to the Dead Sea Scrolls in San Diego, on the train, then on Thursday we had a Roman Feast, Toga's and all.

The Frediluis Familia, Penelope, Danielius, Charia and Fredelius
Lounging on a couch
Penelope-Our "Second born"
Danielius-our "First Born" son, reciting a verse from the book of Romans

The slaves/second born children
We designated all the real first borns to be the slaves and elevated all the second borns to first born position

The Jones Family; Jasonius, Lara, Kalia, and Whitania

The Kirk Family: Timitheus, Julia, Davidius and Emilia

The perfect submissive wife
During the 5 course dinner and after the kids performed for us. This is Penny doing a ballet that she coreographed herself.
a submissive slave
the kids table

SCAREFEST '07

2007-11-04T12:22:00.000-08:00

My kids love to hear stories about Freddy's childhood, especially the stories about Uncle Bob and Aunt Judy's house and the sleepovers they would have and all the scary stories that were told.

This year, a week or so before Halloween Freddy called Uncle Bob and Aunt Judy to tell them that he thought our kids were old enough for some of their variety of scare.

Aunt Judy called me to confirm....I said, sure...if Freddy said so, than Yes. So they started planning.

As you can see in the first picture, upon our arrival at Uncle Bob and Aunt Judy's house they looked a little concerned with what was outside.

My kids didn't seem to notice that. They invited us in and after greeting etc. they invited us to sit down. As we were sitting, Aunt Judy wanted to tell us why they were a little worried about what was going on outside and as she started to tell us, she turned off all the lights.

At that point, Daniel let out a nervous cry. He knew something was up. We turned back on some of the lights and proceeded with Aunt Judy's story.

Penny was not really interested in the story, it didn't sound like anything she cared about, "something that happend a long time ago, etc." Daniel knew something was askew and sat in daddy's lap, crying and plugging his ear. With an occasional, "NOoooo!"

Shortly into the story, Aunt Judy started talking about some one being kidnapped and some children too, Penny's attention was then captured. Also, during this time, Uncle Bob disappeared.

All of sudden Daniel let out a blood curdling scream and covered his face. Penny and I were sitting on the couch and turned to see what was making Daniel scream. There behind us was Uncle Bob, with the Wood Pile Beast Mask on and a very old cape. Upon seeing it, Penny likewise, Screamed and covered her face and hit the floor.

Fred and I were in tears, laughing. Uncle Bob immediatly took off the mask and came down to Penny's rescue and Aunt Judy to Daniel's.

It may sound cruel to laugh at our kids torment, but it's not. We explained to them that we had given Aunt Judy and Uncle Bob the idea to scare them and that it was all in fun.

The kids ended up laughing at the story. And every time I re-tell the story, they laugh. Although, Daniel with a little nervous fear still left.

I wonder if they will want to go to Uncle Bob and Aunt Judy's house next year?