Back to School

The kids started school yesterday. It was so nice to send them off. I remember taking pictures of my oldest children, making them wave and yell "freeze! Wait till I take the picture! SNAP! Okay you can go now"

Now I felt like I practically slamed on my brakes and yelled at them to hurry! Even though they still had 15 minutes till the tardy bell! I feel like such a bad mom, NOT:) My husband and I, along with my 4 year old went and had lunch to celebrate!

I didn't pick them up till 6pm! It was heaven.

Okay, In my defense, the kids wanted to stay late after school.

It has been a long summer without many of their friends.

The school has after school activities at the Boys and Girls Clubs and so...

they were not abandoned.

Then I picked them up, they ate dinner and off to Cub & Boys Scouts at 7pm and my daughter had Young Womens at church. So I really scored!

After so many kids, you want the peace.

I have a feeling it will not be the same with my baby who is 4 now.

She is my last one yet to go to school.

She has to wait a year to go to school, since she will be 5 in November.

She can add basic math and read some words.

She is to smart for her britches and has great memory.

With Arizona having cut the budget for Education,

they did not have Early Kindergarten programs for my daughter.

Speaking of school, I thought I would share the oldest school still standing in Arizona. This is the Pine-Strawberry School House on Fossel Creek Road.

It is now a museum, located about a two hour drive north of Phoenix,

20-30 min north of Payson. This school was built in the 1880's.

I thought you would be interested how times have changed.

Here are the Rules For both Teachers and Students in 1872.

How well do you know the lyrics to Star Spangled Banner

With Elections on the way and votes being counted for, I started singing The Star Spangled Banner unknowingly, until my boys said something. I told them that I was proud to be an American. During the Olympics many of our medalists did not sing the The Star Spangeled Banner. This made me very sad as many other countries knew and sang their own national anthem. I remember in grade school having to say the pledge out loud and the national hymn playing as well in our classrooms. Now, many of are afraid to stand for the truth and for our country. I thought I would include two touching videos of our National Hymn (Click on Photos). I must confess, I only know the first Chorus and not all four. However, I included the lyrics and some facts of the Original Star Spangle Banner during this time of Elections.

Quick Facts about the Star-Spangled Banner Flag:

• Made in Baltimore, Maryland, in July-August 1813 by flagmaker Mary Pickersgill
• Commissioned by Major George Armistead, commander of Fort McHenry
• Original size: 30 feet by 42 feet
• Current size: 30 feet by 34 feet
• Fifteen stars and fifteen stripes (one star has been cut out)
• Raised over Fort McHenry on the morning of September 14, 1814, to signal American victory over the British in the Battle of Baltimore; the sight inspired Francis Scott Key to write “The Star-Spangled Banner”
• Preserved by the Armistead family as a memento of the battle
• First loaned to the Smithsonian Institution in 1907; converted to permanent gift in 1912
• On exhibit at the National Museum of American History since 1964
• Major, multi-year conservation effort launched in 1998
• Plans for new permanent exhibition gallery now underway

The Star Spangled Banner Lyrics:

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?

And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,

Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,

What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,

As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?

Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,

In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:

'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore

That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,

A home and a country should leave us no more!

Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave

From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:

And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand

Between their loved home and the war's desolation!

Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land

Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Amen