I'm going to back up even longer than a month because that's when everything started. We got a phone call in mid October letting us know that Joe's Grandma Beth passed away. This came as a shock at first but it was a relief as well since she suffered from Alzheimer disease. We decided we needed to be there. See Grandma Beth was very special and a wonderful woman. I want to be the kind of grandma she was. But then we looked at just how much it will cost for us to go to the funeral then turn around and come home just to turn back and go to my family's place for Thanksgiving. So we decided we would take the kids out of school for the month and take our time visiting our loved ones. 
At first this seemed like a great idea. Then we actually had to do it. Taking the kids out of school for that amount of time required a lot of work on the teachers and the principal. They worked miracles and let us do it. Then came the hard part... Independent Study. I do not suggest doing this if you are not willing to be hard nosed with your kids. My kids don't like me trying to be their teacher when I am helping them with homework, so I.S. was less than super fun. But we made it through and they got all their hard work done. While we visited family we were able to help redecorate my niece's bedroom, play in the snow, have three bouts of the stomach flu and still make it back!
