After some thinking and praying, I've decided to home school Mason again. I thought I would never have the desire to do this again after the experience in Hawaii, but I'm crazy and I do. After Mason's last meeting with his teachers I realized I was really fed up with him not learning basic skills. It just doesn't seem right that SOL testing is more important then my child's actual education. Year after year, the public schools system has just tried to put a band-aid on the fact that he can barely read. To fix that- they have someone read him SOL test questions. If he doesn't know is multiplication tables for long division, they simply give him a calculator to "accommodate" him. This way he can test and hopefully do well enough to earn the teacher the right to keep teaching. To fair to the student, and not fair to the teacher!

The next week, I will spend time looking over curriculum, filing paperwork, and getting things going for Mason. I think it will be a great experience for us and I can't wait to get started!

Happy New Year from The Jones Family!

Making plans!

It's almost Halloween! I wish the holidays would last forever! I know that after Halloween things go by so quickly and there's so much to do and prepare for. Our weather has been so awesome here. I'm really going to try and get some good pictures of the leaves tomorrow. We do have some areas that look pretty colorful!

We're making plans for Thanksgiving and I can't wait. It's so nice to be close enough to family to have holidays together. Daniel's mom, Susan, lives in Tampa and my grandparents live in Titusville. My grandmother invited us and Daniel's mom to all stay in Titusville for Thanksgiving. I cannot wait! We've never had a family holiday with Daniel's mom and my family. We won't get there until Thanksgiving Day, but we'll have 4 days together so I can't wait. On that following Saturday, the girls are going to see The Color Purple Broadway Show in Orlando! It's going to be so fun! I hope to see aunts and uncles too! I have waited so long to be near family!

New Year's Eve

Okay, I guess I'm post happy today! I was just looking at pictures and I forgot to put up some pictures from New Year's Eve and my curls!

So this is my hair now! I had to wait a little while for the curl to relax because it was a little crazy for a while! I got a perm and it lightened my hair A LOT!!! But I like it! My picture is a little weird... I dont' know what I was doing or thinking... And here are a few pictures for New Year's with my neighbors, Linda, Nolan, Ku'aiu, and Ku'lia.

New Year's Eve of 2009

I watched this movie today and it was sooo amazing! I haven't seen a great movie in a while and this one was great! I usually say that about movies that make me cry a lot! I really loved Benicio in this movie, too.

We did some fireworks outside tonight. I'm trying to go to bed early so we can get up to see the moon aligned with planets ... I hope I can get up. I really want to take pictures and see it.

It doesn't really seem like New Year's Eve. I'm just ready to get through all of the holidays and get on with life again. The kids holiday break from school is very long. Not to mention they were just out for a month! We are nearing homecoming and I'm at the point of ... just get here already!

My Christmas!

Wow, I hate to say it, but I'm glad Christmas is over. I do have to say even though Daniel wasn't here, I had a great time! This may be one ofmy favorite Christmas Days ever!

So, I will begin catching you up to speed beginning with Christmas Eve!

On Christmas Eve we went to church and it was so nice! Our church is building a new sanctuary so our church is in a big tent outside for now. The weather was so nice! Ally was in a Christmas Special where she signed (sign language) a very pretty song.

I decided to buy a dinner in a box! Can you even believe it? I was a little sad about it and I felt weird going to the store and picking it up. But hey, it was just the three of us!

After church we came home and I let the kids open one present! I always do this and it's always pj's. This way we have nice pictures for Christmas morning. I let them sleep in my bed where I TRIED to sleep also. By 6am I was ready to give up! The kids woke up and we went down stairs. Mason got a Wii and Ally got money! She is actually shopping as I'm posting this. Ally got me some lotions and bath stuff and Mason got his old mom a neck massager (I've been gong to physical therapy for my neck). I loved my gifts as well. After we played with our gifts and relaxed a little we went to pick up our dinner from Safeway. I thought it was going to be hot and already cooked! No such luck! It was all in a box and ready to "heat up" though! My menu for Christmas Dinner was a ham and...

Ha! I have to say it was the best spiral ham EVER! And clean up was a breeze! I never knew Christmas could be so fun! I'm usually the one in the kitchen cooking for hours until dinner time, then it it takes 10 minutes to eat and then I'm cleaning it all up!

After dinner we went to see Bedtime Stories at the Kapolei Movie Theater. Adam Sandler was hilarious as always. THen we came home and had a relaxing evening! It was GREAT!

The day after Christmas we went shopping for a little while and I bought myself a really fancy Scrabble Game! I can't wait to play! It swivels too :)

That's my Christmas! I can't wait to hear about yours!

Ashley- Thanks for posting an update! I was really missing your posts. I think that will hold me over until you get back! haha;)

Christmas Cards Bring Christmas Cheer!

Today, we went out to run some errands and get a few last minute Christmas items. We got Grandma a digital picture frame- we're hoping she doesn't already have one! When we got home, Mason checked the mail and we got lots of cards from family and friends. Christmas cards are one of my favorite things for Christmas! Mason opened his card from Grandma and found a one hundred dollar bill! He freaked. I knew what was in it, so I had the camera ready!

He was so amazed that he got it! He said when he grows up, he will be able to tell his friends that when he was little his grandma gave him a one hundred dollar bill! haha.

Ally also got one and will add it to the money we are giving her for Christmas to buy herself a new cell phone. She told me that a new cell phone is a teens dream! Everyone will come back to school with a new cell phone and she is so excited to be able to have one now.

Thanks Grandma!! We love you and wish that you could be here this year with us!

Nana also gave the kids money.
Her money is for each of them to buy something for the other- also a lot of money but I guess a check is much different than cash in hand!

They are in total shock to be given so much money!
I shall have a great time taking them to spend it!

And Daniel, your mom sent us some money too! I'll spend it for you:). It was only like $5... yeah, that's it... $5. So no need to feel like you have to spend it right away. ;)

Christmas Lights in Hawaii

Last night we went for a walk down by this neighborhood that always has the best lights! There are people there all over the place; walking, driving, sitting... It's the craziest thing. The people there also hand out candy canes to the kids. This makes the second year that we have been going to see their lights.

The lights line all the housing. I talked to this guy at one house and he said that he laid all the red lights first- all over the house, then green, then clear. Then all the lights come on and blink all one color- all green, then red, then clear. Lots of time went into these houses!

They even had a guest book for us to sign! We had a lot of fun!

Christmas Caroling!

Mason really enjoyed Karen dancing around.Taking a little break between houses.

This is our car load! We had a great time!

This was the wall that we saw the scorpion on! The whole group before we left the church.

I haven't posted anything in a while. We have been a little busy. We did get to go Christmas Caroling and that was so much fun. We all met at our church in Makakilo. There were quite a few teens which was really nice for Ally. Karen brought hats for us all to wear along with flashlights. We carpooled to a few different houses where people from our church were somewhat informed of the treat they were getting. During one song, there was a little girl about 3 years old that said, "look a gecko!" as she pointed to a concret wall that we were standing right by. Turns out, it was a scorpion!!!! We all freaked out in the middle of the song! It was crazy. When we were finished, I drove a few of the kids back to the church and met up with everyone for ice cream at Baskin Robbins. It was a great family activity and I hope that we can somehow keep doing it every year!

I am loving my break from school!

Thoughts for the day... I haven't even really had one real thought today! I've been very busy today.

I finished my tree tonight and started to put up lights and then realized that I threw many strands of lights away last year. So, I have to go buy more before I can finish the outside lights. I will take pictures tomorrow. I have an appointment in the morning at school. I have to get all my stuff done for that first, then I can play with the lights! I can't wait! OH- and I will post a picture of this house that I have been going crazy about for 2 years! It is like Lampoon's Christmas lights!
I have also been going nuts about this new group! They have a Christmas CD out! I love them. I will have to figure out how to post a video, then I'll put that up as well!