A Taxi, Bubble machine, Markers, and a Jesus Book

Here are some random stories from today.

1.  We were driving home from AWANA tonight and there was a taxi beside us.  Courtney says, "Hey mom, do you think that is a taxi they use in "The Amazing Race?" I looked inside of it to see if I could see anybody."   You know you have been watching too much "Amazing Race" when your daughter starts to notice the taxis in town.

2.  Christian has had a cold lately and at night we turn on his vaporizer. But this isn't a normal vaporizer, it is his "bubble machine" and he LOVES his bubble machine.  He asks me to turn it on and he will turn it off in the morning. I just think it's cute that he calls it that. :)

3.  I was teaching Megan today and Courtney comes running downstairs and said to me, "Mom, Christian went into the playroom and got some markers and now he is drawing on his windows! You better go look!" Sure enough, he had gotten some markers and drew on the windows.

Why did he do this? We have some window colors that we often use to write on the front door or on a mirror around here, apparently he put it together and figured he could write on his window with markers!

Luckily it came off with window cleaner!

4.  This morning right after I woke up, I was in my room doing something.  I had already woke the girls up, but I hadn't gotten Christian out of bed yet.  I went to his room and saw that he was not in his bed.  But then I turned and saw him and Megan sitting in his glider reading his "Jesus Book" together.  This is his Beginner's Bible.  I wish I would've had my camera!  It was so sweet!

Monday is here already.

Don't you hate it when you have a nice long weekend, but yet Monday comes and there are still piles of dirty clothes all over the house, dishes are stacked high in the kitchen, dirty of course, and the house is just as dirty as it was on Friday?

But instead of catching up on housework, we have school to do, so this will all have to wait...until later. :)

Things I have learned lately along with the girls!

I have been really amazed lately at the amount of information that I am learning right along with my girls.

Here's what I mean.

1.  I am 35 years old and I just learned the difference between a turtle and a tortoise.
If you are wondering, turtles lives in water and tortoises live in land. You think I would have known that by now!

2.  I was also a history major in college and not once did I learn the difference between the Quakers, Pilgrims, and Puritans! Did you know that the Pilgrims actually killed Quakers??  They all came to America for religious freedom, but they wanted everybody to follow their religion! They actually killed each other over it. Yes, God-fearing Christian men and women! It is amazing because here in 2012, we are talking about religious freedom and this is exactly what they were dealing with back in 1620!

3.  While we're on the history subject, did you know that the Quakers were Pacifists? (I think I actually know this at one point).  They wouldn't even defend themselves in a fight. No violence allowed at all. Other religious groups would burn the Quakerss houses down and they would just stand back and let them do it. They also ruled the Pennsylvania government at one time and got kicked out because they wouldn't let the colony raise a militia or even put any money towards it.

4.  I also figured out the difference between asking "who" and "whose." Again, thanks to 3rd Grade Rod and Staff English, I am now well aware of my subject and predicate pronouns and when I should use them properly. And yes, I have caught myself this weekend using them wrong and have corrected myself!

5.  I have also looking at our language differently. When you are teaching some little girl phonics, you tend to notice silent e's and all the crazy rules the English language has that we need to follow. I really appreciate knowing how to read!

6.  Did you know that dinosaurs are actually reptiles? I thought they were mammals for some reason. Wrong again!

7.  Megan has a book about Ben Franklin that she is supposed to read this week. Did you know how many things Ben Franklin did for our country??? It is amazing!  Matt also said that he is the one that discovered how electricity works, but got it completely backwards, but they still make all the charts backwards today.

8.  Do you know where the phrase "Room and Board" came from?? I do!! From the colonists.  They would often have hotels in the colonies and instead of having tables and chairs, they would eat by boards with stools.  So, you paid for "room and board."  How do phrases likes this stick around for so many years?

Tomorrow we are going to learn about amphibians in science and talk about how Georgia became a colony for poor people from England. Now that is definitely something I don't know anything about!

The Grasshoppers just keep coming...

Even though Mr. Grasshopper passed away Thursday night/ Friday morning, Mrs. Grasshopper decided to lay some more eggs on Saturday.

Interesting, isn't it?  This is her 4th set of eggs.

We are going to have so many baby grasshoppers in the spring!

And then there were one...

We had a grasshopper tragedy here last night. One of Courtney's grasshoppers died. :)

We got home from our family party yesterday and Matt and I both noticed that Courtney's littler grasshopper wasn't moving or doing anything. He was kind of on his side in her pile of grass. He is usually on the ceiling of her terrarium or someplace odd, so Matt and I both thought something not so good was going on, but we didn't mention it to Courtney.

She must not have seen them because as we were getting Christian ready for bed, Courtney appeared in his doorway with her eyes full of tears.  We asked her what was wrong (because we figured it had to do with the grasshopper) and she said, "My grasshopper is dead. He's not eating and he's not moving!" (insert sobs here!)

We both went and gave her a big hug and went downstairs to see.  Sure enough, the grasshopper had not moved since we saw him earlier.  We asked Courtney if she had fed him and she said, "Yes, I got some grass and he didn't grab on like usual."  Courtney usually gives the grass right to the grasshopper and eats it right away. She must've tried this and he didn't respond.

We took the grasshopper out of the terrarium and set him on a paper plate. We tried to get him to move, which he did a little, and we gave him a little bit of lettuce to eat.  He did this half-heartedly. But through all of this, Courtney is crying her little heart out! 

We put a cup on top of him and told her that we will know more in the morning. We put her to bed because it was almost 10:15. I think she was pretty tired too.  I think she cried herself to sleep.

This morning we got up and Mr. Grasshopper was not moving at all. He had ate half of the lettuce piece and then died overnight.  Courtney shed a few tears, but nothing like last night. 

She has been smiling all morning and picking the dead grasshopper up and looking at him.  I guess she had promised him that she would not put him in her bug box, so we're not sure what we are going to do with him. 

We still have the mama grasshopper and three sets of babies to keep the generations going!

Courtney got this grasshopper from bug camp at the beginning of August. She has had him almost four months.

Now that we only had one grasshopper left, Matt thought it was a great time to clean out her terrarium. So he did that and picked out all the eggs and put them together in a cup and then put the bigger female grasshopper back in the terrarium. I am really anxious to see these hatch in a few months.  But now we have a widow grasshopper, which the girls think is pretty funny.

May he rest in peace, this one little grasshopper sure made one little girl so happy!

Signs Your 2 year old is ready to potty train. :)

1. I tell him, "You don't go poopy in your diaper, you go in the toilet."
So then I ask him, "Where do you go poopy? He replied, "in toilet" Correct!

2.  You walk into his room in the morning and he says, "Mommy, poopy in my diaper."
I ask him," Where do you go poopy?" He replied, "In the toilet, not in diaper."

(PS I have caught him quite a few times and we have gone on the toilet.")

3.  He wants to sit on the toilet every opportunity he can. Like for a half an hour after bath time last night. I knew he had to go, but nothing. :(  I knew he had to go because he was passing gas during his bath and thought it was funny. typical boy.

4.  He brings you a new diaper and points to the one he has on and says, "My diaper yucky Here new diaper."

5.  I bribe him with Thomas the Train underwear and one day we put them on over his diaper.  I told him not to go poopy in his underwear and he told me when he had to go poopy and he went in the toilet!

6. Whenever he passes gas, he tells me, "poopy!"

Ok, so we might have the poopy part down, but the potty part is not there yet. He hasn't once gone potty in the toilet and if we put underwear on him, he goes in them and doesn't even know or care.  Hmmm.

I think we are going to take the two weeks around Christmas time and potty train this boy! I don't have time for it now with school, but I will when I take two weeks off in Christmas. I don't want to miss this opportunity.

Moving Slow this morning..

After a weekend of moving non-stop, I am not ready to get going this morning. We hosted Thanksgiving and it went great, but it was a lot of work!

We are back to school this week, but I'm tired. Just plain exhausted.

We are already about a half hour behind schedule and I am almost thinking we should take the morning off, but we can't.  We have only four days to get school done this week.

Even the kids are moving slow...Good thing we are homeschooling and we can take our time getting to school this morning!

Pilgrim bonnets

I have spent the last two hours of my life sewing pilgrim bonnets.  These are for our play we wrote to perform for Thanksgiving.

Megan loved it, Courtney didn't so much.

Now hopefully they will wear them during the play!

PS They turned out pretty cute!

Dentist and doctor reports

There was another reason we took school of this week.

We had dentist and doctor appointments.

We'll start with the dentist.
1. Megan got a good report, even though she needs to brush better. Her 12 year molars are coming in.
It was really cool to see her adult teeth pushing out the baby teeth on the x-ray, I bet she doesn't even know what is going on in her mouth. No cavities.

2. Courtney got a good report too. She does a great job at brushing her teeth, her only problem was that one of her sealants came off, so they had to redo it. She got that one replaced plus another two put on yesterday.  And of course, we have to pay for them to replace that one! No cavities.

3.  I also got a good report! No cavities, no root canals needed, and no crowns needed! Well, I do need jaw surgery, but besides that. :)  I also got told that I floss good because my gums were not red at all.  I floss because my teeth are so crooked and that is the only way to get food out. I make it a point to take care of my teeth.  I also talked to the dentist about jaw surgery and he really didn't have much to say. He told me different ways I could calm my jaw joint down right now because it's been pretty bad lately. I also told him I might need to sit with this for awhile because we can't do surgery for awhile (due to funds!) plus I need to sit in braces for about a year.

Doctor report

Megan had her 9 year check up today and passed with flying colors. She gained 6 pounds this year and grew 4 1/2 inches! The doctor said that is more than usual! She checked her all out and said she looks great! Since she grew so much, she made sure her hips were still aligned and they were, so that is good. I will take her back in a year.

Now, there is so much to do around here to get ready for Thanksgiving on Sunday, where do I even start???

Oh Children!

1. You know you have been studying too much about witches when you see all three children riding a broomstick around the house saying, "We are the witches of Blackbird Pond."

We just finished reading that book.

My reply, "Please don't hit my walls!"

2.  I was in my bedroom sorting laundry and I hear Christian dump out his ENTIRE box of blocks.  I go in there and ask him what he is doing and he says, "Making a mess!" Yes you are!!!  I asked him, "Who taught you to do this?" Guess what he said? "Courtney!"

Of course, Courtney comes along and says, "Let's dump out your container of balls too and make a bigger mess!"

As I write this, I can hear even more toys being brought out of the closet.

I hope they have time later to clean the mess up!

( I just heard Megan say, "Let's dump out all your books." If they take all his books off his bookshelf, they will SURELY be busy later.)

Courtney just came to me and said, "You should see Christian's room, what a disaster!!"

Our Week...

Our week is going great, we are taking a break from full-time school this week. We are still doing a little bit everyday, but not everything.  I figured that we have a really crazy week and we need some time to catch up on everything else that is going on. Most public schools will get some of next week off, so I figure we need a break too. We are going to be back to full-time school next week, especially when we have nothing going on!

I guess I could say that we are doing a different sort of "school." The girls have gotten out some art supplies that Megan got for her birthday and they have been busy making pictures. (Art class)  We have also written out Thanksgiving play and have practiced it a few times. The girls are having a blast! (English, math, creative arts, reading). Hopefully we can get this put together by Sunday, I think we will. Matt and I may need to play some Native American parts, but that is ok, we'll make it a family affair. :)

Crazy Weekend is over!

We had four parties this weekend and celebrated Megan's 9th birthday.

1. Megan's swimming party.
2.  Party at our house afterwards.
3.  Nephew's baptism.
4. Neice's birthday

I think I am partied out! But really, the fun is only beginning!

I am hosting Thanksgiving at my house on Sunday and this may be more work than Megan's birthday parties!  I am anxious to do it and am looking forward to it..

Along with getting ready for the Thanksgiving on Sunday, our week is filled with other activities! How does this happen?? So many things are going on that I may take a break from our scheduled curriculum and work on some other things with my girls this week to lighten the load.

We still need to learn our AWANA verses and continue to work on Phonics with Courtney.  We need to finish history for Megan from last week and we have two chapters left to read in The Witch of Blackbird Pond.  I think we may also keep going on Math for both girls and English for Megan.

But otherwise we have nothing today, we give four piano lessons tomorrow night and grandma may come in. Megan also has a dance class from 3-4. On Wednesday, we have our class at the Homeschool Learning Center at 11, a Pioneer event at the library from 3:30-5:30, and AWANA at 6:45.

On Thursday morning, us three girls get the joy of visiting the dentist and Megan has dance at 4:15.
Megan is supposed to have her 9 year checkup at the doctor at 9 am Friday and we have a field trip to the Omaha Community Playhouse at 10 am.  I have to change something here.:)

Busy week plus I need to get ready for Sunday. I need to figure out how to cook a turkey (this is one of the reasons why I want to have Thanksgiving!) and get all the other food I need.  I also want to set the tables nice, so I need to get out my good dishes and get them all washed up.  The girls would also like to do some crafts and write a Thanksgiving play.  This definitely falls under the "school" category.  I have a play in mind and we just need to sit down and write it.  This will also need props, so we need to get busy, but I am excited about it! It will be great public speaking practice for my children.  We think we are even going to give Christian some parts!

We have been studying about the first Thanksgiving in school.  I think I finally know the difference between the Pilgrims and the Puritans! And so does Megan (and actually Courtney because she listens to history more than we think!).  Our American history is so interesting! What a great week to study it!

Bedtime

It seems a lot lately that when we get home from something in the evening, Christian is sound asleep in the car and I just put him to bed with his clothes still, I do not put his pajamas on.  Do I want to wake him up by putting pajamas on or just put him in his bed and let him sleep?

Last night was one of those such occasions.  We got home from church about 8:45 and Christian was sound asleep in his carseat.  I took his coat and shoes off and laid him in his bed.  His diaper wasn't too wet, so I let that be.

When he woke up this morning I had to think twice about why he still had his clothes on from yesterday.  He didn't seem to care.  I'm glad he's still little and doesn't care!

PS The other day he showed us how he can get his foot up to the top of the railing of his crib.  Megan sometimes gets him out of bed and this is how he "helps" because she is not tall enough to pull him out. He puts his leg over and they work together! We need to switch to a toddler better really soon!

Third Time is a Charm...

The third time to the orthodontist means hearing the same thing again.  This advice was yet different from the other two orthodontists that I have visited.

Orthodonitst #1 said to break my bottom jaw.
Orthodontist #2 said to break my top jaw.
Orthodontist #3 said I need both broken!! Yikes!
This last one also said I would need to be in braces about 1- 1 1/2 years before surgery (the other ones only said 9 months), then surgery, then another 6 months in braces.  It would be about a two year ordeal.

He also said if I don't get this done, things are going to get worse. I may ruin my jaw joint and I will continue having pain along with cracking my teeth. 

Surgery would involve a day in the hospital or surgical center, maybe overnight, liquid diet for about 6 weeks while my jaw is healing, they would rubberband it shut with "surgical hooks" on my braces (They do this so you can take the rubberbands off to brush your teeth).  I would need about 5-6 weeks for full recovery.

Surgery would include 1. top jaw. they would split my top jaw down the middle to expand it.
2. bottom jaw, they would break the back by my molars and add filling to bring my jaw forward.

Sounds like fun, huh?? Again, anybody have a chunk of money sitting around? Not only is it a lot to endure, I have to pay an arm and leg for it!  But do I want pain the rest of my life? It is under consideration.

Who will I vote for??

This pretty much sums up who I will be voting for today. 

Again, I stole this from Facebook because I loved how they put it. Thanks Jimmy Lee. 

For whom will I vote? I will vote for the most pro-life candidate, because God hates the shedding of innocent blood (Proverbs 6:17). I will vote for the most pro-Israel candidate, because God blesses those who bless Israel and curses those who don't (Genesis 12:3). I will vote for the most pro-debt reduction candidate, because the borrower is servant to the lender (Proverbs 22:7). I will vote for the most pro-work candidate because God says if a man does not work, let him not eat (II Thessalonians 3:10). I will vote for the most pro-marriage candidate, because God is for marriage (defined in Genesis 2:24). I will vote for the candidate who most closely believes government's purpose is to reward the good and punish the evil (Romans 13). I will vote based as close as I can on God's Word (II Timothy 3:16), knowing that whoever gets elected, God is the One who puts all men in authority (Daniel 2:21). As that late man of God, Dr. D. James Kennedy said, "Lord, giveus the leader that we need - not the one we deserve!" ~Jimmy Lee

math lesson...for me!

• 
  

  As of Nov. 1, the total national debt was $16,221,685,381,838.28, according to the Bureau of the Public Debt. On Jan. 20, 2009, when Obama was inaugurated, it was $10,626,877,048,913.08. Thus, during Obama’s presidency, the U.S. government debt has increased $5,594,808,332,925.20.

  
  

  I saw this posted on facebook and I stole it.

  
  

  I wanted to see if Megan could read the number the correct way, wait, I wanted to see if I could read it the right way!  I finally figured it out.

  
  

  Who knew our national debt was so high that it really had to take some brain power to read it correctly??

Bob Kerrey what??

We were driving in the van today and out of the blue Courtney starts talking about Bob Kerrey. We don't watch a lot of TV at our house, but apparently, she had heard enough.

Then I hear her say, "I am Bob Kerrey and I approve of this message."

I cracked up! What inspired her to say this?? Oh, it's election season!!

Homeschooling- Number #1

The other night I went out with a bunch of my friends and got me thinking, why do I love homeschooling so much? I have become an advocate for homeschooling lately because I have seen such good things from it, it has been a huge blessing in our household and I am very thankful that God softened my heart a couple of years ago and showed me that this was the way to go!

Here are some of my reasons:

1.  Time in school.

Requirements for homeschoolers: 1032 hours a year
Requirements for public schoolers: 7 1/4 hours a day, 188 days a year = 1363 hours a year

That is over a 330 hour difference! Now, my question is...if the state only requires us to go to school for 1032 hours, where do the public schools get the extra 330 hours? That's an extra 45 days of school!  I think they get it from money. Last year, Millard added on an extra half of hour to each school day- why? So they could get more money from the government to help "improve their schools." Have the schools improved? I'm not sure, we pulled Megan out. :)

Here is what my kids do here at home.
Courtney- takes about 1 1/2 hours for spelling, handwriting, reading, phonics, and math
Megan- takes roughly 2 hours for her read-alouds, math, history, English, writing, handwriting, she does reading on her own.

Together-takes maybe 1- 1/2 hours for science and Bible class

If I was just teaching Courtney kindergarten, she could be done in less than two hours a day.  We also use four day lesson plans (like many homeschoolers), so technically she goes to school about 8 hours a week.  That is as much time as public school kids sit in school in one day! And she learns just as much!

Megan takes a little bit longer because she has more subjects, but still, she goes to school about 2-3 hours a day.

Now you may be asking yourself...if they only go to school 8 hours a week, how does that add up to 1032 hours a year? 36 weeks x 8 hours a week =288 hours. that leaves about 750 hours left.

Yes, but school is much more than sitting at the table learning out of books!

Here is what we do:
1. Play basektball outside- PE class
2. Take dance/ gymnastic class- PE
3. Painting a picture- art class
4.  Learning how to brush your teeth- health
5. Taking a class at the homeschool learning center- history
6. Attending AWANA- Bible Class
7. Attending Sunday School- Bible Class
8.  Reading labels on cereal boxes- health class
9. Learning how to take care of ourselves when we are sick- health class
10. Singing along with the radio- music class
11. Singing and dancing as mom plays piano- PE and music class
12.  Learning the German alphabet as we drive in the car- German class
13. Learning why birds are slamming themselves into our windows at home- science class
14.  Learning what to feed Courtney's pet grasshoppers- science class
15.  Going on a field trip to the zoo- science class, PE
16. Visiting John Brown's Cave in NE City- history class
17. Making real corn tortillas- history
18. Writing a play about the first thanksgiving- history class, creative arts
Etc...

This is where we make up that extra time! Homeschooling is a lifestyle- my kids are learning all the time! If I technically kept track of all the hours that my kids are "learning", I'm sure we would hit the 1032 hour mark!

As for the times that my children are not "learning", they have time to be kids. Go play and be creative!! Life is not all about school, especially when you are a kid. You are going to have responsibilities soon enough! Go enjoy life!

2.  Interests

My children can pursue what they are interested in.  I do not have to do science with Courtney, they don't have science in the public schools until 2nd or 3rd grade, but since she has a huge desire to learn about science, I found a curriculum for her level and we are doing science this year! I can also combine Megan and Courtney's science class and do it together (since she didn't get much in public school anyway).

In addition to science class, we can also go to the library and check out books on things that she is interested in, we can find science experiments, we can visit the zoo, we can go on nature hikes, etc, etc.  I have time to do all these things!

As for Megan, she is my little historian (A girl after my own heart. :)
We can read about history for school and then we can dig a little bit deeper into the subjects. Again, we can go to the library, we can pretend play, we can do hands-on-projects to learn about history, adn go on field trips.  The possibilities are endless. 

4.  We now have time for school AND outside activities.  Since we have school four days a week, we have time to pursue outside activities during the day.  Megan attends dance during the day. We can go on field trips during the day.  We can have some downtime between school and evening activities, so we are not running from one activity to another without a break.  We have time to sit down and eat supper as a family before our activities.  We are not restricted to anybody's schedule but our own.

Megan :)

Usually I write about how Courtney is so compassionate helpful, but I think Megan has taking lessons lately.

1. Megan was heading upstairs last night and I asked her to take Christian his blankets. I figured she would just throw them in his room because he was already in bed sleeping. I went up there later to check on him and she had actually covered him up with a blanket!  How sweet of her!

2.  Every time Christian gets hurt, Megan is the first one to run up to his room and get him his blankets to make him feel better.

3.  Every time I start to cook something, I hear, "Is there anything I can help you with?" coming from Megan.  She then says, "I love to cook!" She can make cookies herself and tonight she made half of supper.  I'm going to lose my job pretty soon!

4.  Every time I ask any of the kids to clean up their messes or to help out lately, it has not been a battle at all.  Every Tuesday we clean the house because I give piano lessons.  Each girl takes a room and they clean it WITHOUT complaining.  They clean it and have fun while doing it.  What happened to my children??

5. Homework has been a huge imporvement from last year. I don't think she has stomped, slammed her door, or threw her pencil across the room once this year. She gets her homework and she does it! I think it has helped that I purposefully give Courtney some homework so she has a little competition.

I love homeschooling because it has really taught my kids to be compassionate and to care for others. Like I said, Megan is not really the compassionate one, but she heading in that direction and I love it!

Pictures..

I am having trouble loading pictures on my blog, so I just decided to put them all on facebook.

Enjoy!

Straight Teeth!

I took Megan to an orthodontist yesterday. With all my teeth problems, I wanted to get her in and looked at and they say the kids should see the orthodontist for the first time between 7 and 9.

I was kind of scared of what they were going to say to me, but in the end, her teeth look great! She does not have a cross-bite, which means no pallette expander, and her teeth are coming in straight!
Very thankful!!! 

The orthodontist wants to see her in a year to monitor her and he said she may need something when she is a teenager, but he wants to just wait and see.

Thank you!!

I am going to go see this orthodontist next Tuesday.  I have been to two different orthodontists and they both agree I need jaw surgery, but one says to break the bottom jaw and the other says to break the top. I want to see what this one says. This is my final orthodontist appointment. I am not getting anymore opinions, I just want two opinions that match.  I think my next stop may be the oral surgeon. :(  But if I had surgery, I would need to wear traditional braces nine months beforehand and then wear them during surgery and then for about six months afterwards, so I would still need to see an orthodontist. Ugh. 

Anybody have a money tree anywhere??

Trouble at the Library...

Yesterday after our crazy busy day, I decided to add one more stop at the library.  Megan and Courtney had some books on hold and they were just DYING to pick them up. It was about 5:15 and the library closed at 6.

We went in, got our books off the shelves, and of course stacked up on many, many more books that we will use for school this week.  I didn't take the stroller in because I thought that would help restrain myself, but then I realized that little girls can help carry books too, so that didn't really help.

Anyway, I went to check out and I had somebody different check me out this time.  I filled one card up and I gave the lady another card, she said, "This one is filled up too." I just looked at her because I thought, surely she will just keep adding them to the card.  I had about 10 books on the counter that needed to be checked out yet.  Remember, you are only SUPPOSED to check 40 items out per card.  But usually, this guy named Bob, let's me go over.  I looked at her and said, "Well, they usually let me check out more than 40 and it hasn't been a problem."

Her response," Well, we're really not supposed to do that."

I replied back, "But he (pointing to the man) let's me go over. I homeschool and I really need these books for the week."  I was so used to that one guy letting me go over, I was actually arguing the rule!

She said, "Do you have anybody else who has a card?"

I said, "Yes, I have one, but I haven't used it in a very long time." (Now, do you really think I need another library card where I can check out 40 MORE books?? NO!)

So she asked for me ID, I gave it to her, and she found my account. She then gave me a new library card. I asked her when was the last time I used that card and she replied with "2005."  I quit using it because I had a fine on it.  I checked out the last 10 books and left.

I checked this morning and of course, the $3.00 fine is still on my library card!