It makes you feel violated again and again.

How is this for a wake up call, "Honey, did you have anything valuable in the van?" "Just the GPS and some Christmas presents, why?" "Somebody went through the van and the car again." "How can you tell?" "The glove conpartment and the center console were open in both and things had been thrown around. I found my missing sunglasses." "You're kidding me!"

Apparently in their haste, they did not look up and see the GPS, but still, this is like the fifth or sixth time since we have lived here the past few months. The problem is that the greedy owner of the subdivision refuses to finish what he needs to to have the subdivision turned over to the sherriff's department cause that would cause him to spend his precisious money, so there isn't much they can do to protect us. We have had things not only stolen in the night (including my wallet at one point) but some neighbors have had people go through their house during the day and one had someone try to steal their trailor when they were home. Luckily they came out to see what was going on and it scared the guys off. We have been having so much crime. One of the times they caught the guys. Turned out to be a gang and ended in a shoot-out a couple of blocks from here.

My question is, how do I protect my family? Ben is gone so much thanks to the Army and these guys hit both day and night. When we had a dog, that didn't help. I am worried about something happening like what happened at a neighbor of my moms a few days ago (in Idaho!). A guy tried to sell her books, she said no, he pulled out a gun and forced his way in, tied her up, gathered what he wanted to steal, a honking horn scared him, he ran off and she was left there tied up until her kids came home. What would have happened to us if he had done that and discovered I had kids here?

And to make matters worse, we can't call the police from here cause it is long distance! Our cell phones don't get coverage from here and if you call 911, they tell you to call the sherriff who is long distance! Who does that?! Seriously. Anyway, so I feel very violated and dead set on finding a way to protect my family. We have no money to do much, but I will figure something out. Don't you dare mess with my family!

Talk about last days...

For those of you who believe in the prophecies of the last days before the second coming including the constitution hanging by a thread, take a look at this:

http://parentalrights.list-manage.com/track/click?u=00f9e4541df7da80194807124&id=277bbf2671&e=7053fb7be6

Now that is scary!

Our accomplishing day

Our day began with homeschool as usual. We were able to get a good amount done. When I was helping Israel with his math, he was getting frustrated. He gets frustrated extremely easy. Today was no exception. He wasn't understanding so I decided to have him take a break and go play. He played for a while then came up to me and answered the problems in his head. He suddenly understood. That wouldn't have happened had he been in school and was forced to do it on their time instead of his own. He still loves math but I have no doubt he would not if he were in school.

Then I put dinner in the crockpot and set my homemade bread out to rise. I got a HUGE amount of cleaning done, then taught the kids how to make homemade butter, which we had with the homemade bread and some jam I had made and canned earlier this month. Oh it tasted so great! Followed up dinner and bread with homemade fudge. Mmmm. Finally, Ben came home after his finals today just in time for Luci to take her first three steps! She is finally starting to walk! She went right up to him and took his hands and had him walk her to me. Then she turned around and walked to him by herself! We were so excited.

To so many, this may seem like a dull day. Most don't understand the joy of being "just a housewife" but they are missing out. I have tried different things in my life and nothing has given me greater joy than being "just a housewife". We are truly a happy family in every sense of the word.

Post office field trip

Yesterday we went on a field trip with our homeschool support group to the Post Office in Opelika. It actually was very interesting. We got to see how they sort the mail. Did you know that they put the letters into a machine and the machine takes a picture, reads it, and sends to where it is supposed to go? Never even read by a human. It even sorts it by where the address is located so the carrier doesn't have to. And it does it so fast! 36,000 letters per hour! You should see this machine work.

After we saw the machine, we went upstairs and saw where the post office boxes are and even got to ride in the huge elevator they use for mail. The pictures above are when they allowed the kids to cancel some letters (post mark them). They each got to but Celestial was so short I had to hold her up so I didn't get a picture of her. Anyway, even I learned a lot about how a post office works. We really enjoyed it!

Then we got to finish the day by picking up a Christmas tree from base (they have free trees for the military), taking the kids to tennis, then going home to decorate the tree. We had quite the busy, fun day.