Our newest Child, another rescue, his name is Silver (he's a Pied Cockatiel)...

Tweety and Silver checking each other out:

Silver, up close.

So, that brings our entire house up to:

2 cockatiels
2 Yellow Bellied Turtles
3 hermit crabs
20 fish
2 Basset Hounds

and mom sitting here going Cra---aa---zzyyy!!

~~Toni

An email I just received this morning:

Dear Ms. Wilson,

We are truly sorry for the angst this has caused. The grand prize for the contest, the $5000 in athletic equipment, at the time of the contest development seemed common sense to award it to traditional school settings to impact the most children possible.

Given the interest that this raised in the home school community, we are now preparing to launch an additional contest open to everyone with the same prizes. And your recommendation, like others we have heard from, to choose an association or organization for the grand prize will be included as an option in the new contest.

Per our lawyers, altering the existing contest rules is not as easy as it sounds; we would need to revise and get approval by contest regulators in all 50 states, some of which may not allow the change. Then we would need to republish the rules to exactly the same audience in exactly the same manner, and publishing in the next available Scholastic publication would happen after the close date of the existing contest (June 30th).

So, we are working on the development of the new contest and those details will be communicated as quickly as possible. Our intention was never to make independent schooled children feel discriminated against or excluded from this specific promotion.

Again, please accept our apology!

Sincerely,

Tara Hernandez

And the response I sent back to her:

Ms. Hernandez,

I am going to be truly blunt with you: the only "angst" this has caused me is from my "fellow" homeschoolers who feel they are entitled to be part of every single thing ever offered to everyone else. I completely understood the reason for leaving homeschoolers out of this contest and I never once thought you and your company were discriminating against us.

In fact, I am actually sorry for you and your company more than anything, because of the unnecessary venom that was spewed your way. I am also sorry that your company, due only in part to the nature of the business beast, has felt the need to cave in to their unreasonable demands. At no time, should homeschoolers have ever stuck their nose in this. There is a core group of us who feel that these homeschoolers were completely in the wrong and secretly, we wished your company would have told them to "sod off"(even if we knew you would never do that).

More importantly though, I am saddened for what this has done to the homeschool community and has made me realize that it takes all walks of life to make this world go 'round, even if some who are doing that walking, are crazy loons. They don't speak for me, they never did and now, I am spending my precious time fighting those who don't homeschool because they've lumped me in with the rest and labeled me as crazy as them.

I will tell you this, though, it is likely that I won't allow my children to enter this contest either. Not because we don't like you or Scholastic, but out of protest(silently, because I'll likely be one of only a few), for your company feeling the need(read: being forced) to make a silly little contest to placate the mass hysterics who feel they are somehow owed this. I can assure you those who do enter this new contest are not doing so because they actually care about the prizes offered, but they are doing it so that they can "proclaim the superiority of homeschooling" and that's it.

HSLDA should have never been involved. World Net Daily should have to be forced to employ **real** reporters and not "doom and gloom" moody writers. Homeschoolers should have paid better attention, as the contest started in January and ends in a few weeks. If they wanted part of this, the time to do so was then, not now.

I will still patronize both businesses. And I will tell others to continue as well for this should have never been a reason to "boycott".

Sincerely,
Mrs. Wilson

It bears repeating:

WE HOMESCHOOLERS ARE NOT OWED A DAMN THING.
GET OVER YOURSELVES. YOU DON'T HAVE THE CORNER MARKET ON EDUCATION
YOUR SUPERIORITY COMPLEXES NEED TO BE SHOT.
NOT ALL HOMESCHOOLERS FOLLOW THE SAME OUTLINE FOR LIFE.
YOU DO NOT SPEAK FOR ME.
BUT I AND OTHERS DO SPEAK FOR THE MASSES WHO ACTUALLY BELIEVE YOU ARE ALL IDIOTS.

Oh and to the fools who keep leaving messages here about how they feel sorry for me because I've become rough around the edges? Get over yourselves as well. Don't pray for me (keep your religion out of my life), don't feel sorry for me(I am in a much better place than you anyway as I've no obligations to a fictitious god), and please stop speaking for me(I obviously can handle that part and I usually say it much better than you anyway, as I don't have a work of fiction sitting in front of my face, blocking my view from the keyboard and telling me what to write).

Stupid is as stupid does. Your mantra for the day is: "Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"

~~Toni

To cancel out the idiots ruling the internet right now. First up, we went to the Museum of Science and Industry--MOSI. Had lots of fun:

A visit to the Hurricane Demonstration complete with 75 MPH winds:

A Pulley Demonstration on how you can pull your own weight:

A Magic Chess Game:

The Levitation Device:

How Magicians use process of elimination to "guess" what you've secretly picked:

This is a true Penn and Teller Optical Illusion. Jacob's head is not actually "in" the machine. It really is all mirrors:

We all love this one: The Bed of Nails. Those are real sharp, stainless steel nails they are both laying on. And they do NOT hurt:

This was actually a demonstration of how hard it is for wheelchair users to get around.

Two people or one? The two-way mirrors, me and Chy in them.

Demonstrating how our arm works to open a door. The arm turns as you turn the knob:

The High Wire Bike:

The New Babies of the House(Hercules really does think he's smaller than he is!):

Next up, we have:

At the Tampabay Ray's Stadium(where they proceeded to hand the Cardinals their ass on a dust covered plate) and where we also got to see the Commodores (sans Lionel Ritchie) in action! Sadly, I brough the wrong camera, so all I got were these images:

Yes, Disco Wigs!

The Field:

An Official Rays Rookie, for her 12th birthday.

THE END!

~~Toni

Listen up you righteous,bible thumping idiots: SUBWAY OWES US NOTHING!! I am getting sick of seeing this email going around. We are owed NOTHING. Get it? NOTHING. Damn, you guys must be incredibly stupid to make the jump from "we are trying to get equipment to SCHOOLS THAT NEED IT" to "OMGZ!! WE HATE HOMESCHOOLERS".

No, wait. You ARE incredibly stupid. Get over yourselves. This contest was not for us and neither should it have been. I don't want to see this equipment go to some bible thumping church either. It needs to go to the schools. And the idiot who left a message down below? Get over yourself. Discrimination this is not.

Sheesh. I sure hope that Subway and Scholastic do not gave in to your dumb asses. Take your business elsewhere if you wish, but you are the stupid one if you don't realize you are hurting no one but the mom/pops who run Subway. That's right, Subways are locally owned. Which means your dumb ass just killed off a community resource because of your stupid boycott.

You have no idea how much I hate homeschoolers right now. And I am one. You idiots are giving us decent ones a really bad rap and I hate that. I wish you'd just take your lying ABEKA and BJU selves to some secluded island and get lost in a typhoon and leave the rest of the planet up to us who actually have brains.

I'm calling Subway and Scholastic and begging them to not listen to you idiots.
~~Toni

Since you responded to my blog post, I want to make it clear that there are some homeschoolers who are NOT upset that you did not include us in this contest.

WE ARE NOT UPSET!!

And in fact, we'd prefer if you did NOT cave in to the masses of idiots who think they are entitled to this.

I just received a very nice response back from Dani, the one who posted to the blog below and these idiot homeschoolers basically have Scholastic in a tizzy over it. Which is very sad.

Scholastic and Subway,

PLEASE DO NOT CAVE IN TO THE MASSES!! Please. We homeschoolers(who have brains and use them), do not and are not upset at you!!

~~Toni

Nothing will. I swear it never ends. After having to put our Baxterpuppy down for cancerous tumors, after receiving his paw blessing on our newest family members, after praying that I get the county's approval for the low cost Neuter program(which we did), I am now back up to spending a ton of money on my pets. I swear, they are healthier than I ever will be. Ugh.

Without the low cost help, neutering the boys would be $350.00, so we are lucky we got it.

With the low cost help, neutering the boys only cost us $100 (I had their toenails done while under because Bassets have hard as rock toenails). But wait! There's more! Mandatory bloodwork for Hercules because he's "advanced age"--$44.40. Might as well get Persius done, another $35.90. So I am up to (rounded) $180.00 so far. Then I get a phone call-- "Both boy's bloodwork came back in good shape. They are excellent in health". Great! "But, Hercules has a tumor over his eye, would you like us to remove it while he is under?" How much? "$110.00 without the biopsy". UGH!

Do it, I say. They do. For those keeping track(for both):

Low Cost Neutering(which included rabies shots/tags)-- $20
Office Visit for this latest venture--------------------- $70
Toenails clipped while under-------------------------- $10
Bloodwork for Hercules------------------------------- $44.40
Bloodwork for Persius-------------------------------- $35.90
Tumor removal for Hercules-------------------------- $110.00
Total Groan coming from my bank account------------ $290.30!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sheesh. I mean, I am thanking the goddesses for it not costing us full price and all that. But how much can one be bled before enough becomes enough? It certainly could have been a whole hell of a lot worse, but sheesh. Poor Princess-Brat-in-Training heard the word "tumor" and her eyes started welling up because she thought something bad. Fortunately, my google-fu skills are whacked and I showed her where Bassets are just prone to this stuff because of their skin, etc. and that stopped the tears.

My teeth are rotting out of my face, but my dogs are healthy as all get out!! Guess that's all that matters, right?

~~Toni

Some buffoons over at a certain board I am banned from, think that they have every right to be able to enter this contest: Subway/Scholastic Writing Contest. They are calling for a boycott of these two places because it explicitly states "no homeschools" in the rules.

Why?

Because the winner gets: Pay CLOSE attention to the part about "$5,000 worth of SCHOOL ATHLETIC EQUIPMENT" part.

Can you tell me what a homeschooler (who isn't a Duggar with 5bajillion kids) would do with this much equipment? No, these companies have every right to not include us in this contest and I told them as much.

Please do the same for me. I wrote Subway last night:

With regards to the Subway/Scholastic Writing Contest for children. I am a home-schooler and I am saddened that some of my fellow home-schoolers seem "outraged" that you've chosen to disinclude us in this latest contest. Please understand they do not speak for all home-schoolers, as some of us have brains that we actually use for things other than righteous indignation. I am not upset that you chose to not include us in this contest because I understand why you chose to not include us: you want the prize to go to schools that need it. I mean, after all, the prize is meant for a playground situation not a private home-school situation. Please do your best to ignore emails that will be coming to you from all over with regard to this contest. I do not agree with them and they do not speak for all home-schoolers. I am sorry that you are now going to be mail-bombed with fools who lack proper reading comprehension skills(and again, *I* am a home-schooler myself).

Please ignore them. They don't know what they say and you are thoroughly in the right for not including us.

Sincerely,
Toni Wilson, a home-schooler.

Please contact them at: P&CConnects@scholastic.com or CConnects@scholastic.com or on the Subway website and tell them what I did--that these morons claiming to speak for us, really do not.

As Doc said "They don't give a shit about the prizes, they just want a homeschooler to win so they can proclaim the superiority of homeschooling."

Amen.

~~Toni

After 25+ years, I finally got to see them live. I will not bore you with details except to say "OMFG". The pictures are in no particular order, as I couldn't remember the set-list even if I wrote it down. They are shaped funky because I cropped the unneccessary stuff out. I was fun, loud, exciting, jamming, rocking, and OMG. I met lots of new people and had a blast. Thank you Duran, for making my life and thank you Mommy for my birthday present. ~~Toni

(there are 62 images, so be patient)

Here is the set list:
The Valley
RCM
Nite Runner
Hungry
Planet Earth
Falling Down
Come Undone
Skin Divers
The Reflex
Save a Prayer

Elecro Set
Last Chnce/All She
Wants/Leatherette
I Don't Want/Skin Trade
Trade/Tempted(with Simon making devil fingers, very cute)

Notorious
Girls on Film
Ordinary World
Sunrise
Wild Boys

Rio
(I removed this image until I can resize it back the right way)

Whoa!! Like totally Whoa! You Tube for teachers, all educational videos AND FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TEACHER TUBE

You are welcome.

~~Toni

(I do love Neil Sedaka!) But yes, The Princess Brat is now 16 and loving every minute of it. Yesterday, we went to see our usual band (The New Rascals at the Pier) and they all sang (and had the whole Pier singing) a rockin' rendition of Happy Birthday. She got her face painted, had a old family friend who is a magician, trick her, and had her two BFF's with her. Nothing like 3 days of ragin' hormones and attitude!

Here, she is being serenaded by Bill Pasqali, of the New Rascals (formerly of The Rascals and Vanilla Fudge)

~~Toni