School, accidents and the year of the bee-stings.

Beestings, burns, near paralysis...there is never a dull moment at the Curtis house, but I'll attempt to sum up the past few days without rambling on forever.
School has officially started. Academically, I'll be very busy this year, but I'm excited to take on some new challenges and work some different areas of my brain. Our co-op met for the first time today, and I must say it is very educational. My brain felt slightly fried after discussing ancient literature, religion and philosophy; however, there is absolutely nothing wrong with brain stimulation x100 if I enjoy the topic. Oh and as far as math and chemistry...well...let's hope that goes OK.
Now. For the story of near paralysis. Saturday my family went down to the park. (I stayed home since I was really wanting some quiet time...like it was the first quiet time in a years for me) Mom was playing tag with the kids on the play-set and walking on top of the monkey bars attempting to escape from William, the tagger. You know where this is going. She fell. On her head/neck/back on sharp, hard playground equipment. Dad ran over and all the sudden Mom flopped over and started acting extremely drowsy and wanting to fall asleep. Her arms were tingling and she couldn't walk. Dad got her to the truck and drove her home. As the evening went on, she was doing better so they decided not to go to the hospital. (It's a general policy in our family to have a 106 fever or cut off a finger before going to the hospital :) haha well not always but we don't go very often) Sunday morning, I drove Mom to the E.R. Although she was feeling a little better, she was still in a lot of pain and did not want take risks if her neck was fractured. (If that was the case, her risks of being possibly paralyzed were high) Apparently, the Dr.'s were really worried when they heard her explain what happened and promptly helped her to a wheel-chair, fitted her with a neck-brace and ordered a CAT scan. Thankfully, everything came out fine. Mom thinks it was a miracle due to her wacky feelings of tingling and drowsiness right after the accident. All's well that ends well. Thank you everyone for prayers.
Other minor accidents in the past few days include: Emma spraining ankle (she was just reading over my shoulder and she wants me to specify her tendon not ankle), me burning my foot really bad (don't ask how haha it's kind of embarrassing) Hannah and William getting attacked by yellow-jackets (are we just bee-magnets of has it been the year of the bee-stings????) and of course Dad (bless his heart) is always limping for some reason. 
That's it for now.

Travels...

I've been completely slack about posting...but life is life and life has been so busy I haven't had time! (original excuse I know!) We just got home from a road trip up north to visit family. The actual road part of the trip was misery, since it was 100 degrees and we had no air-conditioning!! But, I won't talk about that...I'm sure no one wants to hear me gripe about no air-conditioning AGAIN.
The first few days we spent up in the D.C. area visiting my Dad's side of the family, and exploring the city with some friends. We went up the Washington monument, which was coolio since you could see the entire city from the top, including the White House and other historical landmarks. The Native American museum was slightly dull, but we didn't spend too much time there. Basically it was 20 billion exhibits of tribal beadwork. The air and space museum is always a must see, and we went to an amazing 3D Imax about the wonders of the universe, a reminder of how great God is to create such beautiful majesty in the sky.
After D.C. we resumed our journey heading up to N.J. where Mom's family all met together at my grandparents house. After getting over the initial culture shock, I had a splendid time! It was great seeing my cousins and meeting my new baby cousin, Alex, who was so adorable and fun. We played country basketball with the neighbors..."Where we come from we don't foul..." haha, spent two hot and sunny days at the beach, went fishing with my grandfather (I caught the cutest shark!!) and visited with the extended Italian relatives. Oh, and I got asked questions like, "Soooo, where you live....are you close to ANY people??? Do you ever see anyone???" "You all are HOMESCHOOLED?? How on earth does that work?" Of course, I had some strange and random encounters with strange and random people...but we won't go into that. All in all, it was a very enjoyable trip, but I am glad to be HOME. It's really a relief to be back down south too.
The day we arrived home, we immediately got back in the swing of things. Last night was a super fun dance at Cherokee Cove, marking the end of summer.