I know it's Wednesday but I've just now had a chance to update from our time away for Thanksgiving.

We travelled to Havana, Florida, just outside of Tallahassee, to spend time with dh's mom and stepfather. Since watching endless hours of current football games, "classic" football games, poker, boxing, bass fishing, and pool isn't really our idea of a good time we visited for a while then spent some time exploring the area around and within Tallahassee. I'll be posting pictures later since they are still on the laptop.

We arrived on Wednesday and spent Thanksgiving day eating and visiting as well as half way watching the above mentioned football and other various sports. By 7:30 I knew I had to get out of the house, so we went to the mall to see Happy Feet.

The movie was good - to a point. I enjoyed Relaxed Homeskool's Review / Goofy Rant about the movie. It kind of lost me around the middle and became an outlet for a pretty heavy handed message. The movie's saving grace, though, was the music. I loved the music so much that we bought the soundtrack.

Friday we headed into downtown Tallahassee to the Mary Brogan Museum of Art & Science. The theme was "marvelous machines". We played with a tennis ball launcher, a tug of war lever, racing disks, hurricane simulators, and various other items that displayed the use of electricity. I enjoyed the art portion more than William, however. The theme was "Art as Money, Money as Art".

Pictures from the Brogan Museum:

1. Florida Vietnam Memorial near the capitol building.


2. Me in the hurricane simulator.


3. William playing with the tennis ball launcher.


4. Tallahassee-Democrat statue outside of the museum.


After our time spent at the museum we headed back to the mall for an internet connection through Barnes and Noble and browsing through Stone Age, the rock shop on the mall's upper level.

Saturday we headed south towards the coast to visit Wakulla Springs National Park. We ate lunch at the Wakulla Springs Lodge, then took a short walk on one of the nature trails while waiting for the river boat ride. They weren't running the glass bottom boats that day, but the river boat was just as nice. We saw all types of various birds, including a few blue herons, and multiple alligators. We even caught a glimpse of a manatee! Unfortunately it stayed under the water so we couldn't see it clearly.

Wakulla Springs pictures:

1. Alligator on the bank.


2. Turtles sunning on the river.


3. Palm tree where Tarzan stood while filming Tarzan's Secret Treasure in 1941.


4. Wakulla Springs Lodge, built in the late 1930s. This is where we had lunch.


5. Another picture of the river.


We decided on the spur of the moment to head a few miles further down the road to St. Marks and see the lighthouse. The sun was going down and we got some really good pictures with excellent light. We left as it was getting dark and headed back to MIL's house. After a light dinner, we headed back to the mall to watch another movie. This time we chose The Prestige. I don't want to spoil it for you, but it's an excellent movie with an interesting twist you may not expect.

Pictures from St. Marks:

1. Pilings in the ocean.


2. Sunset on the ocean.


3. St. Marks Lighthouse.


4. Another ocean sunset.


5. Lighthouse from the side.


6. Heron on the marsh at St. Marks.


7. Dh (Scott) and William looking at the water.


8. Alligator sign on the marsh.


9. Another sunset.


On Sunday we headed out of town towards home and stopped at Pebble Hill Plantation just outside of Thomasville, GA. We walked around the grounds a bit before touring the main house. Pictures aren't allowed inside the main house, but I did get a few of the grounds. We didn't have a lot of time since they were only open until 5. We plan to go back and spend more time on the grounds.

Pebble Hill Plantation pictures:

1. Main house from the back.


2. Pond and walkway.


3. Log cabin school & playroom.


4. Horses in the field.


5. Corner of the family cemetery.


We got home on Sunday night and after unpacking the car I fell into a computer / TV obsession for a few hours and caught up on Medium, CSI, ER and Desperate Housewives. At that moment I was very thankful for my Tivo.

We're getting back into the swing of things now and I'll be posting pictures of the trip later on.

I know I'm late posting. The week has been pretty calm, not much going on. William is still making As in pretty much all of his work. We've stopped paragraphs for a while but will be doing them again after Thanksgiving. I still need to purchase his Geography curriculum and his next grade's Lifepac's for Science. That will be done in December.

Dh has another month on his school work, then he's done until January. I've registered for my classes as well and I start in January too. I'm excited about the classes starting.

I've also started a weight training program two weeks ago. I've lost 4 pounds. It's not a lot but it's a start.

I haven't written one word yet for NaNoWriMo, I'm sorry to say. Maybe I'll write some over Thanksgiving.

We'll be heading to Florida for Thanksgiving on Wednesday morning. We'll be visiting a few places during our trip. Our first stop with be a plantation near Thomasville, GA. While in Tallahassee we'll also be going to the national park where Creature From the Black Lagoon was filmed in the 30s as well as a few Tarzan movies. We'll also be visiting the art and science museum in Tallahassee too. I'll post links when I can and I'll update pictures too. I have a laptop now and I'll try to post whenever I can get an internet connection.

I know this blog is pretty boring right now. Hopefully I'll be inspired to post a few more interesting things soon.

Today was a gorgeous fall day in Georgia. The leaves are changing color, the sun was out, it was warm but not too warm, with a nice breeze. It was perfect. For everyone else that may be suffering from snow, sleet, ice and cold winds, should I mention that I picked fresh strawberries off one of our plants today?

Today was park day, which meant an hour spent talking and William playing with the other kids. We also brought along a 2 liter of Diet Coke and Mentos to see what would happen. We didn't get the explosion we hoped for, but we're going to try again.

Tomorrow is the veteran's day parade in town. Our group has a float in the lineup, so we have to be there by 9:30 to get the trailer set up. The kids will ride, parents are walking. I hope it's just as nice a day tomorrow as it was today. I'll have pictures tomorrow afternoon.

William is slowly getting caught up on school work. We both seem to have a case of the blahs and don't want to do anything. I'm trying to change that, but work, sleep, Playstation and World of Warcraft continue to beckon.

My office is still a shambles, nothing has been done to complete the project I envisioned. I just need to pick a day and do it, just get it done.

I've sent off my letter about the local dentist to our local paper at the Georgia Dental Association. I was able to call the dental clinic and made an appointment for my dh - in February. He's lived with it this long, he said he'll live with it some more.

Nothing extremely exciting going on here, just life. Kind of boring for a blog, I guess. I haven't written anything for NaNoWriMo yet. I was going to work on a current book but while napping between work shifts today I had a dream about a plot for another story. A lot of my stories come to me in dreams. They make a lot of sense in the dream but when worked out on paper they are very strange. But they give me a starting point.

I hope everyone is having a good week and I'll try to come up with someone more interesting next time.

If I learned one thing from the Bradley childbirth classes I took, it was to stand up for my rights as a patient. The answer "because the doctor says so" just doesn't sit well with me anymore. I want to know who, what, when, why and how. And if I don't get the answer I feel I deserve as a customer - which is what I am, right? - then I let my feelings be known. It may not be an answer I want to hear, but if it's honest and truthful, I'll listen.

There is a dentist in my town by the name of Dr. Thomas Hopkin. He has a yellow pages ad offering a free consultation. My dh has had a tooth problem for quite a while, but since we've had no money and no dental insurance, he's just dealt with it, taken Advil when needed, and moved on. Well, we finally had some money and decided to have it seen. I contacted Dr. Hopkin's office based on this yellow pages ad and was told the visit would be $82.

When I questioned the cost when the ad stated a free consultation, I was told since my dh was in pain it was an emergency. I never said it was an emergency. I never said I wanted him seen as soon as possible or anything to that effect. This was a problem he'd dealt with and if he had to wait 2 weeks for an appointment, fine. When I questioned it again, she said the doctor may have to prescribe something for the pain and that was what the charge was for. She offered an appointment time and I told her I wanted the free consult as advertised. She refused and I declined to make an appointment.

I don't back down easily, though. I submitted a letter to my local paper as well as an email to the Georgia Dental Association regarding his false advertising. I was told to send a letter via postal mail to the GDA, which is what I will be doing first thing tomorrow.

The Georgia Dental Association site was very helpful. I was able to find a clinic about 30 miles away that offered services based on income. Since we technically have no income now and no insurance, it will be great to have the work done at a reasonable cost.

I understand that doctors and dentists are making a living. I know they went to school and have specialized training - I get that. I just don't like being taken in by ads that are untruthful. If you are advertising something, be honest and upfront. If you offer a free consult, then don't have strings attached.

This week has again been slow as far as school work has gone, but some progress has been made. We also had a field trip to Westville in Lumpkin, GA, on Thursday and park day was today as well.

William is now on the 6th Harry Potter book and should reach his goal of finishing them all by Christmas.

We are gearing up for Christmas shopping, making out our lists and checking them twice. I need to contact a few people to see if they have any Amazon wish lists or anything like that.

On a personal note, I would like to ask anyone who wishes to do so to remember my father in your prayers. He was injured while working on the morning of the 31st. He owns a tow service / auto shop and was working at the site of a wreck when he slipped from his flatbed truck and fell into the road. He broke an arm and has a cracked pelvis. He is on medication and seems to be doing okay, he's just very sore. He and my mom did take their annual trip to Mule Days in Calvary, GA, and that is a 3-4 hour drive from home. They left Thursday, 2 days after the accident and will be home on Sunday. I'll let everyone know how he's doing then.

Pictures from Westville are below. Enjoy :)







I'm also taking part in NaNoWriMo this month, so blogging may be lighter than usual as I try to finish the romance I started a few months ago. I have a goal to have to sent to an editor in December and submitted to Harlequin early in the new year.