I haven't had much to post about so that is why it has been quiet. We are all done painting Alex's bedroom and it looks very "aquarium" for him. LOL! I am almost done with Morgan's room. I'm taking a bit of a break while my mom uses the paints and then will finish up. She has a nice bit of white picket fence around the base of the walls with grass & flower stems poking up (will paint flowers soon) and a rabbit has been drawn...but not painted yet. So I need to do the flowers, paint the rabbit and then do a deer in a meadow in the dormer window part.

During my little break from her room, Corey and I have removed the wallpaper from our bathroom. The master bathroom is broken up into 2 rooms...a powder room section with toilet & sink and then a bigger part with another sink & the tub/shower unit. The powder room had this very busy & dark floral wallpaper & then a border with a big floral print. The rest of the bathroom was in a different floral print on white with the same big floral print border as the powder room. So 3 different prints in the bathroom. Ugh! We got a nice little suggestion from Lowe's on how to remove the wallpaper so while it has been messy it does smell nice. LOL! The suggestion was to use a solution of half liquid fabric softener and half water. It worked nicely and smells much better than what I've used in the past (vinegar).

We are going to paint the bathroom a nice shade of yellow (not too light, not too bright).

This past weekend my mom, Morgan and I went to lunch at a tea house. It was fabulous fun and we all got to feel all girlie...very southern belle'ish. LOL! The tea house is Lillie Belle's of Franklin . The atmosphere, food and service was wonderful. We can't wait to go back. They had a corner shelf full of hats that you could pick from and where while having lunch or tea. Morgan picked out a hat for each of us. Here are a couple of pictures from the tea house.

Morgan looking so pretty.

Morgan and GC

And of course with all the nice times going on we have to have a little turmoil or it just wouldn't be life, right? Our van suddenly started overheating and seemed to blow a "something". Liquid coming out the exhaust & getting condesation on the rear window, temp rising quickly and then steam pouring out from under the hood in every direction. When we looked under there it was all wet with some almost clear, slightly oily liquid...we think coolant. We tried filling it all back up to get it home and NO GO. We got a short distance and bam it was doing it again. So we just got it to the repair shop (had to FIND one we could take it to) and we should know tomorrow exactly how bad it is. Think good thoughts that it isn't major. We really don't need that right now. Thank Goddess that we have 2 vehicles and family close by. The night this happened my mom was able to come rescue us. We had all just been out for a nice dinner and then spent some time (and money) in Barnes & Noble.

We've sent in our forms to be homeschoolers here in TN. The notice of intent is a form that you fill out. It has "optional" parts that aren't required by law so we will see how that goes. You either have to register with a church-related school, CRS, (not going to happen) or be an independent homeschooler and register with your local school district. We've done that. You have to do so by Aug 1st or pay a late fee and the superintendent can prevent anyone from registering beyond the deadline if s/he chooses. If the family doesn't have "good reason". This would then force you to register with a CRS or go into the public/private school system. As long as this part goes smoothly then I feel fine with the rest of it. We file attendence for each child at the end of the year and must have 180 school days, supposed to "school" 4 hours a day also. There is testing at 5th and 7th grade levels. There is also testing at 9th grade but TN has changed the tests used and they are standardized and don't meet the requirements in the homeschooling law so we don't have to do those. Corey and I have also been looking into various pieces of curriculum to use for this year. We don't have the access to all the resources and wonderful classes (yet?) that we had in Tampa. We want to make sure that we are organized and ready to handle homeschooling both kids. We are looking at a couple of science programs and a math program. Hopefully we will decide soon so we can get started.